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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sweet, not soft


Jon Brockman prepares for lift-off toward the Sweet 16 after the Huskies defeated Illinois Saturday. 
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Bernie Wilson Associated Press

SAN DIEGO – The Washington Huskies somehow got labeled as being soft while on their way to finishing second in the Pac-10 Conference.

No one would dare say that to the Huskies now.

Brandon Roy helped bring Washington back from an 11-point deficit in the second half and the Huskies beat Dee Brown and the Illinois Fighting Illini 67-64 on Saturday in a second-round NCAA tournament game that featured wild scoring swings.

Roy, the Pac-10 player of the year, is taking the West Coast’s Washington (26-6) to the Sweet 16 and the Washington Regional, where it will face the winner of today’s game between Kentucky and top-seeded Connecticut.

“It’s a special feeling,” said Roy, whose fame is sure to grow if the Huskies keep winning. “A lot of people wouldn’t have guessed that we could make it this far. I think we’re just coming together as a team.”

This will be the second straight trip to the regionals for Washington, and its fourth overall. The only problem is, the Huskies have never won once they got there. Last year they were a No. 1 seed but lost to Louisville in the regional semifinals. They’re a No. 5 seed this time.

While Illini star guard Dee Brown had his career end, Roy continued to pad his resume, scoring 21 points and grabbing seven rebounds. He might not be quite the national name as Brown and other guards, but he has the chance to be.

“Brandon Roy’s name has to be associated with winning,” UW coach Lorenzo Romar said. “He has raised everyone’s understanding and awareness of how good of a basketball player he is.”

Roy ended up with the ball in his hands after Brown missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer, setting off a wild Washington celebration.

“Man, I’m glad he missed it,” Romar said.

Brown and the fourth-seeded Fighting Illini (26-7) came up short of making the regionals for the third straight year. Illinois reached the national championship game last year before losing to North Carolina.

The Huskies won despite shooting 38 percent from the floor. They made up for it by making 28 of 39 free throws. Roy was 11 of 14 from the line.

Back to that toughness thing – Romar said the only two times the Huskies weren’t the tougher team this season were in losses at Washington State on Feb. 4 and in an upset loss to Oregon in the Pac-10 tournament. In between, the Huskies won eight straight, including the second of their two wins over UCLA, which won the Pac-10’s regular-season and conference titles.

“I continue to tell my wife, you can’t judge a season or a career on one or two games,” Romar said. “For whatever reason, everybody ran with that and said maybe we’re a soft team. We’re not a soft team at all. You can’t manufacture toughness. If that wasn’t in us, we couldn’t have won that game today if we weren’t a tough team.”

Forward Bobby Jones chafed the most at the soft references.

“I hope this game proved to everybody that we’re not soft,” Jones said.

“I guess we didn’t understand the high level of intensity and how physical they were going to play,” Illini coach Bruce Weber said.