Welcome to the start of my annual player preview series as we rapidly approach the start of the Washington Men’s Basketball season. One exhibition game is in the books but the regular season begins on Monday, 11/3 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
This Washington roster appears to be the best they’ve had since the early parts of the Mike Hopkins era. It is certainly not without flaws but the array of offensive talent and intriguing upside available for Danny Sprinkle this season should result in a compelling season no matter what.
I’ll go one-by-one through every scholarship player on the roster providing a scouting report on each and my projections for their performance this season. This service is even more essential reading than normal because the Huskies only return 2 players from last season. So if you are someone who tunes out recruiting and the transfer portal then strap in because you’ve got a lot to learn. Let’s dig in to part one of four with the players most likely to be the primary ball handlers on the roster.
G 6’1 Quimari Peterson (5th Year), Transfer from East Tennessee State
2024-25 Stats (per game): 19.5 pts, 4.5 reb, 3.7 ast, 50.2% 2pt, 42.2% 3pt, 73.3% FT
Background
Sometimes it just takes a while for a player to develop. That has been the case for Peterson who started off as an unrated recruit at Indiana State and played just 35 minutes over two seasons there before moving on to a JUCO. Things went better against that level of competition as Peterson averaged 13.5 points and 4.7 assists per game which allowed him to get back into D1 at East Tennessee State. Peterson put up similar numbers in his first season there but last year made a giant leap that made him SoCon Player of the Year. Capitalizing on that success, Peterson entered the transfer portal and now is at Washington for his final season of eligibility.
Playing Style
It’s hard to ask for much more from your lead ball-handler than what Peterson did for East Tennessee State last season. You want a distributor? Peterson had a nearly 25% assist rate with a turnover rate below 15% which are both above-average marks. You want a shooter? Peterson shot 42% from deep which was in the top-100 in the entire country. You want someone who can cause havoc on defense? Peterson had a 3.4% steal rate which was 135th nationally while also ranking 142nd in fewest fouls committed. You want someone who never leaves the court? Peterson was 34th nationally in minutes played.
That’s not to say that there are no holes in Peterson’s game. Those numbers of course came against a SoCon schedule but Peterson showed that he was the best player in that league which is what you want if you can’t have someone who played against the best of the best. East Tennessee State didn’t play a power conference team last season but in their 6 toughest games, Peterson still shot 52% from 3-point range and 91% from the free throw line even if he was less efficient at the rim.
There are still some reasons for hesitation. I mentioned the lack of experience playing against elite competition like he’ll see in the Big Ten night after night. He also doesn’t have a long track record of being an elite shooter. Peterson shot just 29.1% from deep the previous season at ETSU before catching fire last year. Put those two years together and he’s at 36.4% which might be a more reasonable baseline.
It might be splitting hairs but it’s also potentially more accurate to call Peterson a combo guard rather than a true point guard. Peterson takes care of the ball and can make all the basic passes but he is still primarily looking for his own shot first. Playing Peterson more off the ball might even unlock his shooting further as he shot 60% last season on catch and shoot 3-point attempts.
Expectations for 2025-26
I thought that Peterson would be the clear starting point guard when he initially committed to Washington but we’ll see if that’s actually the case. Coach Sprinkle noted that he has been the team’s best shooter this offseason and on a team that needs shooting that sets a high floor on his playing time. Earlier this offseason, I looked at similar players to Peterson who transferred up in recent years and those players wound up playing 30% fewer minutes and scoring 60% fewer points. That suggests that Peterson plays more of a 6th man role on this team but I could easily see him assert himself as an essential piece of the rotation if he shoots close to 40% from deep yet again.
Peterson unfortunately hurt his hamstring in the last month and missed the exhibition game against UNLV. The hope is that they can give him time to be 100% before the opener but hamstrings have a habit of lingering and Peterson’s shooting is essential to the success of this team so hopefully the staff doesn’t bring him back until he’s truly 100% to ensure he’s fully healthy once the competition ramps up in December/January.
2025-26 Projected Per Game Stats: 20.0 mins, 9.8 pts, 2.6 reb, 2.2 ast, 1.1 to, 1.0 stl, 42.6% 2pt, 38.8% 3pt, 75.9% FT
*****
G 6’1 JJ Mandaquit; 4-star, #52 overall (1st Year)
Background
Mandaquit is a native of Hawai’i although he finished his high school career playing at Utah Prep alongside five-star AJ Dybantsa (incoming freshman at BYU). The connection between Mandaquit and Dybantsa goes back further due to their time on the Team USA Junior circuit. Mandaquit served as one of the primary point guards on the 2023 FIBA Americas U16 team, the 2024 FIBA World Cup U17 team, and the 2025 FIBA WORLD Cup U19 team. All three won gold medals with Mandaquit distributing. He averaged 6.1 points and 5.4 assists per game this summer on the U19 team culminating in a win over Germany and fellow UW freshman Hannes Steinbach.
Coach Sprinkle made Mandaquit an absolute priority last fall despite heavy competition. JJ took official visits to Louisville, USC, and BYU in addition to the Huskies but ultimately committed to Washington just in time for the fall signing period and never looked back.
Expectations for 2025-26
There’s no question that Mandaquit projects as an old school player. He’s a pure passer the likes of which you don’t see anymore. Coming into the summer there were questions about Mandaquit’s shooting but he made 60% from deep and 100% from the free throw line for Team USA at the FIBA World Cup. Those percentages aren’t sustainable in college on a bigger sample size but as long as Mandaquit can shoot better than ~32% from deep then he’ll tilt defenses with his passing ability.
There are plenty of mouths to feed on this Husky team which plays to the advantage of someone like Mandaquit who is going to only care about getting good shots for his teammates. If Mandaquit is passable as a shooter and a defender (relevant question marks given his age and height) then he’ll still manage to see plenty of minutes. It’s clear that Sprinkle absolutely loves Mandaquit and sees him as the next Darius Brown, the point guard on Sprinkle’s NCAA teams at Montana State and Utah State. Sprinkle noted that Mandaquit’s team won almost every scrimmage over the summer and there’s an element of Fisch/Demond in their relationship with the way Sprinkle discusses him.
Because of that, I see Mandaquit starting at the point guard spot. There are just so many guards that I’m being conservative on his overall minutes per game but even if he only plays about half the game I think he ultimately still leads the team in assists.
2025-26 Projected Per Game Stats: 18.6 mins, 3.5 pts, 2.4 reb, 3.3 ast, 1.5 to, 0.7 stl, 43.1% 2pt, 34.4% 3pt, 68.2% FT
*****
G 6’4 Zoom Diallo (2nd Year)
2024-25 Stats (per game): 11.1 pts, 3.1 reb, 2.7 ast, 51.0% 2pt, 18.2% 3pt, 73.6% FT
Background
It looked for a while as though Zoom was not in the cards for the Huskies. He led Curtis HS in Tacoma to consecutive state 4A titles but opted to transfer to Prolific Prep in Napa, California for his senior year. That decision to move out of state usually is not a great sign when your primary recruiting pitch is “hometown hero”. Diallo took official visits to Florida State, Gonzaga, USC, and Arizona but ultimately committed to UW despite knowing a coaching change was probable before he would get the chance to sign. That coaching change did in fact happen but Zoom kept with his commitment to UW despite heavy consideration to moving elsewhere.
It became apparent quickly though that Diallo deserved a sizable role. He played a season-low 5 minutes in the 2nd game of the season against Nevada but wound up starting 22 games and had some of the best on-court/off-court splits of any Husky. Zoom was able to get into the paint against nearly anyone from the second he stepped foot on campus but showed no confidence in his outside shot. There were some clear freshman mistakes at the end of games that cost Washington but he had a heavy burden placed on him when the Huskies got nothing from their veteran point guard options.
Playing Style
It’s not unreasonable to say that Zoom Diallo may have been one of the more underrated freshmen in the country last year. There were only 6 true freshmen at high majors schools that had an assist rate of 24% or better, shot better than 50% from 2-point range, and had a defensive rebounding rate over 10%. Five of them were drafted in the first 20 picks of the 2025 NBA Draft. The 6th of course was Zoom Diallo.
It’s not exactly difficult though to see why Diallo didn’t join his peers with a call-up to the NBA. Everyone else on that list attempted at least 124 three-pointers and made at least 38 of them (worst was 27.3%). Diallo finished the season just 6/33 (18%) from deep. It’s one thing to not be a good shooter but a primary ball-handler who attempts barely one outside shot per game becomes a tremendous spacing liability.
Diallo may eventually develop at least a semi-respectable three-point shot. He made nearly 74% of his free throws which tends to be more predictive of true shooting ability. All indications are he has put in a ton of work in the gym this offseason to improve in that regard. But if Diallo wants to eventually make it to the NBA then he has to both become willing to shoot more often and to make it when he does take that shot or he risks becoming a less athletic Tony Wroten.
The other area where Diallo fell behind his peers in that sample of players is on the defensive end. When a freshman has that big of an offensive burden, it’s natural for their defense to lag a little bit. But he had both a block rate and steal rate below 1.0%. That just isn’t going to get it done for a winning team when someone has Diallo’s combination of size and strength. I’m sure the coaching staff hope that with more talent around him it will enable Diallo to push harder on that end of the floor.
Expectations for 2025-26
For most of this offseason it looked like Zoom was set to move into a starring role on this team. He was one of just two returners overall and between his success as a true freshman last year and being a local player it meant he was instantly the most marketable player on the team. But then the Huskies added USC transfer Desmond Claude in the transfer portal in June.
There were only 6 high major players last season (all ages) who had the assist and 2pt% rates I mentioned but also made fewer than 25 three-pointers over the entire season. Two of them were Diallo and Claude (that duo were also UW’s Big Ten media day representatives). We’ll talk more about Claude playing off the ball when we get to him but it’s clear that he and Zoom are very similar players that don’t have complimentary skill sets. The thing I’m most interested in over the first few games this season will be to see how Diallo and Claude co-exist and if the offense can stay afloat while they play next to each other.
There’s a world in which I could easily see Diallo being a breakout superstar and averaging 15+ points per game. But there just appear to be too many mouths to feed and someone is going to end up playing a lot less than they probably deserve. For now I’m expecting that to be Zoom unless his shooting took an exponential leap in the offseason. If that comes to pass then Diallo is likely the best 4th/5th guard in the country.
2025-26 Projected Per Game Stats: 18.0 mins, 6.7 pts, 2.4 reb, 2.0 ast, 1.3 to, 0.2 stl, 0.2 blk, 50.7% 2pt, 27.6% 3pt, 71.9% FT
*****
We’ll be back tomorrow to look at the rest of the guards/wings who are more likely to be secondary ball handlers on this roster.