SEATTLE — The long-standing philosophy of University of Washington men’s basketball coach Lorenzo Romar is that the next game is the biggest one of the season.
It’s especially true this week in what could amount to a do-or-die road trip against the Arizona schools — Arizona State on Thursday and the University of Arizona on Saturday.
The Huskies (16-7 overall, 8-4 in the Pacific-10 Conference) hope to cure the road ills that cropped up during their recent three-game losing streak while away from home. With the league tournament and maybe even a spot in the NCAA tourney not too far away, there’s no better time than this week for Washington to prove its mettle away from Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
“If we play the right way, we’ll get past people saying we can’t win on the road,” junior Isaiah Thomas said. “We just have to play like we play at home: bring our own energy and play defense. If we play defense and do the necessary things, I feel like we’ll be all right.”
This road trip is especially important in regards to the Huskies’ immediate goals. A loss to either one of the Arizona schools is likely to bump UW out of contention for the Pac-10 title, and Romar was quick to point out Tuesday that the Huskies are in danger of losing out on even bigger goals.
“We dug ourselves in a hole,” Romar said. “We’re not a lock for the NCAA tournament.”
While this year’s Huskies appear to be in a better position than the 2009-10 team that rallied to a Pac-10 tournament title, the players are comparing the mindset to the one that prevailed last spring. UW had a 7-7 conference record before winning nine consecutive games on the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
“At that time, it was either win games or don’t make the tournament,” junior Darnell Gant said Tuesday. “Guys wanted to make the tournament, and we showed that at the end.
“We want to do the same thing this year. Our backs are against the wall, and everybody knows the importance of this road trip and the rest of these games. We just want to play to win.”
Thomas downplayed the comparisons to last year’s team. The Huskies’ spot on the national radar and a No. 37 RPI ranking should serve as proof that UW is in a better position than it was last spring. But that doesn’t mean the Huskies are shying away from the backs-against-the-wall attitude.
“We need it to feel like last year, with that mindset that we need to win every game,” Thomas said. “If we have that mindset, we’ll be all right.”
The first two steps come this week, when the Huskies try to finish off a rare road sweep. It’s happened only twice since Jan. 2009, but this year’s Huskies already have proven they can shine away from Hec Ed.
“Three of our first four road games (of the 2010-11 conference season), it didn’t seem like we had any issues playing on the road,” Romar said. “It’s not like last year, where, initially, we couldn’t get a win on the road and then we won at the end. We can be a good road team; we’ve already proven it.”
The Huskies have momentum in its favor after a pair of convincing home wins over Stanford and Cal last week. Romar said those victories have brought a renewed confidence to a UW team that was somewhat shell-shocked during the three-game slide that preceded last week’s turnaround.
“When you lose consecutive games like that, when you get swept (like the Huskies did in Oregon), it’s a reality check,” Romar said. “And in a good way, if you want to call it swagger, I like where we are in terms of our mental attitude.”
As recent history has shown, the Huskies might just be an airline flight away from losing that swagger.
“The road will always expose any warts that you might have,” Romar said. “And we were exposed. It’s a credit to our team that we came back and played like we played (over the) weekend.”
Romar does admit that the Huskies could use a sweep this week if they’re going to reach one of their goals.
“I think it’s a make-or-break trip if we’re going to win the league,” he said. “I won’t say it’s a make-or-break trip in terms of making the NCAA tournament. But in terms of making some momentum now, I think it’s very important that we go out and play well.”
By most accounts, this is the most important road trip of the season. Not just because it’s the next one, or the last one, but because it could define the 2010-11 regular season.
“This is big for us, especially if we want to win the Pac-10 title outright, these two games,” Thomas said. “It’s that time of the season where everything’s got to go your way. You’ve just got to play hard and play the right way, and hopefully it ends up in our favor.”
Of note
Romar said during his Tuesday press conference that having games not televised can hurt recruiting. “What the recruits look at is, they all want to be in a situation where they’re going to be on television,” said Romar, whose game against ASU on Thursday night won’t be televised locally. It can be streamed live at www.foxsportsarizona.com … Both Thomas (eye) and Gant (leg) said they’re healthy heading into the road trip.
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