The Cascades serve as some sort of weird basketball portal in Washington state. On one side there are the Washington Huskies in Seattle, with easy access to most of the state's top prep talent and the countless resources at the disposal of one of the nation's best universities set in one of the country's most thriving cities. Then on the other side there's Gonzaga, a mid-major school in Spokane, a city not known for much outside of Gonzaga hoops, yet scour the globe and recruit them to their private school campus.

Yet it's the Huskies that seem to be on the downward trend and Gonzaga maintaining their standard of excellence they set nearly 20 years ago. In recent years the only thing Lorenzo Romar can hang his hat on are the fact some of the NBA's most visible stars have played for him, and a lot have left him.

More and more Washington is losing players to the draft, some deserved, many not. What's more, some players have decided that Romar's program isn't the best place for them to elevate their game, case and point Nigel Williams-Goss.

Williams-Goss is of course a former Husky, having spent his first two years in Montlake until transferring to Gonzaga after his sophomore year. After taking a redshirt, he has played his way into the conversation for the Wooden award while playing for the no.1-ranked team in the country who also happens to be undefeated.

However since Williams-Goss' first season in purple and gold he expressed the desire to leave. After his freshman year he unabashedly flirted with the idea of entering the NBA Draft, even though he was not rated highly on many draft boards.

Could NWG be a microcosm for Romar's current ability to nurture talent? Marquise Chriss and Dejounte Murray both left last year, though only Chriss was rated as a sure fire lottery pick. Tony Wroten also stepped onto campus as one of the nation's most highly rated recruits, yet barely got drafted in the first round after leaving his freshman year.

Therefore it might be worth exploring if Romar can actually develop players, or if they simply develop themselves. There are cases for the former, such as Nate Robinson and Isiah Thomas, both of whom came in as diminutive two-guards but molded themselves into point guards thanks in part to Romar entrusting them at the position later in their careers at UW.

It's an interesting question, however the bigger one that needs to be answered in the immediate future is whether or not he can get them back to the NCAA Tournament.

Photo: Flickr/Dave Sizer