The Washington Huskies have fallen from the goals that Danny Sprinkle, his team, and the fans all wanted to see this year. It will be another season with a missed NCAA Tournament bid. A big reason can be attributed to the brutal track record with injuries this season. Washington has lost so many minutes to injuries and is one of the most-injured teams in college basketball this season.
That has actually become a bit of a silver lining for the Dawgs. For its thrust, young players are thrust into the roles they originally weren't going to have to handle. There are underclassmen getting tough Big Ten minutes when many were looking to next season. That experience will matter.
Freshmen and sophomores are getting high usage Big Ten minutes for the Huskies
Related: How Danny Sprinkle can still save this Washington Huskies season
When you look at BartTorvik.com, you can see the minute percentage for each player. Right now, five of the top seven "minute percentage" players are either freshmen or sophomores. That's going to help with the rebuild immediately if Sprinkle can keep them out of the transfer portal.
There are two seniors in that list, Quimari Peterson and Frank Kepnang. There's also Hannes Steinbach, who's almost assuredly headed to the NBA after this season. Thus, he feels like a senior. Yet, if those other four players all return, they've been gifted with an increased workload before they even hit junior year.
Those four (in order of minute usage) are Zoom Diallo, Wesley Yates III, Bryson Tucker, and JJ Mandaquit. Now that Mandaquit is on the shelf for the season and Tucker has been hurt, we've even seen Courtland Muldrew, another freshman, thrust into action.
This is important for Sprinkle if he can build around this core. Next year, the oldest of that group is going to be a Junior. Throw in Lathan Sommerville, who's also adding valuable minutes lately, and we could really see a solid core. There will need to be some portal additions to add around that group, but the silver lining of the season is that young players are getting a ton of Big Ten minutes.