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Cameron Dollar coaches on the sidelines.

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Cameron Dollar played in every game of the Bruins’ 1994-1995 national title campaign, logging 36 minutes, 6 points and 8 assists in a spot start in the NCAA tournament final.

The Washington Huskies are used to being mocked.

Throughout the past 15 seasons, the team has been incessantly bad, finishing in the bottom half of the conference in 13 of those seasons and only making the NCAA tournament twice.

“There have definitely been some down times here in the past 15 years,” said Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar, who is beginning his first season with the Huskies.

But now they’re making a serious push to get out of their doldrums and become contenders in the Pac-10.

After last season, head coach Bob Bender resigned following a dismal 116-142 record in nine seasons.

Washington athletic director Barbara Hedges hired Romar two weeks later. Romar, a former Washington letterman and UCLA assistant coach, came in from Saint Louis, where he led the team to a 51-44 record in three years.

“I was torn between leaving Saint Louis,” Romar said. “We had a lot of good players, and after going 9-7 last year I knew we were ready to make a move in Conference U.S.A.”

But in the end, returning to his alma mater was too good of an offer to turn down.

“I just knew Washington would be a great place to go,” he said.

Romar moved to Washington, and one of the first moves he made was to hire Cameron Dollar, one of his Saint Louis assistants and a former UCLA player, to become an assistant on his new Washington staff.

“I knew it would be something I was interested in,” Dollar said, recalling his first thoughts after getting the invitation.

Little did Dollar know the rough start he would be in for.

Over the summer, Dollar was slapped with a one-month suspension for recruiting violations. Both he and Romar had to suffer through the negative national media attention that came with the infractions.

“Cameron is like a son and a little brother to me,” Romar said. “To see that happen really hurt, because we are in this together. But he admitted his faults, and was up front about everything.”

Obviously, the suspension displeased Dollar. He said his actions warranted the penalty, but to sit out in late September and early October was bad for him and the program.

That period is crucial to both recruiting and planning for the current season. “I wasn’t glad at the timing of it,” Dollar said. “But that is the reality of the situation.”

Both coaches say they put the incident behind them, and are ready to tackle the upcoming season.

They say turning the program into a winner might take some time, but that they have a plan in place.

First, Romar wants to play an up-tempo game that will attract high level recruits.

He hopes that the more exciting style of play will also attract more fans to home games; crowd support is crucial in college basketball.

So far it’s worked. He recently signed Tre Simmons, a junior college sophomore, who is rated a preseason fifth-team All-America selection by Street & Smith. “He’s from Seattle,” Dollar said. “It’s great to sign a homegrown product.”

Romar and Dollar hope to sign more recruits in their continued quest to turn the Huskies into contenders.

Both say they are now on the right track after the initial turbulence, and Washington could one day be a national force in the NCAA.

“To become a contender in the Pac-10 might take a year or two,” Dollar said. “Nationally, we could be a contender in two to three years, depending on how the personnel floats in our system.”

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