Lorenzo Romar Quotations

When you talk about maybe someone's mannerisms or maybe the way they walk, something like that, that can be pretty funny. Once you start to get into some type of issue that a person is dealing with off the floor, that may be when you cross the line.

Mike is the kind of guy, if he hits his first couple shots then he doesn't think he's going to miss, ever, for the rest of his life. It seems to uplift his entire game. Because of that, I think it helped him concentrate even more on the defensive end.

No one can ever duplicate that. It's the first group that you spent four years with at the place where you like being at and the place you hope to coach at for a long time. You never forget that group.

Phenomenal player, phenomenal person. We knew that about Marcus.

If we didn't get him, I'm glad UA got him because Lute does a great job. When you get to know someone like Marcus, you pull for him. He's in good hands.

I don't know the people in Los Angeles understand the job UCLA is doing winning games with all those guys banged up. That's hard to do.

I am so proud of our guys to win a game like this. To continue to just chip away, chip away and not lose your composure, that's what you love to see. We are a team. That's the only way you win games like this.

I am sure Martell has probably thought that going down to the D-League, people are going to start questioning whether he should have gone out. I'm sure that's in his mind. But I'm also pretty sure that in his mind, it's given him more motivation to make it happen.

I don't remember the last time we shot this poorly.

I don't think we look to top last year. We look to go out and be the best that this team can be, whatever that is. ... But we're not going to try to compare last year with whatever we do this year.

I Don't Think We Look To Top Last Year

He's a stellar defender and a really good athlete and probably passes the ball as well as anyone in our program.

He was kind of in a daze in the first half. Someone snapped a finger, the hypnosis was over, and he was back to Jon Brockman.

I would say that 90 percent of everyone involved with Martell felt like it would behoove him to go to college initially. But he was given such a great opportunity as the sixth pick, it was hard for him to turn down.

Jon is playing a different kind of basketball than he's ever played in his life. He's guarding out on the perimeter, he's put in positions to handle the ball on the perimeter. He's not just within the confines of the paint, where he's spent a lot of his time and has dominated by doing so.

I think the game is evolving that way. I just think players are playing a lot of different positions these days and are interchangeable in a lot of cases.

I thought we played as solid as we've played in a while.

I thought the days were over that anybody could ever go out there and score 80.

I thought our guys were mentally tough tonight. I thought our guys hung in there pretty good.

I think Brandon goes out and just concentrates on how to win the game. Sometimes he may score more, sometimes he may assist more. But what is the defense giving Brandon Roy tonight? I think he's able to take advantage of that.

I think Utah State is a better team than Montana was. They're closer to what Pacific was.

Our guys, as a group, were as together tonight as they have been. I just think we are a tough team when that happens.

Look at the record of his team. Look at his stats. Look at it, and you can't refute it. I don't think anybody needs to beg for Brandon Roy to get accolades. It's right there.

It definitely was not like this when I played.

That was a typical University of Washington versus Arizona State basketball game. Very physical, emotions running high. They're real aggressive and we play an aggressive brand of basketball, and when you put the two together, sometimes tempers flare. Our guys did a good job of maintaining their composure.

That was a great college basketball game that was played. I am so proud of our guys, and they can't look back and say, 'If only I would have tried a little harder.' They did. They gave it everything that they had.

When something like that happens out of the clear blue and has not been a pattern, you just have to believe it's just one of those nights when the ball didn't go down.

We've had calls from a few players in Florida, ... We tell them there has to be a lot of states to cross before you get to Washington.

Utah State expects to win their opener, they expect to advance, because they've done it before. We're very familiar with the job they've done over the years.

We have always been impressed with Stanford. They are a solid team and never give you a game.

We could not let up at any point of the game, because they would come back and take the lead on us.

We came out somewhat lethargic at the start of the second half, and they took advantage.

Those guys, along with last year's seniors, will go down in this program's history as very, very special basketball players. You hate to see them go.

To be candid, when he went through his turnover slump in mid-year, that was a surprise because what we noticed in high school was that he never turned the ball over. He's playing more now like we thought he would.

We don't have any options on Saturday. We have to do it for 40 minutes. Obviously, it's frustrating. But I've got to point back at myself as the head man to get it done. Tonight, it wasn't a lack of effort. It was a lack of focus.

We're not saying it's David and Goliath, and we don't have a chance in the world. We happen to be playing the most talented team in the country, but we can't take anything away from what we've done.

When they are turning turnovers into points, that's difficult to overcome.

We didn't play with the same amount of energy in the second half, and they made a conscious effort to go inside. When we lose leads, you can always point to us not playing with enough intensity.

When you are as athletic as Bobby is and you depend on that so much to do what you do on the floor and when that's taken away from you a little bit, it makes things a little more difficult.

We shot it better than we have all year.

When other teams have played deliberate basketball against us, we have been able to force our will upon them. We weren't able to do that tonight.

But, I've never coached a player as versatile as Brandon.

You hear that and think, 'Oh brother, not another one of those,' ... But he can really shoot.

What those five guys have is a lot of versatility, ... When you look at our program and our philosophy, I think those are the kinds of guys we've tried to recruit, guys who have a lot of versatility about them.

What didn't come with it were wins, ... If those teams could have won, we'd have seen this happen earlier. So Coach Bender and his staff got this going a little bit and we were able to come in and capitalize on what was already here and add a little bit to it. The team grew together and we were able to win. And that's when we were able to draw a Jon Brockman and Martell Webster.

We were left with a very small team without an inside presence,

We're very concerned about them on the glass. But not only that, they do a very good job of getting the ball inside to those guys. Those guys catch it, they do something with it, they produce down there.

We didn't mention that, but we know because of those things when we say, 'We can win this game,' the guys know we can do it. When you've been there before, there's no better teacher.

Brandon Roy had a phenomenal game again. But, to come up short is really disappointing.

Before Justin could be freed to score ... he had to learn how to run a team better. If he just scores, and now teams take his scoring away and he doesn't know how to run a team, we are up a creek. Now that he's done a better job of that and understanding what we are doing better, he's freed up.

Every time in the three years that we have been here that we played Arizona State, it has been a physical war. A couple of times there were some stand-offs, some hard fouls, a little bit of jawing. They haven't backed down and we won't back down. They're going to play with a lot of intensity.

There was a beauty to it. We're leading the nation in scoring, and we played a team that went to Cal and won, and that gives us problems. Yet we found a way to win (while) shooting 33 percent. I think that's a very positive thing.

There's so much parity in this league. There's no way you can pick who is going to be the winner.

There's no way you think you're going to lose that with 2.1 seconds to go. You think the game's over. The unheard of situation happened. ... What's important at this point is we don't take a nosedive. I've seen teams in this situation not recover from it. It's fine to grieve tonight. I'm going to grieve.

It wouldn't surprise us at all if he led our team in rebounding as a freshman. He just has a knack for making big plays but he approaches the game as if he doesn't have a scholarship. He's old school.

It was tough for Jamaal. Jeffers was in there. He's a 6-11 (Jeffers is listed at 6-9) with long arms.

The team the last couple of years, when we were successful, we were blue collar, and when we weren't blue collar, we weren't successful. That's the same with this group.

Sometimes a loss, when it's over, you can go back and draw from it and improve in some areas. Whereas in a win it might not have gotten your attention.

Ryan is ready to go. I've never seen him really intimidated. He's not really concerned about who he plays against.

Right now we need to put 40 minutes of intense basketball together. Right now that's the biggest monkey on our back.

Our energy level wasn't what it should have been for 40 minutes. We are at our best when we play with energy. We are not very good when we don't play with energy.

People, for some reason, just because Arizona's lost a few games, think that they're down. They're crazy. They've kind of hit a stride. They're very good.

The one scenario that makes it simple is if we win. If we lose, let the chips fall where they may. You've had your opportunity.

Any team in this league is capable of beating anyone else. This thing is wide open.

That was a big win for us. I thought we played about as solid a game as we have played in a while.

That's why we call him 'The Provider.' He provides what we need.

You're so anxious, because it's the NCAA. Sometimes the first tournament game is the most difficult game.

You see guys who are passionate and want to be great, but they're not very tough mentally or physically, not in tune with what the body can do. That's not the case with Bobby.

This group probably has to concentrate a little harder.

They guard with a lot of intensity right now, kind of like Washington State.

They expect to advance because they've done it before.

They are a very, very good basketball team. We look forward to the challenge. We want to play against the best competition.

They are probably the biggest challenge for us since we've been here at Washington. It's difficult to play against them because they are so hard to guard.

There was a time when he didn't play intensely. In terms of his ability, since the day he became eligible he has been our best all-around player. He's so selfless and such a team guy that he was fine deferring to his teammates to be successful. This year, he's come around more.

They have not contacted me, nor would I be interested. I haven't heard anything. That's just rumors.

There's always that adjusted RPI that the committee uses in the back room.

Then in the upper class, it was Aaron Brooks and the Stewart twins and Marvin Williams and C.J. Giles. Wow, that's a lot to work with. If you get your fair share of guys, you're going to wind up pretty good.

It's one of, if not the most, difficult road trips out there. I don't really remember ever having much success at Stanford, nor at Cal.

It's good to have guys that will come in the game sometimes when things aren't going well and give you a shot in the arm.

It's important at this point that we don't take a nosedive. I've seen teams not recover from it.

It was like someone snapped their finger and the hypnosis was over, and he went back to being Jon Brockman.

It was huge because we have players, especially like Brandon, that can put the ball on the floor and drive. And if there was any contact it was a foul so it helped us tremendously.

I want to make this clear. Whether it's for the Pac-10 Conference tournament championship, Pac-10 championship or second place, whatever it is, this is a big game to us. It means a lot to us, whatever way you slice it.

That's another reason why this was such a big game. We stubbed our toe a couple of times early, and we couldn't afford to let that happen again this weekend.

Their first four or five shots were uncontested in the second half. If someone is not shooting the ball well, you can't say, 'Let's not guard him,' because they hit one or two, all of a sudden they get on a streak. We gave them too many good looks.

I'm not quite sure how good we are. We'll find out here in the next few weeks, I guess.

I liked you a lot better as a coach.

I'm very happy for him. He's kept it simple and worked hard.

In our first road game, with a lot of questions in how we would handle it, I thought we did a pretty good job. We played 40 minutes of hardscrabble basketball.

Before we make any comparisons, we better see what happens there. You have faith in your team. You don't think they're going to lose the next seven.

He's talented, but he approaches every drill as it if was his last, ... Add to that he is an unbelievable teammate. You will not find one guy, as long as he is here, who will ever be upset with him except the guy who is trying to box him out in practice.

I don't know how long I've got to address the soft opponent thing. But Arizona is not soft.

I don't know if the people in Los Angeles understand the job that UCLA is doing in keeping that team going.

He's a magnet. He's very charismatic, he is a showman. He's one of the few showmen that is a tough competitor as well.

I don't think there is a harder worker. He comes early and stays late. He's just a sponge.

I call him the chameleon because his game is constantly shifting.