Preseason Predicitions Not Kind to Washington Huskies Men's Basketball

The Washington Huskies men's basketball program has struggled since transitioning from the old Pac-12 to the Big Ten ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Before the program transitioned to the Big Ten, the university hired head coach Danny Sprinkle to lead the program. Each season, he's had to almost completely rebuild the team. Only four players returned to the roster from the prior year for Sprinkle's first season, two returned the next year and six returned for this season.

The constant rebuild, as well as a list of injuries last season, has led to poor results for the team since joining the Big Ten.

Sprinkle joined the program after leading his previous two stops, the Montana State Bobcats and Utah State Aggies, to three consecutive combined NCAA tournament appearances. In two years in the Pacific Northwest, Sprinkle's amassed a 29-35 overall record and an 11-29 record against Big Ten opponents.

The Huskies finished 18th in the 18-team Big Ten in the 2024-25 season, and were tied for 12th in the conference last year.

Last year, Washington's NCAA tournament hopes fell on a miracle run to a postseason title in the Big Ten tournament. The team's run ended in the third round of the tournament in an 85-82 loss to the Wisconsin Badgers.

Many publications have started to release their predictions for the Big Ten for the 2026-27 season, and almost no one has faith in Washington having different fortunes in the Power Four conference this season compared to the previous two.

The Columbus Dispatch helped put together the media poll ahead of Big Ten media days earlier in October, which had the Huskies finishing 15th in the conference. The three teams the paper had finishing behind Washington were the Northwestern Wildcats, Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Penn State Nittany Lions.

A post on "X" from The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) had the Huskies finishing 17th in the conference, with Penn State finishing last.

An article written by Myron Metcalf for ESPN on Aug. 6, which explored the ceilings and floors for all Big Ten teams, had UW finishing 14th in the country based on the ceiling of each team's win-loss projections.

Metcalf opined that the ceiling for Washington is a 20-win season with a 10th-place finish in the conference that would result in the team missing the NCAA tournament for the eighth-straight season.

Metcalf also wrote that the floor for the Huskies is a 15-win season and a 15th-place finish in the Big Ten, and that he believes UW is closer to its floor than its ceiling.

Based on these predictions, there's very little faith in Sprinkle and Washington figuring out how to navigate the Big Ten in Year 3. The team will have an opportunity to begin to prove the analysts wrong when it begins its season against the Colgate Red Raiders 7 p.m. PT on Nov. 2 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.