Lorenzo Romar is a story guy.
The Washington coach loves answering a question with a story or anecdote from his coaching or playing past.
Ask Romar about a bad stretch his team might be going through, and he’ll tell you about the time in 2004 when the Huskies started Pac-10 play 0-5 before winning 12 of their final 13 conference games to earn an NCAA tournament berth. Ask about a starting lineup that doesn’t include explosive forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning and listen to Romar take you back to the 2004-2005 season to point out that even Brandon Roy came off the bench. Or maybe he’ll remind you that when Jamaal Williams was the Huskies’ best low-post scorer that same season, he too came off the bench.
Romar’s a story guy, and a few years from now, one story he’ll undoubtedly love to tell will be that of Justin Dentmon.
Somewhere down the road Romar will again coach a player who opens his college career with a bang, then struggles to live up to expectations as the years pass. Fans might get down on the player, might blame him for the team’s struggles, and when that day comes, Romar will likely answer questions about that player with a story about Justin Dentmon.
He’ll remind everybody that Dentmon, once the starting point guard as a freshman on a Sweet 16 team, struggled the next two seasons and as a junior lost his starting job. Then, Romar will remind whoever is listening that Dentmon reinvented himself as a senior and regained a spot in the starting lineup. And maybe, just maybe, Romar also will be talking about how Dentmon helped lead the Huskies back to the NCAA tournament.
The final chapter of Dentmon’s UW story is far from finished. The 5-foot-11 guard from Carbondale, Ill., is the first to tell you that what he’s done so far this year isn’t enough.
“It’s very rewarding seeing all the hard work I put in this summer paying off, but I’m not really satisfied with what I’m doing right now, because I think I can do better,” Dentmon said. “If we don’t get back to that tournament, then it won’t be a happy ending.”
While the ending is still in question, it’s safe to say that the final chapter of Dentmon’s UW career is a good read so far.
After playing primarily as a point guard the past three seasons, and losing the staring job to Venoy Overton last year, Dentmon knew that with Isaiah Thomas coming in, his best chance to earn more playing time would be to mold himself into more of a shooting guard.
So, Dentmon spent hour after hour alone in the gym last summer working on his outside shot and improving his off-the-ball play. He estimates that he took about 2,000 shots per week during the summer, and that extra work is clearly paying off.
During his first three season, Dentmon made 30.7 percent of his 3-point attempts. This year, Dentmon has made 43.9 percent of his long-range shots. That improved shooting has helped boost Dentmon’s scoring average to 14.8 points per game — third-best total on the team. He has scored 20 or more points in four of his past six games, and his second-half heroics against both UCLA and USC last week helped the Huskies sweep the Los Angeles schools and take sole possession of first place in the Pacific-10 Conference.
“It’s really good to see,” senior forward Jon Brockman said of Dentmon’s revival. “I know he’s put in a lot of hard work, and he’s just kept at it and not given up at all. He just kept working through the hard times, and for people that work hard, good things are going to happen.”
As a freshman, Dentmon started 32 of 33 games and set UW freshman records for assists and steals as the Huskies went to the NCAA tournament for the third straight year.
Following that season, many assumed Dentmon would continue to improve and help keep the Huskies remain in the national spotlight. But without the veteran leadership that surrounded him as a freshman, Dentmon struggled as a sophomore, seeing his assists go down and turnovers go up.
Expectations were high for the Huskies that year, and when they failed to reach the postseason, many fans thought Dentmon was to blame. Last season, Dentmon lost his starting job early on, and found himself playing the fewest minutes of his career as the Huskies once again missed the NCAA tournament.
Looking back, Dentmon realizes that he might have let that freshman season go to his head a little bit.
“I got a little satisfied after that year,” he said. “I got a little lackadaisical and started playing a little lazy. … I take the blame for it and that’s in the past.”
Dentmon labeled last season a wakeup call, and rather than let his UW career end with a whimper, he made a point of finishing strong.
Romar said that he couldn’t be more proud of a player than he is of Dentmon.
“He had a lot of reasons to transfer, a lot of reasons just to throw in the towel, but he didn’t,” Romar said. “Yeah, I noticed him getting down the last couple of years quite a bit. We’ve had a lot of conversations about it.”
Dentmon apparently got the message. Despite the struggles that he admits weighed on him during the last two seasons, Dentmon says he never doubted that he could bounce back this year.
“I was determined to have a big senior year,” he said. “I’m determined to finish it out and say I went out with a bang.”
And if he does, expect Romar to some day tell the story of Justin Dentmon and his great senior year.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com/huskiesblog
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