UW's Christian Nitu Draws Start, But Team Tanks in Greece

Greece in July is supposed to be a welcome summertime destination, unless you were Christian Nitu and the Romania U20 basketball team on Sunday.

The incoming University of Washington basketball player and his teammates had a forgettable outing on the second day of the EuroBasket tournament, losing to Lithuania 106-66 at the Nea Alikarnassos Arena in Heraklion,

Trailing just 47-42 at halftime, Nitu's team was a second-half no-show, getting outscored 31-9 in the third quarter, and it went down to its second defeat in as many outings.

The 6-foot-11, 220-pound Nitu, who is transferring from Florida State to the UW, drew his first start of the week-long event and he finished with 9 points and 5 rebounds, while shooting 4-for-10 from the field.

The Romania team will play again on Monday against the host Greece team.

Nitu, a left-hander and a rising sophomore, is a Canadian resident who holds dual citizenship. He's attempting to get his game in order so he can join Danny Sprinkle's second Husky team and be competitive with the other bigs for playing time.

Playing sparingly this past season at Florida State, Nitu appeared in just 22 games and averaged 1.9 points and 1.3 rebounds per outing.

He'll contest for minutes in Montlake 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.

Nitu will be in Greece through next Sunday and then head for Seattle to join Sprinkle's basketball team.

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