SEATTLE – In the last four games of his first season as the head coach of the University of Washington men’s basketball team, Lorenzo Romar had a feeling that his team could be special. The Huskies went 2-2 to end the 2003 season with a 10-17 record, but Romar saw the makings of a team that could one day make the UW a basketball school.
That day was Sunday.
A crowd of about 1,500 fans joined the Huskies at Hec Edmundson Pavilion and erupted when it was announced live on CBS that Washington would be one of four No. 1 seeds at this year’s NCAA Tournament.
“Stunned is a good word,” Romar said. “Most things, you can see coming. I didn’t see that coming. I was hoping; I felt we deserved it, but I didn’t know if others felt we deserved it.”
Washington is the top seed in the Albuquerque regional. The Huskies (27-5) open tournament play Thursday against No. 16 seed Montana (18-12) at Taco Bell Arena in Boise, Idaho. Game time is 12:10 p.m. A win would pit Washington against the winner of No. 8 Pacific (26-3) and No. 9 Pittsburgh (20-8) on Saturday.
It is the first time Washington has earned a top seed (the previous high was No. 5 in 1985), and marked the high point of an amazing turnaround to a program once viewed as one of the worst in the Pacific-10 Conference and an afterthought in the Seattle sports world.
After struggling in the first season, Romar began to turn the program around last season as the Huskies went 19-12 and earned a No. 8 NCAA seed, losing to Alabama-Birmingham in the first round at Columbus, Ohio.
Now, Washington is seen as one of the nation’s elite teams.
“We’re being talked about with teams like North Carolina and Duke,” guard Nate Robinson said. “It shows how far we’ve come. Before, no one respected us. Now they see we’re as good as any of those teams.”
Speculation prior to the announcement had the Huskies as a probable No. 2 seed, with a No. 1 a very outside possibility. Fans sat quietly as Illinois and North Carolina were announced as No. 1s, and some boos followed the naming of Duke as the third top seed. The crowd and team then exploded when “Washington” appeared on a giant television screen on the floor of Hec Ed.
“I told you coach, that’s what I told you,” senior guard Will Conroy yelled to Romar.
“At first I didn’t think we’d be a No. 1 seed,” forward Bobby Jones said. “Then I started watching some of the shows and people were talking about it, and I started believing it. But I still can’t believe it.”
The choice for the final top seed likely came down to Washington and Wake Forest. Many expected Wake to join North Carolina and Duke and give the Atlantic Coast Conference three No. 1 seeds, continuing a perception of an East Coast bias. Instead, the Demon Deacons are the No. 2 seed in the Albuquerque regional and would play the Huskies in the Elite Eight.
“It says a lot for our program that we can be talked about in the same sentence as those schools,” Romar said. “Maybe we left some people with no choice (but to give us a No. 1).”
Washington made a serious argument for a No. 1 by winning the Pac-10 Tournament Saturday over No. 9 Arizona. The Huskies also had a Great Alaska Shootout title on its resume, as well as a No. 3 RPI rating, a No. 2 RPI rating for the Pac-10 and a season-closing 11-2 record. Still, as the No. 14 team in the country, a No. 1 still seemed like a long shot.
Well, maybe not to everyone.
“I was telling friends and family that we were going to be a No. 1,” Robinson said. “They said, ‘No, you’ll be a No. 2.’ But I told them to just watch.”
Arizona received the No. 3 seed in the Chicago regional, and will play No. 14 Utah State Thursday at Boise. Stanford is the No. 8 seed in the Austin, Texas regional and plays No. 9 Mississippi State Friday at Charlotte, N.C. UCLA is the No. 11 seed in the Albuquerque regional and plays No. 6 Texas Tech Thursday at Tucson.
The Albuquerque regional is difficult. Along with Washington and Wake Forest, Gonzaga (25-4) is the third seed and will play No. 14 Winthrop Thursday in Tucson, and Conference-USA champion Louisville (29-4) is the fourth seed, playing No. 13 Louisiana-Lafayette Friday in Nashville.
One of the biggest rewards for being the top seed is the fact that Washington opens play in Boise, just a seven-hour drive from Seattle, meaning that it should be easy for Husky fans to follow the team.
“We were hoping we could go to Boise,” Romar said. “We wouldn’t have had a problem going to Tucson, but Boise was our No. 1 choice.”
“It’s huge because it’s going to be kind of like a home game for us,” Conroy said. “And we never lose at home.”
In Montana, Washington faces a team that used a late-season run to win the Big Sky Conference tournament. The Grizzlies won their last six games and 11 of their last 14. Montana is coached by former NBA player Larry Krystkowiak and are led by 6-foot-7, 235-pound senior forward Kamarr Davis and 6-2 junior guard Kevin Criswell. Davis leads the Grizzlies in scoring (14.8 on 52.4 percent shooting) and rebounding (5.9) and Criswell averages 12.4 points and 4.2 rebounds.
Montana was originally on Washington’s schedule this season but pulled out of the game.
Romar and his players said they weren’t too familiar with the Grizzlies yet but would be watching plenty of tape on them in the coming days.
Sunday, though, was a day for celebrating.
“To know where this program was when we started here, and to see where we are now, it’s overwhelming,” junior forward Mike Jensen said. “To feel like we finally have respect from people around the nation, it’s an amazing feeling.”
“I felt like we would be a No. 2 seed,” Romar said. “I knew we had done enough to get a No. 1 but I didn’t think other people would think the same. So to be able to sit here with these guys, and with the fans, and watch something like that, it brings joy to my heart.”
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