Season is Over for Washington Hoops

Well, I'm not here to tell people that the North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the Washington Huskies 86-83 on Sunday and the Huskies season is over. I'm not going to recap the game and tell people that the Huskies screwed up and they should have won. I'm not going to explain all that stuff as I would do in a normal recap. I'm not going to do that because we all know what happened on Sunday morning. We lost and it was the same old story every year. The Washington Huskies didn't execute when it mattered the most and they lost.

As Seattle sports fans we all have been down this road before. We have been down this road way too many times. Year after year after year. Yet, when the calender flips to what ever season it is we just get too excited and forget about what has happened in the past. It happens every year and most of the time it's not the refs fault. It's ours.

I think that we do get way too excited for our sports teams year after year after year. Who remembers how excited we were for baseball season last year? I was really excited and after the Mariners got good pitching and timely hitting on opening night last night it was silly of me to think that team was going to the playoffs after opening night against the Oakland Athletics. Do you remember how excited you were for Huskies football this year? I thought this team would find away to do some damage in the Pac 10. After the Huskies opening drive against BYU I thought this team would be amazing. However, almost three hours later a 23-17 loss to BYU I thought that this team would win like four games. Fortunately, for Huskies fans. Jake Locker, Chris Polk and Mason Foster  saved the Huskies from a disastrous season. Lastly, do you remember how excited you felt about the Husky hoops season starting? Hearing all the hype and the buzz about the team gave me the butterflies. Yet like most of our teams, they seem to underachieve and we end up being disappointed by the way the season finished.

At what point is this losing going to turn around. When it comes to my sports teams they have been losers all my life except for a few good years. The loss on Sunday morning just added salt into the wounds of die hard Seattle sports fans. We should have known darn well that this team was never going to the Final 4 or even the Elite 8. The team showed signs of being a great team but on the flip side this team was way too inconsistent to ever go far in this years tournament.

 In addition, Sunday's loss to UNC puts the Huskies in an awkward position. Even though I think Romar is a bad coach, he actually is a great coach. The reason why I think he is a bad coach is because there are countless times during the season where this team fails to preform to their potential. Some of the bad execution and losses to teams they should beat have to be put on the coach. In contrast, the Huskies have made the NCAA Tournament six of the nine years he has been the coach so he has to be doing something right.   In his nine years of coaching the Huskies Coach Romar has a record of 186-98 (655. winning percentage.) In Pac 10 play he is 84-53 (613. wining percentage). Those numbers are really good. The previous coach Mr. Bob Bender coached from 1993 to 2002. He had a record of 116-142 in his time at UW.  (450. wining percentage.) In Pac 10 play he had a record of 63-99. (389. wining percentage).

Just because Romar breaks our hearts three or four times a year it doesn't mean he needs to be fired. Huskies fans seem to forget how bad it was before Romar got here. That could be because the Huskies had to share the sports section of the paper with the Seattle Sonics. Since the Sonics have left have left the Huskies are on the front page of the Seattle Times.com everyday. The fans want more because they come up short every year.

That being said I hope the Huskies offer Bruce Pearl an assistant coaching job. Lorenzo Romar is a great coach but has no idea what to do in a game. The Huskies offense this year consisted of four passes and a three point shot with 20 seconds on the shot clock. Romar could use some much need help with X's and O's. Bruce Pearl is a well known coach around College Basketball and could help us. The only down side is he did cause some violations at Tennessee and had to serve an eight game suspension because of it. Am I dreaming or is this a possibility?

The bottom line is it is heartbreaking but it could be worse. So many BCS conference teams would love to have their program where Washington is right now. Yet Washington is not even close to being up their with the big boys like Duke, UNC, Uconn, Kentucky and Kanas. If the Huskies want to be in that category they will certainly have to get to the Final Four one of these years.

As for the team moving forward, this team will be fine. Next year will have amazing guards and below average posts. The team will still have a good bench and will also have a good mix of Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores and Freshmen. Abdul Gaddy will come back next year and if we could ever get a big guy that actually knew how to go up strong to the hoop this team will be very good next year. If our big guys don't improve then the team will be good, but not very good.