Will the Lorenzo Romar era finally come to an end with the Washington Huskies headed for another disappointing season?
After landing arguably the top recruit in program history, Lorenzo Romar and the Washington Huskies had high hopes of returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years entering the 2016-17 season.
The Huskies beat out the likes of Louisville and Arizona for the commitment of phenom point guard Markelle Fultz, who is well on his way to being a lottery pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Fultz will soon join Marquese Chriss, Dejounte Murray, Terrence Ross, C.J. Wilcox and Isaiah Thomas as Huskies who made the jump to the NBA in recent seasons after playing under Romar.
While Fultz has lived up to the hype, the Huskies are headed towards another tournament miss with a record of 8-7 that includes a home loss to Washington State and destruction at the hands of rival Gonzaga. Barring a miracle run through the Pac-12 Tournament, the Huskies won’t come close to making the NIT by the end of the year.
Even when factoring in the 2012 team, which was snubbed from the tournament after winning the conference regular season crown, that’s too many postseason misses in a row to justify for a Power Five program. After15 years, it’s time for the Huskies to move on from the best coach in their program’s history.
Romar’s largely strong teams between 2003 and 2011 also had future NBA players like Brandon Roy and Nate Robinson, but found success through other means. At their best, the Huskies played tough, physical defense while forcing a lot of turnovers to feed into a hyper-fast offense that dominated in transition.
Over the past three years, Washington’s defense has been absolutely woeful, and this year’s team ranks 224th in the nation in defensive efficiency with 1.027 points allowed per possession. Romar’s defensive philosophy boils down to “switch everything,” which more disciplined and experienced teams can easily take advantage of.
The Huskies and Romar have tried to copy the success of Kentucky and Duke in the one-and-done era without much success. Washington expected to have at least one of Murray or Chriss this season which has obviously hurt the team, but just about every returning player from last year’s team has regressed. Noah Dickerson, Malik Dime and others are far too talented to look lost on the defensive end in their second year at Washington, a direct indictment of Romar’s ability to develop.
Next year’s recruiting class looks like the best in school history, with five-star forward Michael Porter Jr. leading the way. At this point, bringing in one-and-dones doesn’t matter at all if the Huskies finish well out of tournament contention every year, so it’s time to move in a different direction, even if it means losing Porter Jr. and company.
This is the first full basketball season under new athletic director Jennifer Cohen, who may be more willing to pull the trigger on a new coach then the previous administration. While Washington isn’t a destination job, the Huskies should be able to land a solid up-and-coming coach like Matt McCall, or could turn to local talent like Will Conroy.
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Romar could likely find a job in the mid-major ranks if he wanted, and there will probably be a place for him in the Washington administration one day. While Romar brought the Huskies to new heights and is a terrific ambassador for the university, Washington needs to make a change.