Road to the Big Dance won't be easy for Romar
Barbara Hedges must have felt like a wallflower
By: Richard Linde, 4 April 2002

Before signing Lorenzo Romar, Washington athletic director Barbara Hedges must have felt like a wallflower, having asked three coaches to take her Huskies to the Big Dance and then being   stood up by all three. The nyet by Dan Monson made one wonder if the Husky coaching job, left vacant by the firing of Bob Bender, wasn't being viewed as a dead-end job.

Hedges waved blank checks in front of Monson, Mark Few and Quin Snyder, and they hardly blanched. On Tuesday, rumors ran rampant on the Internet and several radio stations, each saying that Monson was close to a deal with Hedges. To quickly squelch them, Minnesota held a news conference at noon PST and quoted Monson as saying, "...I'm here. I'm not going anywhere...We have unfinished work to do and I'm excited about the future of this program."  

Which all means that the road for Romar as Husky men's basketball coach won't be an easy one. 

Besides the reluctant three, six coaches in the Pac-10 are telling him he'll have to fish or cut bate. Ben Braun (Cal), Mike Montgomery (Stanford), Steve Lavin (UCLA), Henry Bibby (USC), Ernie Kent (Oregon) and Lute Olson (Arizona) each took their team to the Big Dance this season. Three of them made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and Oregon made it to the Elite Eight before finally losing to Kansas. And then there’s Bob Williams, who guided USCB to its first tournament bid since 1990. He was just given a three-year contract extension, which inks him through 2008. If Romar wants to recruit California athletes, he'll have to trump his efforts, too.

In other words, these guys are entrenched in their positions, hunkered down, fortified, their trebuchets and minions ready to take on any newcomers.

If the new Washington coach wants to make his presence felt in the Pac-10 race yearly, he must recruit from California, something Bender wasn’t able to do. As the new kid on the block, Romar could lap up the leavings after the aforementioned coaches lick the plate mostly clean.

However, Romar knows the California territory. He grew up in Compton and played for Cerritos Community College before enrolling at Washington. As an assistant coach to Jim Herrick at UCLA, he was known for his exceptional recruiting ability.

Is Romar up to the task and ready to board the U.S.S. Washington? Yes, but...

Reviewing Bob Bender’s record at Washington, as well as his predecessors' records, could make him wonder if he isn't boarding the Titanic. Overall, Bender coached nine seasons at Washington, winning 116 games and losing 142. In Pac-10 play, his teams won 66 games and lost 99. His last three seasons were losing ones. Before Bender, Lynn Nance coached four years, finishing 50-62. Andy Russo preceded Nance, compiling a 61-62 record over four years. He succeeded Marv Harshman (1972-85, 246-146), Romar's old coach. 

Since Harshman, the Huskies have had some successes, but, overall, the Husky ship has sprung some leaks over the last sixteen years. 

Rebuilding the program won't be easy thanks to the rule that says a coach can recruit no more than five scholarship players in any one year and eight in a two-year period.

By winning ten NCAA titles in twelve years, John Wooden raised the hoop to an incredible height for coaches in this conference. Winning in it will require a wizard-like effort on the part of Romar--for arguably, the Huskies play in college basketball’s toughest, most competitive conference.

Husky fans shouldn't expect miracles from Lorenzo Romar or for him to morph into the Magician of Montlake. However, once in a while, a trip to the Big Dance would be just fine. After all, Barbara Hedges is hardly a wallflower.