BOISE, Idaho – University of Washington senior point guard Will Conroy knows a good story when he hears it. That’s why he let the myth surrounding his becoming a Husky grow.
The story is that Conroy turned down scholarship offers from such schools as Pittsburgh and Xavier, walked-on at Washington and became the school’s all-time leader in assists while leading the team to the top of the national college basketball world.
The reality isn’t quite as amazing, though the end result is just as impressive.
The truth is, Conroy had a deal with then-Washington coach Bob Bender that he would get the first scholarship that became available, and that happened in the fall of his freshman year when another recruit failed to qualify.
”I knew I was getting a scholarship, I just didn’t know how quick,” said Conroy, who will lead the top-seeded Huskies (27-5) in their first-round NCAA Tournament game at 12:10 p.m. today at Taco Bell Arena against No. 16 Montana (18-12). ”The other story sounded good but it’s not how it happened.”
While the scholarship story may be false, the rest of the story is true. Conroy, who starred at Seattle’s Garfield High School, is the leader on the court of a UW team that has gone from afterthought to national title contender. Along the way, he put his natural tendency to score aside and became the school’s all-time leader in assists (494) this season. His 198 assists this season is the most ever at Washington and he led the Pacific-10 Conference with 6.4 assists a game.
While Conroy never is mentioned when talk of the nation’s best point guards comes up, his value to the team is clear.
”He’s the reason we are where we are,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. ”He is the guy who bought into what we were trying to do, and he’s the one who got the other guys to buy into it. We have other guys who get more attention, but no one is more important.”
”Will’s our engine,” Nate Robinson added. ”Without him, we don’t go.”
Like the Washington program itself, Conroy’s game has changed in the last four years.
At Garfield, Conroy was more interested in making sure he looked good playing rather than playing good. Every pass had to be flashy, every dribble had to go through his legs, every shot had to be spectacular. And there had to be a lot of shots. Conroy wanted to shoot first, shoot second, shoot third and maybe pass fourth.
”My definition of what a basketball player was was different,” Conroy said. ”All you see on TV are guys who dunk, guys who score, guys who do the spectacular play. That’s what I thought you had to do.”
”We were always talking to him about dribbling too much, shooting too much, never passing the ball,” said Brandon Roy, who was also a teammate at Garfield. ”He would do a lot of great things but he would also hurt us because he wanted to do everything himself. He’s changed his game more than anyone on this team.”
Conroy picked Washington over schools with better basketball tradition because he wanted to be a part of a building project. It was a surprising decision for a player used to winning. Garfield had a 100-15 record in his four seasons. Washington was coming off of a 10-20 season.
”Anyone can join a team that always wins,” Conroy said. ”To me, it meant more to try to help lift a program up, especially a program in my hometown. I knew if I went to Washington, other guys might follow me and we might make Washington a basketball school.”
Conroy’s dream worked out, but it took awhile. He became a starter for the last seven games of his freshman season, when the UW was 11-18. Bender was fired and Romar was hired. A former Husky point guard himself, Romar took a special interest in Conroy, grooming him to be his on-court extension.
”A point guard has to be a coach on the court,” Romar said. ”And for that to happen, he has to buy into, and understand, what it is you’re trying to do. I had many meetings with Will, and I started to see a transformation. He became the player I needed him to be.”
”Coach was asking me to do things that I never paid attention to before,” Conroy said. ”But he made me understand that getting my teammates involved was just as important, if not more important, than scoring. He needed me to run the offense. But what made me do what he asked me to do the most was the fact that he wanted to win as bad as I did. We wanted the same goals, and I trusted that he knew how to get us there.”
Washington went 10-17 in Conroy’s sophomore year but it was clear that the program was on the upswing. Other Seattle-area preps stars like Roy, Robinson and Tre Simmons followed Conroy to Washington and helped lead the Huskies to a 19-12 record and the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year.
And then, of course, there was this season’s run to a No. 1 tournament seed, the first in the program’s history.
Conroy hopes to parlay the team’s success this year into an NBA opportunity. If that doesn’t work out, he knows that he’ll always be able to look back and be proud of being a large part of making Washington a basketball school.
”Will Conroy is what Washington basketball is about,” Romar said. ”He took a chance coming here and he took a chance in altering his game. But in doing so, he earned the respect of his coaches, his teammates and his fans.”
”It feels good knowing that I helped put Washington basketball on the map,” Conroy said. ”But we’re not done. I want a national championship, we all do. When I came here, if people heard me say that, they would have laughed. But they aren’t laughing anymore.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
