"I felt like it was never going to end...but, it is what it is, we lost and it's over."

Those were the comments of Washington guard Isaiah Thomas after the Huskies bowed out of the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16 last night. Washington fell 69-56 to West Virginia.

This will be a hard season to evaluate for Washington, which loses just one player to graduation in Quincy Pondexter. A promising start to the year gave way to struggles against teams like Georgetown (whose length and size was a precursor to what Washington saw against WVU) and a slow start to Pac-10 play.

At points in mid-February, the Huskies appeared NIT-bound. Then something happened. This team that had lost an overtime road game at Texas Tech, a heart-breaking buzzer-beater at UCLA, yet suffered just two home losses, found it. Pondexter and Thomas started to click. The enigmatic Matthew Bryan-Amaning became a force on the block. Venoy Overton and Justin Holiday turned their lockdown defense into some big offensive games as well.

Washington followed a loss in Berkeley with its first road win of the year - at Stanford. It looked to be offset by a loss to USC in the next game, in Seattle. But, when College Gameday came to town, the Huskies thoroughly dismantled UCLA. The Huskies didn't lose again until last night, winning nine-straight away from Seattle.

There will be question marks heading into next season, not the least of which is whether Pondexter is the only member of this team that will not be around next year. Will Darnell Gant still be in a Husky uniform? Will the Huskies actually sign Terrence Jones out of Portland, and maybe even another JC big man?

Those are for another day, however. One cool thing about last night's game is that, due to some good scheduling, Pondexter was able to play his final game in front of Jon Brockman, Nate Robinson, Spencer Hawes and some other NBA guys. They were in the locker room afterward, reminding these guys of what they had accomplished. Like Thomas said, "it hurts because our season is over." I imagine that may mean even more for this group which so clearly loves just playing with each other day in and day out. But, being one of 16 teams to play on the second weekend of March Madness, is special.

The good news for Lorenzo Romar and his program is the simple fact that people are asking "can he win the big game." Some great coaches have had that question asked about them. It's better than being asked if you can ever even get to that game. A better question is can a team from Seattle win the big one. The verdict remains out.

Here is my endorsement of Romar, however, for as long as he wants to coach at Washington and continues to build teams that make second weekend runs into the tournament. At UW he has three Pac-10 titles, a number one seed, three Sweet 16's and five tournament berths. If he's not careful, we'll be putting him on a pedestal with guys like Harshman and Edmunson pretty soon.

One more thing on Romar's resume: Pondexter could be his fourth player selected in the first round of the NBA draft in the last six years. It would be his fifth if you count signee Martell Webster, who opted for the NBA out of Seattle Prep instead of the Huskies. That is special and a testament to his coaching that these guys develop so well (Hawes was really the only one considered a surefire first rounder when he came to UW - although Webster would've been) and also that the program just continues to churn out 20-win seasons anyway. What it really is a testament to is the four-year guys he is able to recruit as the cornerstones of the program, like Brockman and Bobby Jones.

Overton and Holiday are those guys now and they will lead this team into 2010-11. These are questions for another day, however. Today, let's thank yet another extremely good, albeit not yet great, Husky basketball team.

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- Health care is close to being officially done it's painful. The Senate passed a couple of fixes yesterday, meaning it had to go back to the House for a final vote, where, despite Republican's claims that it was "bi-partisan in opposition only", one more member voted 'yes' than in the original vote on Sunday.

- President Obama had a great "bring it on" moment yesterday, when he, in response to Republican threats to repeal the health care bill, he said, "go for it."

- The story of the last couple of days here has been the threats aimed at members of Congress, something that is and should be very troubling. This morning on Fox 'n Friends, an anchor insinuated the only members who voted 'no' on health care have been receiving threats. That is so far from reality that it could be called a bold-faced lie. In fact, the story all began when it was discovered that the brother of Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello had a gas line cut in the back of his Virginia home. His addressed had been published by a tea party leader in the state.

Perriello's comments on the issue reflected why he won his original election in the first place:"Here is America, we settle our political differences at the ballot box."

- House staffers are making a lot of money these days (some at least).

- It's just all bad for Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln right now.

- "We need to have to reasonable, rational parties in this country. Right now we don't." - Krugman.

Nothing really witty or special today. Part of that is because the news is actually being dominated by health care right now. But keep an eye out, I'm trying to broaden the horizons again.