Sprinkle Weighs In On Serbian Recruit: 'Potential is Crazy'

Niko Bundalo turned down several blood blood programs to sign with the UW.

Danny Sprinkle meets with the media before traveling to UCLA. / Dan Raley

As his University of Washington basketball players boarded a nearby chartered bus on Monday that would take them to the airport, Danny Sprinkle met with the media before joining them.

There was lots to discuss. Winning a holiday tournament in Palm Springs. Opening Big Ten play against UCLA in Los Angeles. The health of his injured big men Franck Kepnang and Chris Conway, with Kepnang expected back soon but Conway, the Oakland transfer, out for the season with knee issues.

Oh, and there was one more topic that proved enlightening -- the coach detailed his recruitment of the recently signed 6-foot-10 power forward Niko Bundalo

While his commitment came after signing day, Bundalo, a top 25 national recruit originally from Ohio, actually signed prior to his public announcement, which meant that Sprinkle was free to speak about him publicly without being penalized.

"He can shoot, he's skilled, he's tough, he's Serbian," the UW coach said. "He's got an edge to him, which sometimes he needs to tame it down a little bit. But I'd rather tame it down rather than tame it up."

Bundalo will arrive for next season along with with 6-foot-11 Mady Traore, a former Maryland and New Mexico player now at a Texas junior college and 4-star point guard JJ Mandaquit and 4-star shooting guard Courtland Muldrew.

"I think we have three top 100 kids and maybe have the top junior college player in the country," Sprinkle said. "We still have more that we're not talking about."

As for Bundalo, he's the prized player at the moment, a Serbian national team member who will come to Seattle after turning down schools such as Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan State, Ohio State and others.

Sprinkle told how the kid took recruiting trips to some of those places and didn't make a connection, so the Huskies went in hard and were successful in gaining his services. Bundalo, the coach says, could be a 7-footer before he's done growing.

"I'm excited to get him up here," Sprinkle said. "His potential is crazy."

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