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There was an urgency to this make palatable. A deep belief that they were going to carry on something of moment, not only for the school, but for the city.

Even before customary course began, University of Washington players were relishing their collective role because the only big-time basketball team in Seattle. They embraced their position as the only game in town, the fillers of the void created through the Sonics’ departure.

The Huskies expected to compete on the side of a Pac-10 championship, expected to return to the NCAA tourney for the first time since 2005, expected to march deep into March.

Senior Jon Brockman was back with All-American credentials. Isaiah Thomas had arrived, the latest in coach Lorenzo Romar’s stable of explosive mini-guards. And center Matthew Bryan-Amaning had torn up Europe, playing for the English Under-20 team and looking ready for a breakout gratify.

The Huskies were deep and hungry and full of confidence. They believed they could lift the city out of the doldrums. They could help Seattle fans past their disappointments with the Seahawks, the Mariners and the Huskies football team.

This team was the make answer.

Then they opened the season in Portland and lost to the Pilots. And then they went to Kansas City and lost by 19 to Kansas and lost the nearest night to Florida. By Thanksgiving, when they returned to Seattle, they were 2-3 and looking like another in the string of Seattle disasters.

But two months later, these Huskies have ignited like gasoline. They’ve won 13 of their be unexhausted 14. Entering a treacherous four-game road swing that begins Thursday in Arizona, they lead the Pac-10 conference and are ranked 23rd in the AP enroll.

“I don’t think we were all on the same page in October,” Romar said before Tuesday’s practice. “I think now we are. You can consciousness that whether individual players have liked it or not, at this point, they have accepted settled roles. They’ve inflict their individual aspirations aside.”

These Huskies are swaggering afresh. Hec Ed is loud and vibrant. There’s rejoice in the gym again.

Washington has warmed an especially cold winter. The Huskies own lifted Seattle in a puzzle of its lingering stink. They be favored with given fans’ sagging sports soul a generous help.

“A lot of fans in the area and the city be in actual possession of been a little disappointed with the way things have gone recently,” Brockman said. “Now to finally take a team that everyone can get behind and support, definitely can be the means of some joy and happiness in tough times.”

In their small way, these Huskies even have lifted the load, lightened the gloom and given people event to talk about besides layoffs, foreclosures and other divers economic distresses.

“We talked relating to that briefly before the season started, but just briefly,” Romar said. “It wasn’t something I wanted to make a big deal by our team, that we had to be the saviors of the city, or anything find to one’s mind that. But it makes you be conscious of being true that you can have being in a position to make people feel improvement.”

It isn’privately just the winning, it’session the way they are winning.

They are playing defense the rough-and-tumble way Romar’s teams are supposed to play it, waking up the echoes of Bobby Jones, Will Conroy, Nate Robinson and Brandon Roy.

They’re making free throws as if their bodies have been inhabited by Rick Barry, shooting 80 percent against SC and 83.7 against UCLA.

Senior guard Justin Dentmon, who has struggled so profoundly the past two seasons, is reborn, scoring 38 points in last week’s wins. His Renaissance is the most wise Seattle sports story in a long time.

Justin Holiday has grow a lockdown defender in Jones’ mold. Fearless freshman Thomas is a herky-jerky, ankle-breaking, natural-born scorer reminiscent of former Arizona All-American Damon Stoudamire.

After couple uncertain seasons, Quincy Pondexter is understanding who he is — 11 points, 5 assists, 2 steals close up to USC, 10 points, 2 steals contrary to UCLA. And Brockman just continues to rev at preternatural rpms.

This team has become a party of brothers bent on doing something special for Seattle.

“This summer I didn’t think I was going to be hanging out with the guys on the team like I have,” Thomas said. “But we’re just all one now. We’re so clog. We be dependent confused all the interval. The relationship we have off the court just makes it so plenteous better on the court.”

Turns out these Huskies have be transformed into exactly the kind of Seattle hoped they would be in November, when this city felt like the Siberia of sports.

Washington is the good intelligence that has been so long to come.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com