By Andrew Bailie Posted on

Washington men’s basketball prepares for East Coast road trip

The Washington Huskies (13-13, 5-10 in conference) are preparing for their final East Coast trip of the season. Washington will face the Maryland Terrapins (10-15, 3-11 in conference) in College Park, Md., on Saturday. After that game, the Huskies will head to Piscataway, N.J., to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (10-15, 3-11 in conference) on February 24th. Washington’s head coach, Danny Sprinkle, held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon ahead of his team’s road trip. He provided an injury update, discussed Courtland Muldrew’s increased playing time, and gave a preview of the Maryland game at the press briefing.

Washington sees injuries continue to pile up

Injuries have plagued the Huskies’ 2025-26 season. Mady Traore has been out since the beginning of the season with a torn tendon in his foot. A heart condition knocked Jasir Rencher out in early January. Desmond Claude went down a week later with a nagging leg injury. J.J. Mandaquit later suffered a broken foot in early February, abruptly ending his season. Now, two more players have recently suffered injuries, with Bryson Tucker and Franck Kepnang being the latest Huskies added to the injured list:

“I’ll get back in there today and kind of see what’s going on with Bryson. I know he’s not going to be full today, you know, but hopefully his hand is recovering. The rest of the guys, you know, hopefully getting a couple days off will help them. You know, Franck’s going to be, what he is, like Franck’s a warrior, man. He’s been fighting through, you know, he has a stress reaction in his fibular tibia. And so, like, it gets very sore. So he hasn’t been able to practice for about two weeks. I can’t see him practicing the rest of the season. You know, he just kind of has to show up for games, ride the bike, and get loose,” said Sprinkle.

Tucker hurt his hand in Washington’s 63-60 loss to Penn State. He has been one of the Huskies’ most reliable scoring wings throughout the year, averaging 6.2 points per game (second among Husky forwards). Kepnang has been dealing with a stress reaction in his fibular tibia leg muscle in recent weeks. He is critical to Washington’s defense and leads the team with 55 blocks this season. Despite both players appearing on the injured list, Sprinkle indicated there is a chance Kepnang and Tucker will play on Saturday against Maryland.

Washington freshman Courtland Muldrew is seeing more action

While injuries have worn on the Huskies’ depth, Muldrew has seen his minutes increase. Before this past Saturday’s game, Muldrew had averaged just 7.6 minutes per game this season. Against Minnesota, Muldrew played 21 minutes, the most time he has played in a game all year. Sprinkle spoke about what he saw from his young freshman in this past weekend’s game:

“You know, I thought his energy defensively, like he did what he was supposed to do. He got, you know, some steals. You know, one of his layups, I think Hannes got the steal and pitched it up to him and he had a good finish. But I just, I just like the tenacity he was playing with. You know, and he’s going to keep learning, you know, through, you know, the progression as he gets more minutes. You know, and he’s just going to get better and better,” said Sprinkle.

In Washington’s 69-57 over Minnesota, Muldrew had six points, five rebounds, one block, one steal, and an assist. His activity on the offensive and defensive end helped spark a 14-0 run late in the first half. The Huskies took control of the game for good after that run as Muldrew helped the Huskies end a three-game losing streak.

Washington looks to string together wins

The Huskies have just five games remaining in Big Ten conference play. Washington needs to stack wins to have a shot at an NIT or NCAA Tournament bid. The first opportunity to do so will be this Saturday against Maryland. The Terrapins have had a down season after making the Sweet 16 last year, and currently are five games under .500. Sprinkle provided a scouting report on Maryland at his Tuesday presser:

“Yeah, well, they have a brand new coach and all brand new players. So that’s first thing that’s different. Uh, you know, they uh, they got, they’re, they’re playing their best basketball right now. You know, I think they play Northwestern tomorrow night. But, you know, they’ve had a couple of big wins lately. Like their playing with a lot of confidence. They’re really athletic. They fly around. They, uh, they got a, you know, a point guard Diggy Coit. I hope I pronounced his name right. Like, I mean one of the most dynamic players in the conference. You know, he had a game of 44 or 45 this year. You know, probably 5’10, 5’11, but can really, really shoot the basketball and get going. So there as dangerous a team, and like I said when you’re playing in the Big Ten, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing that day. Anytime you’re you know, traveling all the way to Maryland and playing in that, you know, environment, like they’ll have a great environment and it, you know, it’s gonna be brutal,” said Sprinkle.

David “Diggy” Coit has led the Terrapins in points and assists this season. He had 29 points and five assists in Maryland’s 67-62 victory over Minnesota on February 8th. Coit also helped lead the Terrapins to a 77-70 win against Iowa this past week, scoring 19 points and collecting five assists. Quimari Peterson has taken on the Huskies’ toughest defensive assignments this year and will likely be tasked with guarding Maryland’s star guard. Stopping Coit will be crucial this weekend, as the Huskies go for their third win on the road in conference.

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