New UW Big Man Deals with Challenging European Tournament

Montlake is going to look real inviting to Christian Nitu once he comes to town because Greece has been anything but a memorable summer basketball experience.

Playing in the weeklong U20 EuroBasket, the new University of Washington big man and his Romanian team lost to Israel 119-68 on Wednesday -- for their fourth consecutive defeat in as many outings.

Romania has been beaten by 10, 40, 49 and 51 points with three games to go through Sunday.

The 6-foot-11, 220-pound Nitu, who is transferring to the UW from Florida State, came off the bench to share his team lead in scoring with 10 points at the University of Crete Hall.

He connected on 4 of 6 shots, including sinking his lone 3-pointer, and grabbed 6 rebounds in 20 minutes of action.

In his four Greek outings, Nitu has averaged 7.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per outing.. He's shot 37.5 percent, sinking 12 of 32 attempts. He has 6 blocks.

Nitu, who holds dual Canadian and Romanian citizenship, has started two of the four games for Romania.

He represents the final roster addition for UW coach Danny Sprinkle who has a dozen new players among his 14 for his next team.

Last season, Nitu appeared in 22 games as a freshman for Florida State and entered the transfer portal once his Seminoles coach, Leonard Hamilton, announced he was retiring following a long career.

Once in Seattle, this post player will compete primarily with 6-foot-11, 250-pound holdover Franck Kepnang, 6-foot-11, 200-pound JC transfer Mady Traore, and 6-foot-10, 275-pound Rutgers transfer Lathan Sommerville for minutes up front.

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