Romar the Recruiter Taking Charge at Pepperdine

Guess who’s coming to Pepperdine?

It’s a game that has been played frequently and with great fervor since Lorenzo Romar, the recruiting wunderkind from UCLA, was named the Waves’ basketball coach in February. For several weeks, it seemed every college player rumored to be transferring would end up in Malibu. No less than eight Pacific-10 Conference players called.

Romar was flattered by the attention, but he points out that the Waves ended up with only two transfers--center omm’A Givens from UCLA and guard Jelani Gardner from California. Both players will have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out next season.

“It didn’t appear to me that everybody was beating the door down trying to get here,” Romar said. “There were a lot of rumors. If we would have gotten all the players that were rumored to come here, we’d be like Kentucky next year. That wasn’t the case.”

Instead, Romar signed two high school players and a junior college transfer to round out his first recruiting class. It’s not the Sweet 16 dream some had envisioned, but Romar is satisfied with the way things worked out.

“If you would have told me when I decided to take the job that this was the team we’d have in the fold, I would have taken it and been very pleased,” he said.

But don’t get the idea Romar, 37, is contentedly sitting in his upstairs office at Firestone Fieldhouse admiring the ocean view. He’s aggressively hitting the recruiting trail this month in an effort to rebuild a program reeling from back-to-back losing seasons.

Romar said Pepperdine remains in the running for 16 of the top 20 seniors in Southern California, including 6-foot-10 twins Jason and Jarron Collins of Harvard-Westlake and 6-5 forward Schea Cotton of Bellflower St. John Bosco. The Waves will have three available scholarships, openings they hope to fill with an inside player, a wing scorer and a point guard.

“We’ve got to get some quality players in those slots,” Romar said. “Getting in on them doesn’t mean anything. Coming in second place doesn’t mean anything. We’ve got to get them.”

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After serving as an assistant to Jim Harrick for four seasons at UCLA, Romar is doing things his way. It has been both exciting and educational.

“It’s kind of like parenting,” Romar said. “You can’t take a class for it. You can read all the books you want, you can talk to all the people, get all the advice, go to all the counseling sessions, but until you really get into it, it’s a little different. The biggest adjustment is the fact that you make decisions, you don’t make suggestions anymore. The buck stops here.”

In less than five months on the job, Romar’s effect on the Wave program is plainly evident. He’s signed five players. He’s brought in three new assistant coaches. And he’s helped restore some of the respect Pepperdine once commanded as a perennial winner in the West Coast Conference.

Controversy also has followed Romar. He became embroiled in an awkward situation with his former employer when UCLA denied Givens’ initial request to be released from his scholarship. UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis said the action was taken because he believed Romar had reneged on an agreement not to recruit any UCLA players after he was named Pepperdine’s coach, a charge Romar denied. A week later, UCLA reversed its position and granted Givens a release.

Now Pepperdine’s other transfer, Gardner, is tied to an NCAA investigation into possible recruiting violations at Cal. It has been reported that the allegations were brought by Gardner, who said he has cooperated with the investigation but denied giving incriminating statements about the Cal program or Coach Todd Bozeman. If Cal is put on probation, Gardner may not have to sit out a season before being eligible.

“I can’t concern myself with people who have concluded I’ve done something wrong against Cal,” Gardner said. “That’s their ignorance.”

The 6-10 Givens, who like Gardner was a member of the elite McDonald’s All-American team as a high school senior in 1994, says players are drawn to Romar because of his honesty and sincerity.

“There are very few people like Romar,” Givens said. “There’s no one I know with his type of integrity. . . . He would never lie for anyone, regardless of who you are or what’s at stake.”

Romar is Pepperdine’s ninth coach in 59 seasons but the fourth since Tom Asbury’s final season in 1993-94. Senior guard Gerald Brown has witnessed the revolving door firsthand, playing for Asbury, Tony Fuller and Marty Wilson, who was interim coach in the second half of the 1995-96 season after Fuller resigned hours before a home game.

Brown is looking forward to playing for Romar, although he isn’t sure when that will occur. The two-time All-WCC guard is recovering from reconstructive surgery on his right knee and might redshirt this season.

“Not to take anything away from our past coaches, but [Romar] brings a winning attitude,” Brown said. “I think it will be easier for him to get all the players on his side because he knows what it takes. He has the [NCAA] championship ring.”

Romar was instrumental in recruiting several of the players who helped UCLA to a 31-2 record and the national championship in 1995. Among those he attracted to Westwood are Charles O’Bannon, Toby Bailey, J.R. Henderson, Kris Johnson and last season’s freshman sensation, center Jelani McCoy.

Romar formed strong bonds with Bruin players, a practice he intends to continue at Pepperdine. He says the Waves have a different perspective than their UCLA counterparts, who are accustomed to the limelight because they play in a high-profile program.

“UCLA kids have just been so much more out in the public,” he said. “They’ve been to every social function. . . . These players [at Pepperdine] are more down-home kind of guys. It doesn’t take a whole lot to make them happy. They’re kind of content, but that doesn’t mean they’re content with losing. They want to win.”

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Romar said his primary objective is to create a winner’s mentality. Pepperdine is 18-37 over the past two seasons, including 6-22 in WCC regular-season play.

“Winning just doesn’t mean you show up on the floor Oct. 15 and say, ‘OK guys, let’s go get it done,’ ” he said. “Winning has a lot to do with character.”

As Romar speaks, he is sitting under his credo painted high on the wall in Pepperdine’s newly refurbished locker room: “Character is what you are when no one but God is watching.”

“I think that’s real important,” he said. “In tough times, hard times, character is what’s going to pull you through.”

From what he’s seen, Romar doesn’t anticipate having a problem getting his message across to Pepperdine’s players.

“They’re like sponges,” he said. “They just want to learn, and that’s what you want. They’re not spoiled. That’s refreshing.”