After his debut season of 2003, when the Huskies were just 10-17, coach Lorenzo Romar had a good feeling.

Just as he does now, following the first losing campaign they've suffered since that first year.

"I remember being in the airport talking to a few of the guys, and everyone was fired up," Romar told the Seattle Times, looking back at the season-ending loss to UCLA five years ago.

"Not that we lost, but that, 'You know, we've got a chance to be pretty good next season.' And that began the run of three years (in the NCAA tournament).

"And I really feel like that right now," Romar said, "because we will have experience and improved guard play and pretty much everybody back except for Ryan (Appleby) and Tim (Morris). So I feel like we can be a much better team."

This Washington team finished eighth in the Pac-10 and was 16-17 overall. But junior forward Jon Brockman, the Huskies' best player, shares his coach's optimism.

"We can be tough next year," Brockman said. "I know we said that last year. But I think we have a lot more guys who have played this year, who got experience and made huge steps.

"We need to keep working in the offseason, but we can come back and really be a different team and end this thing on a lot more positive note."

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