SEATTLE -- Brandon Roy was contemplating jumping from high
school to the NBA in the spring of 2002 when his father, Tony,
started discussing the merits of playing for his hometown
University of Washington instead.
It was a tough case to make. Washington coach Bob Bender had
just been fired after his third consecutive losing season. And
unknown entity Lorenzo Romar was on his way in from Saint Louis to
try to resuscitate the Huskies.
"He told me, 'Duke had to start somewhere. Why not help
Washington?" Roy recalled his father saying.
Washington doesn't need help any more.
Just three years after Roy took his father's suggestion to
heart, the senior and his Huskies are entering Duke's elite
national level. Roy said Washington was "disrespected" last month
when it was unranked in the preseason. Now the Huskies (8-0) are
ranked 11th and off to their best start in 30 years.
This comes one season after they finished 29-6, won their first
Pac-10 Conference tournament championship and became a No. 1 seed
in the NCAA tournament for the first time.
They lost three starters from that team -- including the often
astounding Nate Robinson -- yet are ranked higher than they were
entering last March's postseason.
"It is mind-boggling," said Roy, Robinson's successor as team
leader. "To actually see all the hard work that you have done pay
off, to see the program where it is today, it's incredible."
The pressing, run-and-gun Huskies lead the nation with a 96.4
points-per-game scoring average. Their 81-71 win last Saturday over
New Mexico in the Wooden Classic was their lowest scoring output of
the season.
It was also closer than usual. They have won by an national-best
average of 26.5 points, even though they start two freshmen: point
guard Justin Dentmon and forward Jon Brockman.
Washington has done this without playing a true road game away
from Hec Edmundson Pavilion, where it owns the nation's longest
home winning streak of 29 games. The only one of its 11
non-conference games outside Seattle was Saturday's at the quiet
neutral court of Anaheim's Arrowhead Pond.
Romar isn't as surprised about his team as the rest of the
country may be.
"Not being arrogant at all, but being realistic, I'd be more
surprised if we lost two or three," Romar said.
As senior forward Bobby Jones said: "We feel we can't lose at
home."
Especially while playing only one ranked team outside of the
Pac-10 -- No. 10 Gonzaga. Washington beat the Zags in a 99-95
thriller Dec. 4. The rest of the non-conference lineup has included
or will include not-so-mighty Morgan State, American, Idaho,
Eastern Washington and Cornell.
But Romar isn't about to say "sorry" for a schedule that has
helped him develop Dentmon, Brockman and freshman post man Artem
Wallace. It has also allowed the discovery of an inside scoring
force in Jamaal Williams (averaging 14.9 points per game, second to
Roy's 16.1), a 3-point shooting whiz in sophomore transfer Ryan
Appleby (45 percent from long range) and an unexpected scoring and
rebounding boost in reserve Hans Gasser.
The Huskies have nine players averaging at least 14 minutes of
playing time per game.
"I mean, Syracuse does it every year," Romar said of the cozy
early schedule. "It is not uncommon for major teams of the
high-powered conferences to play many games at home. It's just new
for us.
"We didn't set out to say, 'Every game is at home and let's
play only one team that is in the Top 25," he said. A game
planned against North Carolina fell through when Bremerton, Wash.,
native Tar Heel Marvin Williams entered the NBA last summer. "But
the way it worked out, I wouldn't change it."
Yet Romar knows the nation may be generously assessing his
still-developing Huskies.
"Maybe it gives you an unrealistic feel for where you are at
this point," he said.
That feel may soon get even smoother.
After Washington plays Eastern Washington (4-3) Friday, Lehigh
(5-6) visits seven days later. That is when the Huskies are
expecting senior forward Mike Jensen to play for the first time
this season. The three-year starter has been out since September
surgery on a dislocated left shoulder.
The conference tests begin Dec. 29 at home against Arizona
State, which lost at home to Utah Valley State last weekend. No. 24
Arizona comes to Seattle Dec. 31.
Until then, Roy is enjoying the ride.
"We know the Pac-10 is going to be different," Roy said. "I
keep telling the young guys, 'Trust me, it's not going to be that
easy."