Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar is one of the best and worst coaches at the same time.
Five of the past seven No. 1 overall picks in the NBA Draft came from Kansas, Kentucky or Duke, otherwise known as the blue bloods of college basketball because of their longtime success.
If Markelle Fultz gets drafted No. 1 overall like many people expect, he’d be leading arguably the worst team to ever produce the top pick.
Fultz’s ridiculous averages of 22 points, 6.3 assists, 6.2 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.3 blocks per game are evidently not the reason for Washington’s 7-5 record. But it does encapsulate Lorenzo Romar‘s coaching career at Washington in a nutshell.
Under Romar, Washington has sent 15 players to the NBA and eight are currently still on an NBA roster, which tied for 12th-most heading into the 2016-17 season.
The Huskies are tied with Michigan State, which routinely makes at least one Final Four appearance every four years, LSU and Texas.
Despite seemingly producing first-round NBA talent every year, Washington continues to be a bottom-dweller in the Pac-12. They haven’t finished higher than fifth in the Pac-12 since 2011-12 or made the NCAA Tournament since 2010-11.
Of course, having one star player for their required collegiate year isn’t going to bring in multiple championships, as Kentucky who continues to add multiple five-star recruits under John Calipari only has one title under him, but it should bring more success than Romar has experienced, especially since he’s produced nine first-round picks since the 2006.
Plus, there are years Washington has multiple future NBA players on their roster. In 2010-11, when Washington made it to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament, they had four future NBA players on their roster — Isaiah Thomas, C.J. Wilcox, Tony Wroten and Terrence Ross.
They still had Wroten and Ross for one more year after, and Wilcox for four, before last season when first round picks Marquese Chriss and Dejounte Murray led the Huskies.
Despite unbelievable talent every year outside of 2013-14, the Huskies never grew and lost at least 15 games in each of their past four seasons.
Having good players but failing to grow as a team is the perfect way to sum up Romar’s coaching career at Washington. In 14 seasons, he has made just six NCAA tournaments and is 296-179, a .623 winning percentage.
It would make sense if Romar developed players into NBA talent like he did with Isaiah Thomas, who is now an All-Star point guard for the Boston Celtics but was a mere three-star recruit coming out of high school.
However, as seen in Chriss, Murray and now Fultz, Romar is simply a great recruiter … but a terrible in-game coach.
From 2015-17, only Washington, Duke, Louisville, Arizona and Kentucky have had multiple top-seven recruiting classes.
Even though it’s only been two years, those four teams have combined for a national championship, two Final Four appearances and four Elite Eight appearances, and no seasons with fewer than 20 wins.
Washington went 35-30 in that span, putting into perspective their lack of success with high-level recruits.
To be fair, recruiting is half the battle of being a good coach at the collegiate level, especially on the West Coast, where Washington is far from being considered a high-profile basketball program.
Even though Washington is in the Pac-12, it’s a little surprising that they’re even the marquee team in their own state considering Gonzaga’s 18 straight tournament appearances. Plus, they have to compete with UCLA, Oregon, California and Arizona in their own conference.
Still, Washington has landed at least one five-star recruit or multiple four-star recruits in five of the past seven years.
That said, it’s hard to justify recruiting being enough to keep Romar’s job safe for 14 seasons when positive results have rarely followed.
Firing Romar, who signed a 10-year contract extension in 2010 that will keep him at Washington through 2020, could lead to catastrophic effects in recruiting, as clearly top recruits choose Washington for Romar more than the Huskies’ lack of success.
With Washington owning the fourth best 2017 recruiting class, according to 247Sports, which includes five-star Michael Porter and four-stars in Daejon Davis and Jaylen Nowell, and already a verbal commit from four-star forward Jontay Porter in 2018, the Huskies are hoping it leads to an end of their tournament drought.
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It leads to them not wanting to risk recruits fleeing if they brought in a new coach.
Therefore, most likely unconsciously, Romar’s long-time recruiting strategy of locking up early verbal commits from top recruits has led to Washington being more lenient and accepting of his lack of success.
It would be shocking if Lorenzo Romar didn’t finish out his 10-year contract extension and possibly get another.
For as little of success as Washington has had under him, and the better teams on the West Coast and in the state of Washington, Romar’s recruiting job is nothing short of remarkable.
Barring a massive turnaround this season, Fultz won’t bring Washington to their first NCAA Tournament since 2010-11, and Romar probably won’t ever bring Washington to their first Final Four since 1952-53, but the NBA could have 13 former Huskies in just a couple of years.
Next: College Basketball Power 10: Louisville Gets Statement Win
That counts for something, right?