Harshman Savors UW Memories

For 14 prosperous seasons at the University of Washington, Marv Harshman coached more than a few UW teams that were capable of Sweet 16 appearances. But Harshman worked the sidelines during the days of John Wooden and the magnificent UCLA dynasty, back when there was a 32-team NCAA Tournament and only one team per conference received a bid.

“UCLA kept winning the league and the national title every year,” said Harshman, 80, in town to support UW when it takes on Connecticut (31-4) tonight at 7 in an East Regional semifinal. “That was kind of tough for the kids.”

Harshman’s Huskies made three NCAA appearances (1976, 1984 and 1985), the last two on the heels of back-to-back Pac-10 titles. In 1984, UW advanced to the Sweet 16 but lost to Dayton and star swingman Roosevelt Chapman in the regional semifinals, Harshman’s only Sweet 16 berth.

But, Harshman said, the 1984 group which included current Seattle SuperSonic Detlef Schrempf and Chris Welp, the school’s career scoring leader, probably wasn’t his best squad.

Harshman said the 1971-72 group, the team he inherited from Tex Winter, was the group he wanted to see advance to the round of 16. Led by Steve Hawes and Louie Nelson, the Huskies finished 20-6 and 10-4 in the old Pac-8 … yet didn’t qualify for the NCAAs.

“That was a very good team,” he said. “We had good backcourt people. Hawes was a very fine center and we had forwards who could shoot pretty well. We were complete.”

Harshman likes the work ethic of this season’s Huskies, a team that has improved over the last three weeks.

“When you play hard, you might play badly, but good things happen,” he said. “A lot of individuals have improved not only in their skills, but in their recognition of what should happen.”