Coach Lorenzo Romar, Huskies have built a winner at Washington

Many years from now, we might look at this past decade of Washington men's basketball and remember it as the Golden Age the way old-timers reminisce about Huskies hoops in the 1930s, '40s and '50s.

No one thought that would have been possible 10 years ago.

Back then, the Huskies were starting another forgettable season under coach Bob Bender. They finished the 1999-2000 season tied for eighth in the Pac-10 and were 10-20 overall.

Washington started this decade with another 10-20 record in the 2000-01 season, and finished tied for last in the conference.

The next season, UW improved just one game in the win total, and in coach Lorenzo Romar's first season the Huskies posted a 10-17 mark in 2002-03.

"Personally, it's extremely gratifying to be a part of the change here because this school has meant so much to me," said Romar, who played two seasons at UW from 1978-80. "But the way we started, shoot, I don't know. It didn't look too good there for a while."

Looking back, the turning point might have been a 103-99 overtime win at Oregon State on Jan. 17, 2004.

The Huskies began the Pac-10 season 0-5 and were down 16 to the Beavers in Corvallis, Ore., with six minutes left before Nate Robinson took over.

Robinson engineered a late-game rally and made a three-pointer at the buzzer in regulation to force overtime.

It was the first of 13 wins in 16 games for the Huskies, who made the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years.

The strong finish in 2003-04 set the stage for following season, when Washington went 29-6, won the Pac-10 tournament title and received a No. 1 seed in the 2005 NCAA tournament.

The next season, the Huskies rose to No. 7 in the polls and returned to the Sweet 16.

The program dipped for a couple of seasons before winning the school's first outright Pac-10 title in 2008-09.

Romar, who has a 154-83 record at UW, said Bender's final recruiting class helped change the basketball culture on Montlake.

"You had some kids that saw a vision — Brandon Roy, Nate Robinson, Will Conroy, Mike Jensen — those guys that stayed the course," he said. "They saw that maybe Washington, if they stayed right here, could be pretty special. And they did that.

"When you have basketball players like that, you've got some others that want to share that vision with you. I can't leave out Tre Simmons, who is from here also, and a guy like Bobby Jones, who decided, 'Hey, I want to come along and be alongside these guys.' "

The team's success attracted high-profile in-state recruits. First Jon Brockman, then Spencer Hawes, Isaiah Thomas and Abdul Gaddy.

"The students, the administration, got behind us and really supported what we were trying to do," Romar said. "And that in turn, I thought, leaked over to the community. People really got behind this program to where, I remember, we won 32 straight games at home. A lot of that had to do with the energy that this place provided in here."

The Huskies have compiled 175 wins this decade, which is third in the 107-year history of the program. During the 1940s, UW won 185 games and 181 in the '30s.

With conference play set to begin Thursday against Oregon State, Washington could win more games in a decade than any other team. The Huskies could also make their sixth postseason appearance, which be a school record for a decade.

"That just speaks to coach Romar and what he's built here," senior forward Quincy Pondexter said. "And it's only going to get better and better."

Romar is cautiously optimistic about the next 10 years.

"Hopefully we can sustain the success we've had in this decade and keep it at a minimum where it is now and hopefully improve upon it," he said. "It's always a day-to-day battle to continue to recruit, to continue to keep your program afloat and going in the right direction.

"I can't say, 'Washington basketball is here to stay. It's over.' You always have to keep working."

Notes

• Thomas tweaked his ankle in Sunday's game and has missed the past two days of workouts. He was unsure if he'd practice Wednesday, but said he expects to play Thursday when No. 17 Washington (9-2) hosts Oregon State (6-5) in the Pac-10 opener.

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com