Sprinkle, Huskies notch first Big Ten Tournament victory
· Yahoo Sports
Washington is still alive after notching an 83-79 overtime victory over USC in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament. The victory is the first of its sort for the men’s basketball program. A milestone for second-year head coach Danny Sprinkle.
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“It couldn’t come in a better fashion for this group,” Sprinkle said to reporters after the game. “Adversity hasn’t defined us all year. This group’s been through a lot. We’ve got eight players right now. For them to continue to fight and to keep coming back, I wish we wouldn’t dig ourselves such a big deficit each game. They don’t quit, man. They keep fighting, and somehow somebody keeps making a big play. Whether it’s a big defensive stop, whether it’s making a huge three. I think Quimari’s 3, we were up one, and he hit a three with a minute left to put it at four. That was huge. Those are back-breaking plays.”
UW freshman forward Hannes Steinbach didn’t provide the scoring punch Sprinkle has grown accustomed to this season, but his impact was felt nonetheless. He finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks. Zoom Diallo led the way in the scoring column, adding 22 points, 11 assists, and 7 rebounds.
“Zoom was terrific,” Sprinkle added. “Playing with four fouls the last 12:30 of the second half. I think he had a double-double that second half. It was tremendous. Everybody stepped up. I thought Courtland (Muldrew) ‘s 3, when he made it, it was huge. It came down to getting stops and guarding without fouling in that last five minutes of regulation, really eight minutes of regulation, and then overtime. Just kept finding a way to win.”
Muldrew’s production off the bench played a significant role in the win. UW had just 12 bench points, and Muldrew scored nine of them, nailing three triples on six attempts.
Tomorrow, Washington battles Wisconsin. The Badgers thumped the Huskies 90-73 when the programs last met.
“Credit to them, they made 17 or 18 3s in that game. Hopefully shooting in this big ole arena for the first time and us having a game under our belt, hopefully they don’t knock down that many 3s. But that’s who they are and what they do,” Sprinkle said of rematching Wisconsin. “They’ve got elite shooters. They’ve got two of the best guards in the league, and they’re going to be coming with a chip on their shoulder because they both could have easily been first-team all league.
“I believe that playing against those two, that’s what they do. Their bigs can really shoot the basketball. Their whole team can shoot the basketball. They pose a lot of problems. We’re going to have to do a much better job with our energy and our force. I thought we were on our heels last time, and we didn’t really respond to the adversity that well when they started making those 3s, got on those runs. We have to do a better job guarding them and taking care of the basketball on the offensive end.”
Before Diallo and Quimari Peterson left the podium, the moderator asked if reporters had any more questions.
Sprinkle chimed in: “I got a question for you. Why do you guys keep getting down 15 points in the half? Can you cut that out?”
Diallo: “Coach, we’ve got to stop that.”
Sprinkle: “I like that.”
I have a question as well. Do the Huskies have an upset in them?
No. 12 seed Washington clashes with No. 5 Wisconsin at 11:30 a.m. Pacific.