SAN DIEGO — Finally, at 7:37 Thursday night, after a bomb scare, after three other games had been played, after a day that felt like a long weekend, Brandon Roy led the Washington men's basketball team onto the Cox Pavilion floor.
It had been a day for patience. It had been much like the previous Thursday at the Pac-10 tournament in Los Angeles when the Huskies played the last game of the night and had to spend most of the day bivouacked in their hotel rooms while the rest of the country played basketball.
But this time the wait was unscheduled. This time there was the sense that something might be seriously wrong.
Briefly Thursday, the real world tried to crash the NCAA's party here. Reality intruded on the madness of this month. For much of the morning, news helicopters crowded over Cox. Fans milled outside in the sun unable to get into the site of the first round of the Washington, D.C., Regional.
At approximately 9:48 a.m., two hours before the first game's tipoff, two bomb-sniffing dogs detected a suspicious smell coming from a food vendor's cart on the pavilion's upper concourse.
The building, which hadn't yet been opened to the public, was evacuated. Bomb squads made their extensive sweeps. The two teams for the opener, Alabama and Marquette, were told to stay at their hotels.
"Man, I got scared real quick when I heard the news," Washington freshman guard Justin Dentmon said. "I've never been in a situation like this before."
Washington's Roy first heard about the threat in a text message from teammate Jamaal Williams after the team's breakfast.
"His message said there was a bomb," Roy said. "And I thought, 'Whoa, is that a bomb or a bomb threat?' I called Coach [Lorenzo] Romar, and he hadn't heard about it yet. I just said to myself, 'This is the NCAA tournament. Please don't let there be a bomb.' This is our biggest stage, and we want to make sure we can play on it.
"We were a little upset, but we were actually anxious if they were going to allow us to play. But once we heard Alabama was allowed in the gym, we were like, 'Cool, we're going to be allowed to play.' "
The threat pushed Washington's game with Utah State, which was supposed to start at 6:40 p.m., to 8:01. When he got the new schedule, Romar did what all good coaches do. He shrugged off the inconvenience, moved the team meal back an hour and prepared a little longer.
When the game finally started, it looked as sluggish as it felt. At the first media timeout, with 15:51 left in the half, Washington led 2-0. Utah State wanted to make the game slow and ugly, but this was ridiculous. The Aggies opened the game 0 for 5 with four turnovers.
But after the timeout, Romar found an answer. He inserted Williams, and Utah State couldn't find a way to stop his unorthodox variety of jump hooks and short jumpers. Williams was the early offensive force, coming off the bench to score eight of Washington's first 13 points. He finished with 15 points.
Methodically, but insistently, Washington made the game uncomfortable. Almost every Aggies pass was contested. Utah State's best shooter, Jaycee Carroll, received the ball in unfamiliar places and positions.
The difference in the game? Washington had 17 points off turnovers in the first half. Utah State had none.
The 75-61 win wasn't pretty, but this wasn't a day for pretty.
Last week, an alert was issued after the FBI spotted a nonspecific terrorist threat on a Web posting. According to the FBI, the targets of the threat were sports venues.
This is life post-Sept. 11. Every threat is taken seriously. Every suspicious smell is investigated.
"It's weird times," Roy said. "It's unfortunate, but we're just happy they took the right steps to make sure everybody was safe and allowed us to get out here and play basketball."
Life, as we are reminded daily, is different in the 21st century. Sports aren't always the great escapes we wish for. Uncertainty is a certainty. All of us cope with these new realities.
"It [the delay] was a little bit of a distraction," Marquette freshman guard Dominic James said. "We just waited it out."
The Huskies waited even longer. But after a troublesome 10 minutes, they found cracks in Utah State's 2-3 zone. Roy slithered and slalomed to the basket to score 28 points. He was too strong with the ball.
The Huskies played smothering defense, forcing 22 turnovers. They stayed poised through the early sloppiness. Washington was tougher than Utah State.
On this long, dog-day afternoon and evening, the Huskies did what they came here to do. They advanced.
Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com
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