TERRY MOSHER
What is going on with Washington Husky basketball? I don’t have an answer, I’m just asking.
We all know Lorenzo Romar is a wonderful human being and if we judged him that way he would never be question and we would never even raise a question that would be construed in some way as being negative about him.
I do have, however, the memory of Leo The Lip Durocher’s words ringing in my mind when he says, “Nice guys finish last.” Durocher didn’t really say those words exactly like that, but you get the idea: Nice guys finish last.
Romar is a nice guy. So can we make that connection? Is Romar too nice to be successful the way we want him to be successful?
The last three basketball seasons Romar’s Husky teams are 51-46, but only 23-31 in the Pac-10 with the highest conference finish being in the in the 2012-13 season when the Huskies tied for fifth with a 9-9 record. This past season their conference record was 5-13 with a 11th place finish.
Three times Romar has been named coach of the year in the conference (2005, 2009 and 2012).
But something is amiss. His last three teams have not been competitive and now the star player, Nigel Williams-Goss is rumored to be transferring if he doesn’t decided to enter the NBA draft. If Williams-Goss transfers and the Seattle Times has reported he’s drawing interest from UNLV and Arkansas that would make three deflections. Junior Gilles Dierickx and assistant coach T. J. Otzelberger have already left.
Injuries have hurt the Huskies, especially the last two seasons. But also there seems to be a lack of big-time talent for a major power school like Washington. The Huskies should be an attractive school for the country’s top talent. It’s a good school with a revamped basketball facility and it’s located in a major city and plays in a conference that is one of the best in the country. Who wouldn’t want to come here?
A lot of players, apparently, and that says something without saying it.
If Romar is in trouble with the people who count at Washington that may be smoothed over if the incoming freshman class performs as expected, and does it rather quickly.
That class is generally ranked about 10th in the country and includes ESPN’s 49th-ranked player, Rainier Beach’s 6-foot-5 Dejounte Murray, who is listed as four-star recruit, and 6-8 Marquese Chriss from Elk Grove, Calif. that ESPN lists as the 57th player and a four-star recruit.
Rivals.com ranks Chriss as the 48th player and Murray as the 53rd in its top 150 ranking list. Rivals also ranks two other players of the incoming Washington recruiting class – Matisse Thybulle of Eastside Catholic who is listed at six-foot-six and ranked 122nd as a three-star recruit and 5-11 guard Devin Crisp from Lakewood who prepped this past season at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, NH. Rivals list Crisp as a three-star recruit and its 150th-ranked player.
So there you have it, the salvation of Romar is on the doorstep and ready to enter into Husky lore. Hopefully for Romar, one of the nice guys, they will help him turn around the sagging Husky program and save his job.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.