Romar takes head position at Pepperdine

Romar takes head position at Pepperdine

Men’s basketball assistant coach to leave at season end

By Scott Yamaguchi

Daily Bruin Staff

Among the consequences of last year’s NCAA Championship has been
the gradual dismantling of UCLA men’s basketball head coach Jim
Harrick’s assistant coaching staff.

On Monday, Pepperdine University announced that Lorenzo Romar, a
fifth-year assistant under Harrick, had accepted the Waves’
head-coaching position, which became vacant when Tony Fuller
abruptly stepped down Jan. 20.

Fuller was replaced on an interim basis by Marty Wilson, who
will coach his team in its final two games this weekend. Romar will
remain with UCLA until its season is completed.

"Basketball is the flagship sport at Pepperdine, and I am
excited that we have hired an outstanding coach to step in and
direct our program," Pepperdine athletic director Wayne Wright said
in a statement. "Lorenzo Romar is a product of a solid basketball
background, both as a coach and player, and his ethical and moral
values are attractive to a school like Pepperdine."

Romar, who graduated from the University of Washington in 1980,
was drafted in the seventh round of the 1980 NBA draft and had a
four-year career with the Golden State Warriors and the Milwaukee
Bucks.

From there, he became involved with Athletes in Action, a
division of the nondenominational ministry Campus Crusade for
Christ.

During Romar’s stay in Westwood, the Bruins compiled a record of
92-26, and he became well known as one of the premier recruiters in
the NCAA, having helped UCLA land such-prized prospects as Charles
O’Bannon, Toby Bailey, J.R. Henderson, Kris Johnson, omm’A Givens
and Jelani McCoy.

But Romar never kept it a secret that his primary goal was to
attain a head-coaching position, and there was much speculation
last year that he would not even return for a fifth season at
UCLA.

"When I accepted the assistant coaching position at UCLA four
years ago, I had every intention to eventually become a head
coach," he said. "I considered other head coaching positions in the
last two years, but the timing just was not right."

Romar is the second of Harrick’s three assistants to leave since
the NCAA Championship. In April, not more than a month after the
title game, former UCLA assistant Mark Gottfried jumped ship to
take the head coaching position at Murray State.

Now, all that remains from the 1994-95 staff is Steve Lavin, who
will likely move into Romar’s position as the top assistant.

* * *

Cameron Dollar, who started the first five games of the season
before suffering injuries to both of his pinky fingers, was put
back into the starting lineup for last Saturday’s game against
Arizona State.

That puts Johnson, averaging 11.7 points per game, back on the
bench as the Bruins’ sixth man.

"Kris, naturally, is going to have a little disappointment
because he’d like to start every game – like every player on the
team would," said Lavin, who filled in for Harrick at the weekly
press conference. "But he’s still going to get starter’s minutes,
quality minutes, and the same amount of shot attempts."

Coaches are hoping that Dollar, who averages just 3.8 points per
game, will bring a little more stability to a team that still ranks
worst in the conference in turnover margin.

"With Cameron injured, we didn’t have a point guard on the
floor, and Toby going through the transition of playing point guard
for the first time was part of the problem," Lavin said. "Sometimes
we were playing a little bit too fast, making the difficult
decision, making the difficult pass as opposed to the easy
pass."

* * *

UCLA, which leads the nation in shooting percentage with a 53.1
percent clip, boasts the top four fieldgoal percentage shooters in
the Pacific 10 Conference. McCoy heads the list with a 67.5 mark,
followed by Henderson (57.4), Johnson (55.9) and O’Bannon
(53.4).

* * *

Givens, a sophomore center averaging 3.6 points and 2.3
rebounds, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Friday.
His status for the rest of the season is undetermined.

Daily Bruin File Photo

UCLA assistant basketball coach Lorenzo Romar will assume the
head-coaching position at Pepperdine University next year.

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