Huskies reach Sweet 16

[img1]SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- Before the season started, it was said that this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Washington men's basketball team. New faces were everywhere and old ones had left. Simply making the NCAA Tournament again was the modest goal.

But just as they had the two seasons before, the Huskies defied expectations. A rebuilding year morphed into a chance to take the program to the next level.

And the first stop was in San Diego.

Slated as a No. 5 seed in the Washington, D.C. region, the UW had to face the always-frisky Aggies of Utah State in the first round. Of the four 5-12 match-ups in the tournament, this was the one the media was picking to end in an upset.

"We had to come out here and play hard," senior guard Brandon Roy said after the game. "We think that seeds don't matter; it's about who comes out and plays hardest."

Even though it was able to keep the score close through most of the game, Utah State was no match for the determination of the Huskies. Roy scored 28 points on 11-19 shooting as Washington won 75-61.

"I'm proud of our team because they fought hard," coach Lorenzo Romar said. "[The Aggies] were a gritty, really good, well-coached basketball team, and we could not let up at any point in the game."

They had completed the first step on the trail for a return to the Sweet 16, but the next one loomed much larger than the Western Athletic Conference runner-up.

Illinois was last season's national runner-up.

Even with two NBA first round draft picks -- Deron Williams and Luther Head -- off the roster, the Illini were still a threat. Seniors Dee Brown and James Augustine had led the men from Champaign, Ill. to a second place finish in the Big Ten.

[img2]They were supposed to be a team that was too tough and too physical for Washington. Their inside game was going to be too much -- at least, it was supposed to be.

The Huskies used a pressing defense to show -- as they did against UCLA twice earlier in the season -- that, as they put it, "soft" is not a proper adjective for their style of play.

"You can't judge a season or a career on just one or two games," Romar said. "We had two games where we got out-toughed this year, and you can't manufacture toughness. If we didn't have it, then we don't win this game."

Washington jumped out to an early lead in the first half, but a big Illini run built them a lead as big as 11 in the second period.

But the Huskies kept fighting and clawed their way back. There weren't 10-point runs or shifts in momentum, just a group of guys who had been through the battles this season and knew their way to victory.

Washington won 67-64 when a Brown three at the buzzer fell short, and a rebuilding year turned into a season that dreams are made of.

Reach Daily reporter Ben Miller at [url='mailto:benmiller@thedaily.washington.edu']benmiller@thedaily.washington.edu[/url]