Romar's fashion statement

If Washington ends up figuring out how to jell on the basketball floor – if it salvages its season with an NCAA Tournament bid – an unlikely prop will be remembered: The suit coat of coach Lorenzo Romar.

A shooting slump had brought the Huskies down and nearly out Sunday against Washington State when guard Terrence Ross was whistled for a charging foul. From his angle on the sideline, Romar determined Ross’ layup to be clean.

Besides, given all the rim clanging at Alaska Airlines Arena, the Huskies weren’t in position to surrender legitimate points. They threw up – pun intended – 31 shots in the first half, of which nine dropped through the net. At the moment of Ross’ charging foul, with 12 minutes, 16 seconds remaining in the game, Washington trailed 45-37.

It couldn’t have been easy for Romar to watch the far less talented Cougars maintain control with a zone defense that seemed to get inside the Huskies’ heads, and when Ross picked up his third foul, Mount LoRo eruped.

He screamed, and clenched his fist, and when neither got the attention of the officials, he attempted to take off his suit coat, presumably for something to throw at them.

But he couldn’t extract his arms from the sleeves. Still, a coach who wanders onto the floor with his arms stuck in his coat-sleeves is going to technical foul.

It’s impossible to quantify the extent that technical aroused the Huskies, but the correlation between Romar’s tantrum and his team’s comeback can’t be denied. Washington went on a 15-2 run after Faisel Aiden’s free throws pushed the Cougars lead to 47-37.

Everything – from the boisterous mood of the crowd to WSU’s sudden lapse of confidence – changed with the shrill sound of a whistle.

“It seemed like the officials were against us,” senior Darnell Gant said after the Huskies’ 75-65 victory. “Adversity like that was creeping up on us. It was time to do what we got to do to get back in the game and try to get a win.”

While Romar wouldn’t admit his tirade was driven by ulterior motives, he didn’t deny that the timing was appropriate.

“Sometimes you just have to defend your team, especially when it’s scrapping and playing hard,” he said. “And if that means that sometimes officials are upset at you, that’s the way it is.”

The sequence was particularly pivotal for Ross, who finished the first half with shooting numbers that were dreadful across the board: 1-for-9 overall; 1-for-5 from behind the three-point arc; 1-for-4 from the free throw line.

“That one play made me angry,” said Ross, a sophomore of transcendent talent whose only hole in his game is an occasional reluctance to assert his aggressiveness. “And when they called the technical, it added fuel to the fire.

“I usually try to keep my composure, but I know that when I get angry, I can get balling.”

Suddenly, the same guy who couldn’t hit a thing in the first half couldn’t miss. The shots weren’t textbook, merely the results.

“These were not all good shots,” said Romar, “but they were good shots for him. It’s like when you tell kids: ‘don’t try this at home.’’’

Ross finished with a career-high 30 points, thanks to a 5-for-7 second-half effort from the 3-point line.

“We needed to fight with everything we had,” he said. “And we did that by changing the game around with our defense.”

Romar’s core philosophy is that offense begins with defense, and that philosophy was underscored during the second-half rally. The effort the Huskies applied on one end of the floor supplied them energy on the other end of the floor.

“Our defense sparked our offense,” said Romar. “I think it loosened our mind a little against that zone.”

Still, it was the technical foul called on Romar that rescued Huskies from their funk, reminding them that they were taking a beating in their home, in front of their fans.

For what it’s worth, Ross didn’t witness the tantrum that turned around a game, and possibly salvaged a season. “Nah,” he said. “By the time I saw him, he was fixing himself up.”

John.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com