UW’s Romar wary of hype

SEATTLE – Lorenzo Romar has already warned his Washington Huskies: Don’t believe the hype.

Washington is getting props from Maine to Maui as it gets ready to defend its Pac-10 conference championship. Despite losing rugged team leader and immovable inside force Jon Brockman to the NBA, national experts are pegging the Huskies as perhaps a top-10 team. They see that high school All-American Abdul Gaddy is joining conference freshman of the year Isaiah Thomas in a reloaded backcourt, and envision Washington going on a long NCAA tournament run in March.

Romar remembers the fall of 2006, when his Huskies had lost Pac-10 player of the year Brandon Roy and were coming off a 26-7 record. They had lost in overtime to top-seeded Connecticut in the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament the previous spring. The Final Four seemed like a reachable next step.

“We didn’t even make the NCAA tournament,” Romar said of the team that finished worse than .500 in the conference.

“This is an entirely new year. We’ve got to start from scratch.”

Well, not exactly scratch.

Romar usually is reluctant to name even one starter heading into preseason camp. He named two on Wednesday, two days before practice starts.

Quincy Pondexter, the team’s only senior, will attempt to fill departed star Brockman’s leadership and frontcourt presence at forward. Thomas will start at shooting guard.

According to the coach, Gaddy isn’t necessarily the starting point guard.