Report: Washington to hire Utah State's Danny Sprinkle as new head basketball coach

For the third time in the last four years, Utah State will have a men’s basketball coaching search, since Danny Sprinkle has decided to move on to take the job at Washington following one season with the Aggies.

College hoops insider Jeff Goodman had the report of Sprinkle’s decision Monday, tweeting out the news:

“BREAKING: Washington is hiring Utah State’s Danny Sprinkle, sources told @TheFieldOf68.”

In one year with the program, Sprinkle had to completely overhaul the Utah State roster and brought some of his own pieces from his former stop, Montana State, to join up with a slew of transfers. Ultimately, this thrown-together roster found a way to come together and win a very competitive Mountain West this season before winning an NCAA Tournament game against TCU.

The Aggies did get blown out by 1-seed Purdue in the second round over the weekend, and things moved pretty quick to lead to Sprinkle accepting the Washington job.

In regards to Utah State, it’s more tough luck for a program that has been wildly successful at the mid-major level lately despite constant coaching turnover.

The success began back in 2018-19, when first-year head coach Craig Smith led Utah State back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011 and won the Mountain West Tournament behind star guard Sam Merrill. Merrill and front-court bruiser Neemias Queta returned for 2020, and Utah State repeated as Mountain West tourney champs, beating a 30-1 San Diego State team with a last-second 3-pointer by Merrill, which is honestly one of the great moments in the history of the Utah State program.

Unfortunately, that NCAA Tournament was cancelled, but Smith got them back in the NCAA Tournament the next year, making it 3/3 tourney appearances during his time there if the 2020 one had been played.

He would leave for Utah, and in came Ryan Odom. Odom struggled in year one but had the Aggies right back in the NCAA Tournament by his second season, which impressed VCU enough that they hired him last offseason. Thus, the program turned to Danny Sprinkle, who worked out maybe to well, as USU put together an incredible season and will now go hire another new coach.

The college hoops world should have their eye on this search, though, because if history tells us anything, it’s that whoever Utah State hires next is sure to be another coaching star.