Sprinkle Calls New Big Man Mady Traore 'Electric Athlete'

The coach says the Huskies will look like a different team with the Frenchman.

Mady Traore, as a New Mexico State freshman, drives against Cal Baptist in 2023. / Meg Potter/Sun-News / USA TODAY NETWORK

After beating Alcorn State, Danny Sprinkle sat down for his postgame interview session and spoke about changing up the University of Washington starting lineup, sophomore forward Tyler Harris enjoying a career night and his basketball team still playing tight.

Time for one more question.

It might have been the most important inquiry of the night. Of the week. For the future.

Basically, who is Mady Traore?

"He'a a 6-11 like electric athlete," Sprinkle said.

The Husky coach next told how Traore, a Frenchman and former Maryland and New Mexico State player currently spending this season at a Texas junior college, shoots the 3-pointer, handles the basketball himself and has ball screens run for him by his teammates at two-year Frank Philips College.

"He brings dynamic athleticism and size and length, which we need," Sprinkle said.

Traore, briefly started at both of his previous major college stops, signed with the UW on Thursday. He'll have two years to play for the Huskies, beginning with the 2025-26 season.

His time at New Mexico State ended abruptly when the Aggies shut down their 2022-23 season for a multitude of offseason issues that led to the coach getting fired. Traore hurt a knee while at Maryland.

For his JC team, he averages 17 points and 10 rebounds per game while shooting 65 percent from the field, 36 percent from 3-point range, and 94 percent from the foul line.

UW signee Mady Traore (14) is helped off the court by Maryland teammates after hurting a knee against Iowa in February. / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

Once in Montlake, he'll team up front with the 6-foot-8 Harris, who's coming off his career-high 27 points, and possibly sore-kneed 6-foot-11 Franck Kepnang, who should have future eligibility remaining, and share the future with a whole host of young guards in current freshmen Zoom Diallo and Jase Butler, and fellow recent signees JJ Mandaquit and Courtland Muldrew, plus others.

"We'll look like a totally different team next year," Sprinkle said.

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