Hannes Steinbach turning heads as Washington preps for Southern Utah

Washington coach Danny Sprinkle made an interesting comparison this week.

When talking about forward Hannes Steinbach from Germany, the Big Ten Freshman of the Week, Sprinkle invoked a former NBA legend.

"His ability to offensive rebound and his knack to go get it, he's literally like Dennis Rodman," Sprinkle said. "He knows where the ball is coming off and he makes the effort every time."

The Huskies (6-3) are set to play host to Southern Utah (4-7) on Saturday afternoon in Seattle.

Steinbach averaged 26.5 points, 13.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists as the Huskies nearly rallied from a 16-point deficit in the final five minutes against visiting UCLA in their conference opener, then came back from 18 points down at the half to win 84-76 at USC last Saturday.

"He's really hard to guard without fouling and he makes his teammates better because he draws a crowd," Sprinkle said of Steinbach, who is considered a potential first-round pick in next year's NBA draft. "And we know he's going to get double-teamed and there's a bunch of stuff that, now that we're getting a lot of our players back and we can actually practice? There's a lot of stuff we can clean up to make the game easier for him, too."

The Thunderbirds are coming off an 81-70 loss last Saturday at Oregon State despite 27 points from Jaiden Feroah.

Elijah Duval leads SUU with 13.5 points per game, with Feroah close behind at 13.3. Feroah is also second on the team in rebounding at 5.5 per contest, one rebound behind Isaiah Cottrell through 11 games.

"This is gonna be another tough test on the road for our guys," said Southern Utah coach Rob Jeter, whose team has suffered defeats at Arizona State, Gonzaga and Washington State. "Washington is very talented and well-coached, so we will need to stay disciplined and accomplish our specific tasks in order to be successful."

--Field Level Media