March 14-20, 2011

• Good Week — Lorenzo Romar won his seventh NCAA Tournament game for Washington, a 68-65 victory over Georgia, and had his Huskies within five minutes of the Sweet Sixteen before North Carolina prevailed. Romar might never win an NCAA title at Washington, but already he is the greatest coach in school history.
• Bad Week –The Sounders began the week with a 1-0 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy and ended it with a 1-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls. Easy to rationalize the losses, given that the Galaxy and Red Bulls are two of the favorites to win the MLS Cup. Not so easy to swallow: 0 goals in 2 games. In expansion Vancouver’s first MLS match, it scored four goals.
• Sunday, March 20 — The Huskies hang with North Carolina until the final five minutes when a series of gaffes, notably Venoy Overton’s out-of-control play and a botched in-bounds pass by Justin Holiday, allow the Tar Heels to escape with victory, ending Washington’s season. Alas, UW could have been a Sweet 16 team if not for a few little things.
• Saturday, March 19 — Despite Gonzaga’s best efforts to stop him, BYU guard Jimmer Fredette scores 34 points and adds six assists as the Cougars oust the Zags from the NCAA Tournament, 89-67. Gonzaga, like Washington, will probably never win the NCAA Tournament, but the Bulldogs max out every year — a huge achievement.
• Friday, March 18 — The Washington bench outscores Georgia’s bench 28-0 and the Huskies advance in the NCAA Tournament with a 68-65 victory over No. 10 seed Georgia. After botching 12 of 14 3-pointers in the first half, UW uses a 17-7 run early in the second half to put the game away. Good news: great follow-up to UW’s Pac-10 tournament triumph over Arizona. Bad news: North Carolina next.
• Thursday, March 17– Gonzaga guards Steen Gray and Marquise Carter combine for 40 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and four steals while committing only four turnovers in an 86-71 win over St. John’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. On of these days these years, the Zags are going to sneak in there an win the whole thing.
• Wednesday, March 16 — Snubbed by the NCAA Selection Committee, the Washington State Cougars roll to an 85-74 win over Long Beach State in the first round of the NIT in Pullman. Klay Thompson scores 25 points and collects seven rebounds, setting up a match with Oklahoma State. The Cougars would have madethe NCAA T0urnament — probably — if they could have beaten Washington in the NCAA Tournament.
• Tuesday, March 15– The Seattle Sounders FC open the 2011 season by suffering a 1-0 shutout at Safeco Field, marking the club’s first-ever loss to the hated Los Angeles Galaxy in a “First Kick” match. A throng of 36,433 groans repeatedly as the Sounders fail to finish several scoring opportunities and fall to the Galaxy for the fifth consecutive time.
• Monday, March 14 — The University of Washington ousts head women’s basketball coach Tia Jackson after a four-year run in which her teams never did better than 13-18 and made just one postseason appearance. When Todd Turner hired Jackson to replace June Daugherty, he cited “a lack of “buzz” around the program. Under Jackson, whatever buzz there was went zzzzzzzzzzzz. The surprise here is that Jackson wasn’t booted a year ago.

“That Was The Week That Was (TW3)” is published every Monday as part of Sportspress Northwest’s package of home-page features collectively titled, “The Rotation.”

The Rotation’s weekly schedule:

• Monday: That Was The Week That Was (TW3) — A snarky, day-by-day review of the week just ended.
• Tuesday: Wayback Machine — Sports historian David Eskenazi’s deep dive into local sports history, replete with photo eye candy.
• Wednesday: Nobody Asks But Us — We ask, and answer, fun and quirky questions nobody else is asking.
• Thursday: Water Cooler Cool — Art Thiel takes on the weekend for the benefit of the more casual fan.
• Friday: Top 5 List — The alpha and omega of Northwest sports, at least as far as we’re concerned.