Dancing with fate: a history of UW tournament appearances

The 1996 UCLA Bruins entered the NCAA tournament optimistic of making another Final Four run, and maybe even winning a repeat national title, after ripping through the Pac-10 at 16-2.

On Selection Sunday, Bruins players and coaches — including an assistant named Lorenzo Romar — gathered to watch the unveiling of the brackets. They watched as UCLA received a No. 4 seed, which meant they could have been matched up against teams such as Montana State, Monmouth or Canisius, all No. 13 seeds that went down easily.

Instead, as Romar said with a resigned tone, "We got Princeton." And what ensued was one of the most memorable upsets in NCAA tournament history as the Tigers and coach Pete Carril beat the Bruins 43-41.

Such are the vagaries of the NCAA tournament, where fate and luck can play a big role in a team's success.

The Romar-coached Washington Huskies are feeling heady today in the wake of their program's first No. 1 seed. But most of what that does is likely get them past the first round. After that, anything can happen, as the Huskies have found out before.

"It's a funny thing," said former UW coach Marv Harshman. "There are so many things that can happen. You've got to be good, but you also have to have things fall into place."

Those are lessons the Huskies have learned, sometimes painfully, in their NCAA tournament experience.

Since the tournament expanded in 1975 to include teams other than just conference champions, UW has been invited seven times. Five times the Huskies were bounced in their first game, including 102-100 to Alabama-Birmingham last year. Twice UW has made it to the Sweet 16, the farthest the Huskies have advanced since the 1953 Final Four team.

"You've got to be lucky to get in certain brackets," Harshman said, recalling the 1976 team led by James Edwards, Clarence Ramsey and Chester Dorsey that earned the school's first NCAA tournament berth since 1953.

Washington was sent to the Midwest Region in Kansas City, where it had to face Missouri, a nice advantage for the Tigers in terms of familiarity. Even more frustrating for UW, Texas Tech was in the other bracket — the same Red Raiders team UW had beaten 83-61 a few months earlier.

Harshman and UW players on that team insist today that if they had drawn Tech, they would have easily advanced. Instead, the Huskies lost to Missouri by two, falling apart down the stretch, thanks in part to foul trouble.

"That's part of the luck, matchups and all that," Harshman said.

Eight years later, UW made it back to the NCAAs behind Detlef Schrempf, Christian Welp and Paul Fortier.

This time, fate smiled when the brackets were announced as the Huskies were sent to Pullman, generally not the most friendly site for UW but this time, seemingly perfect.

UW had good memories of Pullman, having clinched the Pac-10 title there eight days earlier, and held something of a home-court advantage with plenty of fans able to make the trip.

UW beat Nevada-Reno easily in the first round and then met Duke, the first Mike Krzyzewski-coached Blue Devils team to make it to the tournament. Spurred in part by the boisterous crowd that was overwhelmingly pro-UW — as well as a critical timing decision late that went their way — the Huskies beat Duke 80-78 to advance to the Sweet 16.

"It helped going to Pullman," Harshman said. "Our kids knew that court."

The Huskies then lost to Dayton at Pauley Pavilion, preventing a matchup with the Patrick Ewing Georgetown team that would win it all in the regional final.

The Huskies again won a share of the Pac-10 the next season with Welp and Schrempf leading the way once more, and on Selection Sunday — in the first year the tournament included 64 teams — they received a No. 5 seed. Among the No. 12 seeds that UW could have drawn as an opponent were Old Dominion, Miami-Ohio and Pittsburgh, none of whom made it past the first round.

But the Huskies instead got Kentucky, which had had a subpar year but still had players like future lottery pick Kenny Walker and Winston Bennett, who had helped lead the Wildcats to the Final Four the year before. Kentucky won 66-58 and advanced to the Sweet 16.

"That was a real blow," Harshman said of what turned out to be his last game. "I felt we were the better team, but it was one of those things where we didn't play a very good game."

After another first-round exit in 1986, the Huskies didn't return to the tournament again until 1998. It was a Huskies team that barely slipped into the tournament at 18-9.

"I think we were the last team to get in," said Eric Hughes, an assistant on that team who is now head coach at Spokane Falls Community College.

Not much was really expected.

But the Huskies, who were a No. 11 seed, beat Xavier 69-68 in the first round when the Musketeers missed two shots in the final seconds.

The Huskies then played Richmond, a No. 14 seed that had upset No. 3 South Carolina in the first round.

"Their tallest guy was 6-8," Hughes said. "They just weren't very big."

A perfect matchup for the Huskies to exploit the size of Todd MacCulloch inside. The 7-footer responded with 31 points and 18 rebounds as the Huskies easily advanced to the Sweet 16 with an 81-66 win.

Feeling confident and loose, the Huskies then almost beat UConn in the next round before losing 75-74 on Richard Hamilton's put-back at the buzzer.

The Huskies made it back to the tournament the next year with a similar record and a higher seed — No. 7. But this time, the Huskies were expected to win, which Hughes said made a difference.

"When you get to the NCAA tournament, you are more nervous about the teams you are supposed to beat than playing the giants," Hughes said.

The Huskies played like it, allowing Wally Szczerbiak to score 43 points and become a household name, then missing a winning shot at the end and falling to the Red Hawks 59-58.

Back in the tournament last year, the Huskies again got the misfortune to get matched up against another Cinderella — Alabama-Birmingham — which beat UW and then Kentucky to advance to the Sweet 16.

Now the Huskies are back in the tournament again with their best record in 52 years, but knowing that their fate may really rest with, well, fate.