Sprinkle Fills Out UW Staff, Which Includes Controversial Hire

Danny Sprinkle has settled on his University of Washington basketball coaching staff, demonstrating he's not afraid to deal with a little controversy.

On Thursday, the school sent out a late-night announcement, maybe to lessen the immediate reaction, that Tony Bland, Andy Hill, DeMarlo Slocum and Jerry Hobbie have been hired as Husky assistant coaches -- with Bland coming off a well-publicized college coaching ban.

In 2017, Bland was one of 10 people arrested and charged in a fraud scandal that rocked college basketball nationwide. As a USC assistant coach for four seasons, he was accused of steering payments from a sports agent and a financial planner to the families of a pair of Trojans players in exchange for representation.

Bland, 44, avoided prison time by pleading guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery, but accepted two years of probation and 100 hours of community service. The former Syracuse and San Diego State player served a three-year, show-cause penalty, effectively keeping him from coaching college basketball.

For the past four seasons, he's rebuilt his reputation by working in Los Angeles as the basketball coach for St. Bernard High School, a school that long ago supplied players to the UW, coaching AAU ball and dealing with at-risk youth.

"I am thrilled to embark on this journey with the University of Washington, where every dribble is a step toward excellence, every play an opportunity for growth, and every game a chance to inspire greatness," Bland said in a prepared statement. "I'm ready to lead, ready to learn and ready to make every moment count."

Said Sprinkle about Bland in a UW release, not dealing with the unpleasantries, "Coach Bland has tremendous basketball knowledge and a winning pedigree."

Sprinkle also hired Hill, who spent the past two seasons with him at Utah State and Montana State. Hill made an unsuccessful bid to replace Sprinkle as the Aggies coach before agreeing to join him at the UW. He's also had coaching stops at New Mexico, Utah and Montana.

Slocum comes to the UW from Utah, where he had two coaching stints among his 20 years on the Division I level. He's also spent time with UNLV, USC, Colorado State, Idaho and Utah Tech.

Hobbie is a coaching remnant of Mike Hopkins' previous UW staff, becoming a Sprinkle assistant coach after serving six seasons as a special assistant for Hopkins. He previously coached at SMU, Houston and Fairfield.

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