NCAA Basketball: Top 10 head coaching hires from the year 2002

4. Lorenzo Romar (Washington)

By 2002, there wasn’t much to be excited about at Washington. The program had a meager history, with a few successful seasons but not a big run of success across their history. They also hadn’t won more than 11 games in any of the last three seasons, leading to coach Bob Bender getting cast aside. The Huskies needed a new voice to propel the program forward and they certainly got that with Lorenzo Romar.

Himself a former Huskies player, Romar had spent parts of five seasons in the NBA before beginning his coaching career. He was on Jim Harrick’s staff at UCLA when the Bruins won the national championship in 1995. He spent three years each as head coach at Pepperdine and Saint Louis, leading the Billikens to the NCAA Tournament and making considerable progress with both programs. With experience all over the board, he was ready to take over this Washington program and considerable increased the Huskie’s basketball history.

Romar immediately got this program back into shape, making his first of six NCAA Tournament runs in just his second season. In all, he led Washington to three Sweet Sixteens and won a pair of Pac-10 regular-season titles in the process. Progress slowed even with great recruiting near the end of his tenure, but his impact can certainly still be felt on Washington basketball. Today, Romar is back at Pepperdine while Washington is still struggling for consistency.