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Lorenzo Romar returning to Pepperdine as head coach

Pepperdine has elected to bring back Lorenzo Romar, who previously served as the Waves’ head coach from 1996-99. Romar’s teams finished 2nd in the WCC twice and went to the NIT in 1999.

Romar is most known for his fifteen-year tenure as the head coach at Washington, leading the Huskies to six NCAA Tournaments (three Sweet Sixteens), three NITs and one CBI. He excelled at recruiting, coaching sixteen future NBA players at UW including last year’s #1 overall pick Markelle Fultz. All in all, ten players coached by Romar have been selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.

The Waves struggled mightily the last two seasons under Marty Wilson, who was fired last month after going 88-129 since 2011. The team should, however, be returning each of the top five scorers from 2017-18, including WCC All-Freshman team and All-WCC honorable mention Colbey Ross.

After being let go by UW a year ago, Romar joined Sean Miller‘s staff at Arizona as associate head coach. He will stay with the Wildcats through the 2018 NCAA Tournament before officially taking over at Pepperdine once again.

“I grew up in Southern California and at this point in my career it was my preference to stay on the West Coast.,” Romar, 59, said in a statement Monday. “The Christian mission that Pepperdine stands for, its values, the fact that they are committed to putting forth the resources necessary to allow Pepperdine to get back to the highest level where they once were, all this is very exciting to me.”

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