Romar inspires UW's stars at halftime

Before they left the locker room and took the floor for the second half, coach Lorenzo Romar grabbed his three leaders — Justin Dentmon, Jon Brockman and Quincy Pondexter — tugged hard on their uniform shirts and stared into their faces.

Romar wasn't happy with the way his team had played in the first half. There was too little energy. Too many mistakes.

In front of the home fans, with so much riding on the game, the Huskies were playing as if beating Arizona was their birthright. Now, after a ho-hum half, they trailed 36-32.

"We've come too far to play like this," Romar told his three captains. "You have a chance to win the conference outright. You have a chance to leave a legacy."

And then the coach's throat caught. The words that meant so much to him felt stuck in his chest. Finally he told his team leaders, "I believe in you."

"The fire he got in his eyes was amazing." said Pondexter after Washington survived another Saturday, 83-78 over the Wildcats. "It felt like I was in a movie because of all the passion he had in him. I'm going to think about that moment down through the years and through time. I mean, I just love the dude."

And in the final 15 minutes of a nervous afternoon, the Huskies showed their love for their coach by playing the way they are supposed to play.

They finally got into the teeth of 'Zona's zone. They were quicker to loose balls. They dominated the offensive glass and they knocked Arizona's guards off the ball.

After playing inexplicably soft and falling behind 58-48, they played 12 tsunami-like minutes. They awoke a slumberous Edmundson Pavilion crowd and clinched a tie for the Pac-10 regular-season championship.

"You'd run through a brick wall for him," senior Brockman said of Romar. "He gives us an unbelievable amount of confidence and an unbelievable amount of trust.

"He gives us freedom out there to make plays, and when you have that and when you have someone behind you who you know believes in you and cares for you as a person and wants the best for you no matter what, you're going to work your butt off for him."

The grumbling began last season. For the second year in a row the Huskies hadn't made the NCAA tournament. And after a loss at home to Valparaiso in something called the CBI tournament, the Huskies finished 16-17. The love affair between Huskies boosters and Romar felt strained.

Critics said he had made those three straight NCAA tournament trips with his predecessor Bob Bender's players. They said play didn't get better under him. And they questioned why one-time blue-chip recruits Adrian Oliver and Phil Nelson transferred.

He came into this season with a team picked to finish in the middle of the Pac-10 and a fan base demanding a trip to the NCAA tournament.

This season he has answered the critics. He has won big with his players. He has validated his status at Washington.

"He exudes character that, over the long haul, always wins out," assistant coach Cameron Dollar said. "When I think of him I think of the Pittsburgh Steelers when they had Bill Cowher.

"They had those years when you'd hear a few rumblings around him, but he was always who he was and they kept plugging along. And in the end, he got what everybody wanted. He got a Super Bowl championship."

The criticisms of Romar are bunk.

"Coach has taken a boy from Fresno, California, who had a lot of potential and has made him into a much better person, on and off the court," Pondexter said. "I'm living proof that players get better. It might not be as fast as people want it to be, but slow and steady wins the race."

The team has improved collectively and individually. The Huskies are 22-7, headed for their fourth NCAA tournament trip in Romar's seven seasons.

Romar has coached with a perfect mixture of passion and patience.

He has done a remarkable job of rallying his team from a 2-3 start, of staying with senior Dentmon and junior Pondexter through their growing pains, and toughening his players the way he toughened Brandon Roy, Will Conroy and Tre Simmons.

And despite stiff competition from Oregon State's Craig Robinson and California's Mike Montgomery, Romar deserves to be the conference's coach of the year.

"Usually with coaches, as they get older they get mellower," Dollar said. "But he's kind of been the opposite. That fire and that passion and that intensity has churned and churned and is coming out even more. It's just fun to see it."

Romar walked through the curtains, back onto the court for his postgame radio interview, and the long lingering fans started chanting his name, "Romar, Romar, Romar."

The grumbling is done.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com