Washington Huskies Hire Former Syracuse Orange General Manager in Same Role

The Washington Huskies men's basketball team has had to overhaul the roster year-over-year in its two-plus years under head coach Danny Sprinkle.

The former Montana State and Utah State head coach only had two players from his first year in the Pacific Northwest returning for the 2025-26 season.

Those two players, guard Zoom Diallo and center Franck Kepnang, both transferred to the Kentucky Wildcats this offseason, leaving Sprinkle with six players set to return for the 2026-27 season and nine spots to fill.

The constant roster turnover (as well as a high quantity of injuries) has led the Huskies to struggle in the program's first two seasons in the Big Ten, both under Sprinkle.

Washington finished 13-18 (4-16 in Big Ten play) and last in the conference in '24-25 and 16-17 (7-13) and finished 12th last season.

On Thursday, the Huskies made a move that could potentially help the team's roster building year-over-year.

ESPN college sports insider Pete Thamel reported in a post on "X" that Washington had hired former Syracuse Orange general manager Alex Kline to serve in the same role with the Huskies.

Kline was fired by the Orange this offseason along with former head coach Adrian Autry and the rest of the coaching staff. The Orange went just 15-17 and missed the NCAA Tournament for a fifth consecutive year. Kline became a casualty of the program's repeated failures over that half-decade.

The former New York Knicks scout was hired by Syracuse in the offseason prior to the '24-25 season.

Despite being with the program for two years, Kline only had one full recruiting class to attempt to build the roster. From a talent perspective, he was able to do so. The Orange's 2025 recruiting class ranked 17th in the country, per the 247Sports composite, and included four-star players Kiyan Anthony (son of Syracuse legend Carmelo Anthony) and Sadiq White Jr.

Per his staff page on the Orange Athletics website, Kline's responsibilities included: "Scouting and recruiting; former student-athlete engagement; Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) opportunities; transfer portal management and institutional fundraising in collaboration with university advancement."

Assuming Kline's responsibilities with Washington are similar, he'll likely be able to help the program make the final push in what has been a very apparent attempt to fare better in its Class of 2027 recruiting.

The Huskies have either hosted, made the final lists and/or are actively courting notable players from the '27 high school graduating class including: five-star small forward Malachi Jordan, four-star small/power forward Deng Ngor, four-star power forward Ahmed Nur and four-star shooting guard Jimmie Haywood.