EX-UW Coach Lorenzo Romar Calls Loss of Top-Ranked Recruiting Class 'Tough'
During an introductory press conference former UW men's basketball head coach Lorenzo Romar, fired on March 15 after fifteen seasons in charge at his alma mater, acknowledged the harsh reality of losing the Huskies once top-ranked recruiting class.
Hired last Saturday by Arizona head coach Sean Miller, the long-time Washington coach called the dismantling of his 2017 recruiting class "tough", with Romar adding the staff felt the class would have brought the program back to its once prominent level.
Romar, using his right hand to rub his eyes with a short light-hearted 'anyway', continued: "It was well known we haven't had a lot of success in the last - I can't say five years because in 2012 we won the league, so we didn't get the tournament but we won the league - five years as we would have liked to have been.
"We felt that, 'okay we finally got it back', to where we're going to be winning again and you anticipate that, and you don't see anything differently. And then when it's taken away from you it's tough."
UW athletic director Jennifer Cohen has received criticsm from the Huskies fan base after losing five-star forward Michael Porter Jr., the No.1 overall recruit in the class of 2017 according to Rivals rankings.
The son of now-ex UW assistant coach Michael Porter Sr., hired last May by Romar as an effort to lure his two son's to the program. Romar is also the godfather of Porter Jr. with the family ties between Romar and the Porter's stretching over a decade.
After meeting with new head coach Mike Hopkins the Huskies granted Porter Jr. his release, with the Porter's returning to Missouri a couple weeks after UW fired Romar. Jontay Porter, a five-star forward in 2018 and a former commit to Washington, also de-committed and is expected to continue the family legacy in Columbia.
Only one of the 'Romar original' signees has remained, four-star Garfield High School (Seattle, Washington) guard Jaylen Nowell, regarded as a multi-year player for Washington after an increase in one-and-done players over the past three years.
