Inside The Huskies

French Forward Joins Huskies on Big Ten Road Trip

Dominique Diomande will watch rather than play right away.

Dan Raley

Dominique Diomande has signed with the UW.
Dominique Diomande has signed with the UW. / Diomande

Touted French forward Dominique Diomande has joined the University of Washington basketball team for its Big Ten game on Thursday night at Michigan State, but he won't play right away for the Huskies, a school spokesperson said.

A 6-foot-8, 190-pound teenager, Diomande previously has competed in the French pro leagues as an amateur and for Ivory Coast international teams.

He comes to the Huskies as a winter quarter enrollee and for now a non-scholarship player. He needs to get acclimated with a new team, a new country and a big change in his everyday world before he gets sent into action.

However, Diomande brings untold potential to Danny Sprinkle's first UW basketball team and the European player eventually should fit in well with what the new coach is trying to do in establishing his program.

"I've talked to a lot of high-level scouts, and even some NBA scouts, who have seen him," Sprinkle said earlier in the week. "They love his versatility, being 6-foot-8, long, really fast-twitch, aggressive. That's something we don't have right now."

Diomande averaged 16 points per game and shot 51.9 percent for ADA Blois in France, but he hasn't played with anyone recently while he's gone through a paperwork shuffle to become eligible to play American college basketball.

The Huskies have assigned this newcomer jersey No. 30 and local fans will get their first look at him when the UW returns home and hosts Purdue next Wednesday night at Alaska Airlines Arena in its only game next week.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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