Lorenzo Romar wants to hit the reboot button.

Rather than enjoy Washington's 9-2 start and first-place position in the Pac-12 standings, he's continuing to push the Huskies as they prepare for arguably the toughest conference road trip this season at Oregon and Oregon State.

"We were were hopeful that we could be in this situation knowing that we're going to have the toughest stretch of our conference ahead of us with five of seven games on the road," Romar said Monday on his weekly radio show. "It kind of worked out to where we were able to get into that position. We're pretty excited about it, but now it seems like we have to start all over again.

"A championship is within striking distance, but we can come back next week ... and be in a different situation. We understand that. That's why we're going to get after it in practice this week and get after it when we go down to Oregon."

Washington started 9-2 only once before under Romar and in 2004-05 the Huskies finished second the Pac-10 with a 14-4 record. Arizona won the regular-season title at 15-3.

MORE FROM ROMAR:

--- Romar said sophomore guard C.J. Wilcox who is recovering from a stress fracture in his left leg has been cleared to do more in practice. Last week, he was limited to 50 jumpers in practice. Romar hopes Wilcox is able to practice in March when the Huskies play in the Pac-12 Tournament.

--- Romar credited UW's field goal percentage defense inside the arc and on three-pointers for its success during the Pac-12 season. He said the team's chemistry has improved, players are more committed to playing team defense, they're sharing the basketball more and some players have matured.

--- Romar said freshman guard Tony Wroten Jr. played his "best floor game and smartest game" against USC when he had 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting, six rebounds, eight assists and just one turnover in 29 minutes.

Wroten has improved as a defender and is boxing out more which has allowed him to earn the respect from teammates, Romar said.

--- Romar credited assistant Paul Fortier for working with UW's big men who have improved recently.

--- Romar said he's not taking anything for granted in terms of what it will take to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament.

"We're going to assume that we have to win as many games as we can," he said. "I know we don't have a whole lot go great wins to boast of as a conference in our non-conference games so the way we're approaching it is, we just have to - I hate to say it - take one game at a time and see how good we can get here in the next 3-4 weeks so that it may be possible (to win) a league championship or a conference tournament championship.

"We're not a point where we can depend on anyone else. We just have to assume we have to win as many games as possible."