0:00

What do we always say to jump on the show and the very first segment

0:04

interrupt a well thought out monologue, especially on Monday when we've had the weekend

0:10

to think about it. You better damn well be a big deal to do

0:13

that to this radio program. He would qualify. Well, the last guy

0:17

that did it was Doug Baldwin last week. Yeah, and now the new

0:20

men's basketball coach that you put your hands together. Come on a warm husky

0:25

welcome for Danny Sprinkle joining us right now on the radio show. Coach Sprinkle,

0:29

how are you? I'm doing great, man, I hope you guys

0:33

are awesome. Can't wait to get up there and get this thing rocking.

0:37

Man, go dogs. Well. I gotta tell you, man, it's

0:40

exciting to have you on the air. This is the worst kept secret in

0:43

college basketball because your name has been rumored to go to you dub for about

0:48

a month. Now, tell me about that. Tell me about what the

0:51

last month or so has been like for you with all this noise, the

0:54

rumormil churning, but also having to keep an eye and manage a Utah State

0:58

basketball team that go by Way just won the Mountain West. Yeah, you

1:03

know, I mean to be honest, a lot of it was rumors up until uh, you know, probably the last two weeks. And uh,

1:08

I mean obviously people you know, speculate, you know. I mean there

1:11

was other jobs I was attached to, too, and so you know,

1:15

a lot of it was rumor, but I mean everybody kind of knew with

1:18

you know, my connection to you Dove and my dad playing football there,

1:21

and you know, my sister living in Seattle, like you know, there

1:23

there was so much built in, you know, and that's obviously why the

1:29

job appealed to me. But to be honest, like it didn't really become

1:33

official official until until this morning. What else was appealing about the University Washington

1:38

other than your family ties? You know, like like I've seen Husky basketball,

1:44

like when Isaiah Thomas and Brandon Roy, like the place was rocking.

1:47

You know, I was an assistant at North Fridge and Bulletin that we'd go

1:49

play up there and just get smacked, you know, but like, you

1:53

know, I've seen what that what heck eds like when that place is rocking.

1:56

And you know, even when I was little, you know, the first like real college basketball game I went to was actually at Montana State in

2:04

the n I t. I think I was in like six or seventh grade

2:06

and I think Christian Belp was playing then. Yeah, and it was at Montana State and my dad took me just because it was the Huskies. You

2:13

know. We drove over and we literally sat in the top row of brick

2:16

Bredenfield House at Montana State and watched that game. And we're probably the only

2:22

Husky fans there. So it's kind of crazy the way it worked out,

2:24

but it, you know, like it's always been my dream school, you

2:30

know, Like I mean, I can tell you things that me and my dad used to do, like watching every Saturday the football games. Like the

2:36

biggest event for me every year was me and my dad would drive out from

2:39

Helena, Montana and we'd go to a football game and he'd buy me one

2:44

thing at the bookstore. I'd have my choice with a sweatshirt, a jersey,

2:46

whatever it was, and then we drive home and you know that was

2:51

that was like my Super Bowl every year. Well, I love all that.

2:54

Danny Sprinkle was with us brand new Husky men's basketball coach announced today,

2:59

And before we talk about your family and your dad, I want to hear

3:01

more about your dad and his playing career. You you said something there interesting,

3:06

coach when you said it really kind of was all rumor until a couple

3:09

of weeks ago. So I guess I can assume that you did have some

3:14

conversations or your agent did with Troy Dannen and then Troy takes off to go

3:19

be the AD at Nebraska. How did you kind of handle that transition when

3:23

Erin O'Connell became the interim AD and I guess kind of took over negotiations.

3:29

Yeah, you know, yeah, I did have some conversations with Troy, and my agent had a lot and uh, you know, but obviously we

3:35

were still playing. I didn't I didn't have that much time, and so

3:38

you know, I was letting my agent, Brad je Just, who did a phenomenal job with this deal, uh, handle a lot of it.

3:44

And you know, I'm when it went down with Troy, it didn't It

3:49

didn't affect me at all. It didn't Like That's why I you know,

3:52

that's my dream school and I took the Utah State job with no a D

3:58

and no president like that. That stuff doesn't phaze me. Like, I

4:01

know, my job is to coach the basketball team, and I know I

4:05

have a responsibility to do that no matter who the AD or president and all

4:10

that is because at the end of the day, I have to coach my

4:12

team, and that's what's most important. And I have a lot of faith

4:15

in myself and my staff, you know, to be able to do that.

4:18

And uh, I know, you know, I know, we're going

4:20

to hire a tremendous ad. You know, it's it's an unbelievable institution,

4:25

one of the best in the country, and so you know, we'll get

4:28

somebody phenomenal. We'll get somebody elite in that spot. Tell us more about

4:31

you. How you're going to coach this basketball team. What is sprinkleball?

4:35

What are your basic philosophies. Well, the one thing we're not going to

4:40

have anybody with the nickname Softy. We get We shot a ready. We

4:46

barely even know each other. You haven't even seen me in person. You

4:49

haven't seen the physique I've put together here, and you're taking shots already.

4:54

My god, they wait, we got to meet. Well, maybe I'll

4:57

maybe I'll change, but we we you will, uh, you know,

5:00

we'll be we'll be physical. I know what you have to do in the

5:03

Big ten. You know, obviously playing against Purdue yesterday. But like it's

5:06

a it's it's a physical, grinded out league, and it's it's way different

5:12

than the Pac twelve. And the Pac twelve is obviously terrific too, but

5:15

you know, the Big twelve is a different style of play, different players

5:19

from different regions. Like they're just built different. And so you know,

5:23

we have to We're gonna have to up the annie from you know, a

5:26

physical toughness, discipline standpoint. And you know that's what my team, that's

5:30

how I built my teams. You know, in Montana State, we're one

5:33

of the few teams that played with two bigs and and we just wanted to

5:36

pound you all game. And you know, we call it pounding the paint,

5:41

getting the ball, driving the ball of the paint, or throwing the

5:43

ball to post guys. But then like this year, I had a different

5:46

type team. You know, like we played really fast. You know,

5:48

we were we were tremendous, you know, one of the most efficient teams

5:51

in the in the country in transition, offense, off missus and steels.

5:57

You know, I like having guys that all five guys can bring it up

6:00

the floor. You know, like if a five man gets a rebound and

6:03

he's able to bring it up and make a good decision, I'll let it.

6:06

If he's not capable of doing that, then he's got to get the

6:09

ball to somebody that can and he's got to sprink the floor. But we

6:12

want to play as fast as possible on missus and turnovers and then but we

6:16

want to be disciplined in the half court because I know, once the game

6:18

slows down, and especially in the Big Ten, you know, by the

6:21

time you've played ten non conference games, teams transition defense gets pretty good and

6:27

so you're not going to be able to get a lot of that, and so you have to be able to execute. You got to play with great

6:31

pace, and you got to move the ball, like we got to have

6:34

guys that you know, that take pride in getting teammate shots, you know,

6:40

and if we're playing fast in us and moving the ball, then everybody

6:43

gets to eat a little bit. And so you know, that's that's kind

6:46

of been the you know, our kind of formulas to success. Well.

6:49

Danny Sprinkle is with US brand new head coach at you dub comes to Washington

6:55

from Utah State official press conference by the way, on Wednesday, at three

6:58

o'clock. We'll also carry that live here on the radio show. And I'm

7:00

wondering, coach, in this day and age of the transfer portal, we've

7:04

seen teams turn themselves around and do it very very fast. How much do

7:11

you think you'll be bringing with you from Utah State? How different will this

7:15

roster look today versus maybe a week or so from now. Yeah, Like,

7:20

to be honest, I have no idea. You know, the first

7:23

order of business I want to do is, you know, I I zoomed

7:26

with the team today and I want to I want to meet those guys face

7:30

to face, you know, as a team. But then I also want to meet with them individually, like I want to see if I fit what

7:36

they want and if they fit what what me and my staff's going to bring,

7:41

and you know, and so you know, I gotta I want to.

7:45

I got to talk to those guys first and get and get their feelings

7:47

and what they want to do, you know, before I before I start

7:50

doing anything on the outside. Obviously with Utah State, you know, I

7:56

can't comment on any of that because obviously I'm not the coach that anymore.

8:00

And they have to go in the portal for me to even make comments on

8:03

that. But and that's not dodging the question that that's just it's what I

8:09

got to do. And so but like we have, we have to add

8:13

some pieces, no question, like we gotta, yeah, we we got

8:16

to add some some some high level elite pieces to uh to go along with

8:22

some really really good players that are there right now. They can they can

8:24

contribute to winning. And uh, you know, like I said, I'm

8:28

excited with the guys that I saw on that zoom do they and I've seen

8:31

all of them play and I know what they can do and I know what

8:33

they can bring. And for the most part, you know, like they

8:37

fit my style, you know, like you know, we're we're gonna be

8:39

physical, we're gonna be tough, and we're gonna be disciplined, you know,

8:43

and like I told him, practice, it's gonna be combat, man,

8:46

it's gonna be football. And that's how we're gonna be built because I

8:48

know that's how you have to win in the Big twelve, in the Big ten. Well, coach, you mentioned the names Brandon Roy and Isaiah Thomas,

8:54

and so obviously you're very familiar that the Seattle Tacoma area is a hot

8:58

better talent. I mean it's been a hot bet of talent forever, but

9:03

it's largely been ignored at the University of Washington for most of the last ten

9:07

years. So how big a priority is putting a net around this area?

9:11

Again? Huge? You know, it's huge. Like when you look at

9:16

when you look at you know, some of coach Romar's best teams, like

9:20

you said, Brandon Roy, Isaiah Thomas, Like those guys are local guys

9:24

and they have a different level of personal pride in being from Seattle, you

9:30

know, like they have a chip on their shoulder. Man, and kids

9:33

don't want to leave Seattle, you know, they don't like and why would

9:37

they when you have a university like Washington, Like, why would you want

9:41

to leave? You know, those kids grow up you know, bleeding purple,

9:43

and when you have that personal attachment to it, like, it's different.

9:48

You know, like you can become you can go to a different school

9:52

and love a place, but when you grew up and that's your hometown team,

9:56

that's different, you know, And you know, no no doubt we

9:58

want to put in net around you know, the state of Washington, and

10:01

uh, you know, especially the local kids and we got to get the

10:05

best ones. I love that. Well, Danny Sprinkle again is with us. And you got two ex dogs at least that were on the coaching staff

10:11

and Will Conroy and Quincy pondexter. Do you plan on talking to those guys

10:16

at all? And can you give us any idea of what your coaching staff

10:20

will look like. I had a conversation with a guy this morning who claims

10:24

to have known you for a long time. I won't tell you what his

10:28

name is, but it rhymes with Jim Shaw, okay, and so I

10:31

know he's fired up for you as well. He's got to figure out his next step. But tell us what your coaching staff will look like? And

10:37

if you've had any contact with Will er q pon yet? No? Well,

10:41

first off, did Jim tell you he recruited me? He has?

10:43

When you were fourteen years old he first met you? Yeah, yeah,

10:46

said right, how about that? It's crazy? No, I loved I

10:50

loved Jim, But no, like you said, you know, yeah, I mean I obviously have decisions to make on my staff, you know,

10:56

and you guys will get to know me. I'm as I'm a loyals they

11:00

get, you know, and I want to make sure I take care of

11:03

the people that have taken care of me and and my guys that are that

11:07

have been with me at Montana State and here. What those roles are,

11:11

I don't know yet, because I obviously know. I know I got to

11:15

get I got to get some hitters man out on the recruit trail, and

11:18

so I know it's a different level and I know what we're in for in the Big Ten, But I do I do want to meet with those guys,

11:26

you know, just like the players, like I want to talk with them. I know they have an immense pride in the University of Washington basketball,

11:31

you know, like they played there man, like they bleed the Purple

11:35

and Gold and so like I would do that out of respect anyways. But

11:39

you know, like I said, I don't know either of them personally,

11:43

you know, but I've seen them from Afar and you know, and I

11:48

respect the job that they do have. You even had time to give yourself

11:52

a self scout of how you guys did this week. I mean, you

11:56

had a great win, yet twenty two assists in game number one and then

12:01

only nine assists. I believe it was in the in the second game.

12:03

Talk about your performance over this weekend and how you evaluate yourself as a coach

12:07

over this weekend. Yeah, it was a I mean, the TCU game

12:13

was phenomenal, you know. I mean, they're big, they're physical,

12:16

Like they were bigger and longer and taller, more athletic at every single position

12:20

than we were. And for our guys to go and compete and play with

12:24

a chip on their shoulder, you know, we had them pretty repped up

12:26

because we you know, I thought we I felt like we got out physical

12:31

and out tough to get San Diego State in the conference tournament, and so

12:35

we had we had some we had some practices that weren't probably typical for a

12:39

team going to the NCAA tournament. But I knew we needed to harden and

12:43

sharpen them because I knew what TCU was going to bring in coach Dixon,

12:46

and so you know, they're one of the best offensive rebound teams in the

12:50

country, one of the best transition teams in the country. So I knew

12:52

we had to be on full alert and sharp. And our guys came out

12:58

and uh, I mean really we I mean we we punched them in the

13:01

mouth at the beginning and we punched them for forty minutes, and by the

13:05

end of the game, like it was, it was clear our guys were

13:09

you know, our guys were, they were they were ready for what TCU

13:13

was going to bring, and they played with that edge, and uh,

13:16

it was one of our best forty minutes. Obviously the first win in twenty

13:20

three years that we've had at Utah State in the instable A tournament, which

13:24

was awesome, you know. But the one thing about you know, us

13:28

being and I don't and I know it's going to sound crazy. I thought

13:31

we were seated. We should have been seated lower. You know, we

13:35

should have probably been a six or a seven seed. But now all of

13:37

a sudden we hear the eight seed. Now, all of a sudden,

13:41

you got to play the number one seed in their hometown basically, and it

13:45

would it would have it would not have changed the outcome. You know,

13:48

I'm not saying that, but you know, for the season, we had

13:52

to have to play perdue where you have. You know, you look at

13:54

some of the other teams and who they were playing to get to the sweet

13:58

sixteen. It's not the same. And Purdue produce special they really are.

14:03

You know, when you have a special player like Zach Edie. There's no

14:07

there hasn't been anybody like him since probably Shack, you know. And so

14:11

when you have that, it's it's such a it's such a separator because like

14:16

we didn't, like, I only got two guys that are probably over two

14:18

hundred and thirty pounds, you know. It's like and then you know one

14:22

of them was, you know, our best player. I couldn't get him

14:26

in about trouble, but we still had to have them card and it's like,

14:28

but he catches the ball and he's seven to four and got great touch

14:31

and doesn't miss free throws, right, And when they're hitting threes, if

14:35

they hit threes, nobody's gonna beat them. I don't care who did.

14:37

Like, nobody's gonna beat them if they're making threes and making jump shots like

14:39

they did. And we had to pick our poison. We had to dare

14:43

them to make some shots and and and they did, and you have to

14:46

give them credit. But you know, the other question you asked is like,

14:50

how would I evaluate my performance? You know, I obviously wasn't good

14:54

enough yesterday. You know, like somehow, some way I needed to figure

14:58

a different way you know, to give ourselves a chance to win in the

15:01

last ten minutes. And I didn't do that. You know, I don't

15:03

care how special Purdue is. That's my job. And you know I didn't

15:07

do that against against Purdue. Yeah, our guys were ready, and you

15:13

know, I know we had them ready from the way we practiced and prepared

15:16

and got after him and film and and and played with that edge. Danny

15:22

Sprinkle is with us again. Coach. We appreciate you doing this for a

15:24

few more minutes. I want to go back to something you said earlier about

15:28

this being your dream job. I think it resonates. Maybe it's easier to

15:33

accept that from you because you grew up a Husky fan, your dad played

15:37

football here. But a lot of people say things like that, right,

15:39

You hear that a lot from coaches. This is my dream job. And

15:43

we're kind of scarred here, and you we just lost a football coach after

15:46

two years and a a d after six months. So tell us about that,

15:50

tell us about kind of why this might be a place that you could

15:54

see putting some roots down for a while. Yeah. You know, like

16:00

I'm a West Coast guy, you know, and when you when you look

16:03

at the landscape of college athletics right now. I mean really, I mean

16:07

what six or seven schools now that are kind of Big ten, big twelve.

16:11

That's all there is on the West coast, you know, and like

16:15

it's an elite institution. The fan base is incredible. Like I feel like

16:22

I have a personal connection just because of my past and being little and watching

16:26

those games, like that's my it's my team, you know, like I

16:30

can name all the former football playersman and Napoleon Coffin like that those are my

16:34

guys, you know, like that's what I wanted to be. And so

16:40

it uh, you know, like it's it's personal, you know, like it's it's different, but it's similar to like when I went back when I

16:47

went back to Montana State, my alma mater, like it was personal every

16:51

day I woke up, you know, like I couldn't let those people down

16:55

because it was personal. And you know, and Washington, Yeah, I

16:59

don't obviously know the fan base and you know a lot of the fans that

17:03

have been coming to games for fifty years, like like like I did at

17:07

Montana State, but like I still feel like I've always had kind of that

17:11

purple and gold running through my veins too, you know. And yeah,

17:15

and it's you know, watching the national championship game of my dad this year,

17:18

Like that's not important to me, you know. And I was very

17:22

fortunate that he was down in Logan, Utah at the time, so we

17:25

were able to do that, you know. But it's still my sister.

17:29

That's all she does. Like she goes to their games. She goes to

17:32

their basketball games, you know. Now if one of my teams is playing,

17:36

she was watching us instead. But other than that, like she's a huge Husky fan. So it's a you know, it's it's been a family

17:41

deal. Well, coach, I got to ask you about nil. The

17:45

laws here in the state just loosened up a little bit to allow state employees

17:49

like yourself to kind of help out with the kids and give them, you

17:53

know, give them some direction. How involved do you think you'll be directly

17:57

in an anil or you leave that up to uh, the powers that be

18:02

at Montlake Futures a little bit of both, you know, Like I mean,

18:07

you know, I don't want to get too involved because then you just

18:12

never know how players, you know, except you just never know who's gonna

18:17

make what or you know and that, and I don't want to get in the middle of that. I want our guys to be compensated and and I'll

18:22

make sure that you know that they are fairly and uh. But if whatever

18:27

they can get awesome, like, I'm all for it. But obviously I

18:32

need to have those conversations, you know, with with the collective up there

18:36

and and just kind of get more familiar with like what's been going on and

18:41

and what we got to do to make it better, to make the system

18:45

better, you know, because we have to we have to keep attracting,

18:48

you know, the top talent and uh, and I know you can at

18:51

University Washington. I love it. Hey, listen, great stuff. We

18:55

appreciate you doing this. Uh. We'll get a chance to meet you officially

18:57

on Wednesday, and you'll find out why they call me softy. By the

19:00

way, it's like when they call bad hairy fat guy skinny. Is kind

19:04

of like the opposite type thing. So you'll see the physique when we meet

19:08

in person on Wednesday. Bell, all right, damn right, Hey,

19:11

we might have to bring you to practice too. We'll we'll do a couple

19:14

of box out drills. We'll show you have it done. Jeff up. Done, baby, I can't wait, can't wait, Dick. Dick's a

19:19

coach as well, so if you need any advice, all right, just

19:22

ask him. He'll hold up. I'm sure I can. I throw my

19:26

high school plays at Coach Sprinkle like, hey, you never know, you

19:29

never know, Danny, great stuff. Welcome to Mott Lake, Welcome to

19:33

Seattle. Can't wait to meet on Wednesday. Good luck and we'll talk down

19:36

the road. Pell. I appreciate this man. You gotta appreciate you fellas.

19:40

Talk to you, you bet. Danny Sprinkle the new head coach at you doe Wow? All right, come back and chat about that next on

19:45

ninety three to three kJ R f M