Counselors specializing in anger-management cases might want to clear their calendars this week. Disgruntled University of Washington basketball fans might be calling.
It was bad enough that the UW bowed out of the NCAA Women’s Tournament on Friday and that defections from a much-heralded recruiting class following the firing of men’s coach Lorenzo Romar has left new head coach Mike Hopkins scrambling to pick up the pieces.
But Husky boosters also had to witness two arch-enemies — Gonzaga and Oregon — advance to the men’s Final Four with regional victories on Saturday.
Oregon’s win over Midwest Regional favorite Kansas was undeniably an upset. Despite its top seeding in the West, Gonzaga’s first-ever trip to the Final Four was a surprise to some observers.
Despite his 9-22 record this season and a six-year NCAA tourney drought, Romar’s dismissal was arguably a bigger surprise. The veteran coach had landed what was widely regarded as the best-ever incoming freshman class in school history, led by prospective superstar Michael Porter Jr. Following Romar’s firing, Porter and at least two other members of that class will almost certainly play elsewhere next season.
As a UW alum, I credit athletic director Jen Cohen for making a gutsy call to put long-term gain ahead of short-term pain in electing to dismiss Romar. Nevertheless, it’s only natural to wonder what might have been.
It’s a little like a nondescript single man or woman finding that an arranged date with their favorite movie star was broken at the last minute. The odds were against the date meeting expectations, but not many people would pass up the opportunity.
Romar’s assets and shortcomings have been well-documented. He was an excellent recruiter and an even better representative of the university — the latter a quality that is too often overlooked.
In nearly every other aspect of the job (the teaching of fundamentals, game strategy and preparation and the motivation and retention of players), the UW could have done better.
Although many past and present Huskies professed loyalty to Romar, they served him poorly in recent years with early defections to the pros and other colleges, not to mention inconsistent effort. Despite the presence of stellar freshman guard Markelle Fultz, the Dawgs didn’t figure to be Pac-12 title contenders this season. But they turned a potentially mediocre campaign into an awful one by frequently appearing to sleepwalk through games.
Because of his recruiting success and loyalty to the program, I’ve gone back and forth over Romar’s status for several years before posing one question: Could Romar take a title-caliber team to at least the Final Four?
I don’t think so. It’s doubtful, for example, that Romar would have even bothered to recruit several of Mark Few’s key Gonzaga players. Nor have the Huskies traditionally possessed the late-game grit and defensive intensity possessed by Dana Altman’s Oregon teams.
Romar’s reputation as a defensive wizard during his UW glory years is based on what the Trump Administration might term “alternate facts.” In other words, it’s fiction.
While many of his teams registered gaudy numbers in steals and blocked shots, they’ve been far less impressive in the more vital defensive statistic of points allowed. The quintessential Romar-coached game came last November, when the Dawgs blocked a school-record 15 shots — and still gave up 98 points in a home loss to Yale.
That’s why I don’t believe that, had Cohen maintained the status quo into next season, even a super-talented Husky team would have made a deep NCAA tournament run. Eventually, the Huskies would have run into an opponent that would have dropped 90-95 points on them. That’s generally a losing number in the Big Dance.
As for those clubs still dancing, many teams (including the Seattle Seahawks) overplay the “We don’t get any respect” card from the national media. It truly applies, however, to Gonzaga.
Naysayers contend that the Zags were lucky to receive a top seed in the West Regional and benefited from an obvious missed goaltending call that curbed a Northwestern rally in the second round. They were similarly fortunate, in the opinion of some, that West Virginia missed three game-tying shots in an exceptionally disorganized final possession in the Sweet 16 and that Xavier removed Arizona from their path in what would have been an Elite Eight match-up.
Those accusations aren’t entirely false, but they ignore some key points. Gonzaga already owned a neutral-court victory over Arizona this season. And when opponents shoot less than 30 percent from the field in two consecutive tournament games, as West Virginia and Xavier did against the Zags, it’s a pretty good indication that defense is a factor.
Say what you will about the team’s size and the floor leadership of All-American point guard Nigel Williams-Goss (a transfer, of course, from Washington), the biggest difference between this Gonzaga club and the ones that couldn’t get over the Elite Eight hump is found on the defensive end. In the past, the Zags couldn’t get enough stops to consistently beat high-quality opponents in the tournament. This year, they can.
To his credit, Mark Few learned from past experiences. Had Lorenzo Romar done the same, he probably would have coached his dream team at Washington next season.
Rick Anderson: (360) 537-3924; randerson@thedailyworld.com
