TERRY MOSHER
LORENZO ROMAR
I feel sorry for Jen Cohen, the athletic director at Washington, because she’s in an uncomfortable position as it relates to men’s basketball coach Lorenzo Romar. You couldn’t ask for a better man than Romar and that is what is troubling., because, you see, the Husky basketball program is in terrible shape and Romar is on thin ice, yet he is held in reverence by many for just being, well, just being himself.
So what should she do?
Should she fire him at the conclusion of an impending terrible season? Or does being a good man who does nothing away from the court that harms the program outweigh being, it seems to me, a bad evaluator of talent?
Let’s look at the facts. The Huskies are 7-6 while playing a weak non-conference schedule that saw them give up 98 points and lose to Yale, an Ivy League team that is struggling to have a winning season at 7-5.
Then it was almost unforgivable that the Huskies opened the Pac-12 season at home by losing to a Washington State team that many predicted to finish either last or next to last in the conference.
Now tonight at 6 the Huskies face Oregon at home in a game that on paper looks like it will be a disastrous blowout loss. The Ducks are ranked No. 14 in the country in the Coaches’ Poll, have won 11 in a row and are coming off two big wins against two previously unbeaten teams ‑ UCLA that was ranked No. 2 in the country and is now No. 4 (Associated Press Poll) and USC ranked No. 25 (Associated Press Poll).
A casual observer of the Huskies would probably say three things about them: they don’t move well on offense, they have little to no inside game, and if they were asked how to spell defense most of them would want to know what that is.
This team is giving up 80 points a game. That ranks 315th in the country in NCAA D-1 among 351 schools. Wow, that is awful for a program that is in its 15th year under Romar. You would think by now that the program would be established and be rolling along as one of the great basketball powers, at least in the Pac-12, if not the country. But the program has not been to March Madness in the past six years after making six trips to the national tournament from 2004-2011.
Washington is an established school located in a beautiful setting in a wonderful city in the great Pacific Northwest, and the area is ripe with talented high school players.
So what is going wrong?
Why can’t Romar put five players on the court that can play defense, can play together and have at least one talented seven-footer that can protect the rim, score inside and outside and provide that inside game that is sadly missing?
I don’t know, either.
The difficult decision that Cohen will have to make sometime this year on Romar is complicated by the fact that he has hired as a coach close friend Michael Porter who has three talented sons, all of whom have transferred with him this year to play at Nathan Hale, a Seattle school that has lagged behind in high school basketball until this year when it hired former Washington great Brandon Roy to coach its team.
Roy, with the help of the three Porters – 6-9 Michael Porter Jr., a senior guard/forward, Jontay Porter, a 6-9 junior forward/center, and Coban Porter, a 6-2 freshman guard, has Nathan Hale ranked as the top team in the country by Xcellent 25 Writers’ Poll.
Both Michael Porter Jr. and Jontay Porter have verbally committed to play at Washington and when Cohen makes a decision on Romar might she not hesitate to axe him because of what the Porters might do?
Michael Porter Jr. is already considered one of the top players in the country, and his brothers have similar pedigree.
What would you do if you were in Cohen’s shoes? Fire or keep Romar? It’s not easy, is it? Keep him and the Porters arrive over the next two years and if they are surrounded by capable players maybe the program catches on fire and becomes what it should be – a nationally respected program.
You will be given the chance to ask Cohen yourself when she arrives in Bremerton on Jan. 25 to be the guest speaker for a 6 p.m. Kitsap Athletic Roundtable meeting that will be held at Kitsap Golf & Country Club.
Tickets are $25 if purchased before the meeting through Brownpapertickets.com/event2718215 or through Noah Garguile at (360) 731-6459 or noah.garguile@gmail.com. Otherwise, the tickets will cost you $30 at the door the night of the meeting.
It’s a beautiful day, although a bit chilly, so I think I will kick back a bit and try to recover some of my spirit moving forward. I haven’t seen my friend, the bald Eagle yet today, but I’m hoping it will show soon. Its arrival always brightens my day.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.