October 27, 2022 • 25 mins
This week's guest on KJ Live is Pepperdine University Men's Basketball Head Coach Lorenzo Romar. KJ and Coach Romar chop it up about the 2022-2023 Waves, their offseason preparation which included a trip to Costa Rica, and what it will take to compete for a conference title. KJ and Coach Romar also reflect on their time together at UCLA, winning the 1995 Championship, and how the Bruins coaching staff convinced Head Coach Jim Harrick to give KJ a scholarship. KJ also picks Coach Romar's brain about why the state of Washington has produced so many high-level basketball talents in recent years, his amazing run at the University of Washington (11 First Round NBA Draft picks), and how good former NBA player Brandon Roy could've been. #allball
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This Yes, kJ Live with Chris john Salli and Chris
is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You are
now teamed in to kJ Live. Today's guest on the show.
(00:24):
We spent twenty five seasons as a head coach of
this compowder, record of four hundred and forty five and
three hundred fifty five. Today, he won a national championship,
is an assistant coach at u C l A and
is currently the head coach of Pepperdine Waves Men's basketball.
Please welcome in the great Lorenzo Romar to the show.
(00:48):
Coach Romar, what's happened my man? How you doing, Kristan?
I'm great, coach, got this little show. Thank you for
taking some time to come on. Man. You know life
is good, coach house, life been for you. It's been fine, man. Yeah,
I have no complaints. Man. Yeah. Good. So whoever drew
that picture you in the background, they did a great job.
(01:12):
I appreciate it. Man. That shout out to the team
over at the I Heart Radio. They looked that up
a little some some coach. That's make me feel like
I'm big time uh coach. I wanted to get right
to it. I'm glad I got you on the show.
I want to talk about just a little bit about
this year's team, your outlook for the twenty three season.
I mean, you've got some guys Maxwell Lewis, Michael Mitchell,
(01:33):
um um, some other guys in there that are really
poised to have big years. What's your outlook expectations and
do you even level set for seasons like you're entering
and this year. You know, I think we have some
really good pieces. But we have pieces. You have to
learn how to win. We have to, uh learn how
(01:54):
to pull out games. Often times last year we were
in games for third minutes and then we would falter
down the stretch. And again being young, that that can happen.
But we need to take the next step and if
we can. I feel good about our team. Like I said,
I think we have some good pieces. What does the
offseason preparation look like for you with your guys in
(02:18):
the summertime and kind of you know, folks, you know,
as you head until the fall, what did that look like?
And and did guys get better? Yeah, that's one of
the things you get back. Remember when UH play for
coach Harrotck, you know, you would always talk about, UH,
you build your individual game in the summer, you build
your team in the fall in the winter, and it's
(02:41):
it's very important that you go out in the summer
man and you you grind it. You grind it and
you do everything that you can to get better. And
that's where passion comes in. Those that that have a
passion for the game, those are the ones that you
see developing the summers. The ones that don't, they don't
they come back maybe just a little bit better because
because they're a little older. But the ones that make
the big jumps have passion for the game. And I
(03:03):
feel like we have some of those guys that have
that passion. In June and July were able to get
out there four hours a week on the floor with
our guys and work out. And this year we took
a foreign tour to Costa Rica, so we were able
to practice ten times before we took that tour. So
being on the floors, young guys are incoming freshman getting
(03:24):
acclimated to our system, the other guys reviewing it, kind
of getting the head start on the season. And then
some weight training and conditioning, as well as taking classes
in the summer. But between all those things, uh, we
feel we were able to make some progress during the summer. No. Absolutely,
It seems like in the summertime there's just never enough time,
(03:44):
especially when you got a new group to acclimate. You
got ten practices. You wish it was more like thirty.
But you may do. We may do what you got.
Coach Um, I had a question for you because our
relationship obviously goes back to U C l A. But
I met you before then leave. We were in Cincinnati
or something at the AID. Yeah, Scottsdale, Scottsdale. It wasn't
(04:06):
it was insane. It was in Cincinnati, Cincinnati. Yeah, So
so we we go way back, coach, And one of
my most vivid memories of my college experience with you
as my assistant coach was our one on one games
the coach coach the knockout, you know, for for my listeners.
Coach Romar played in the NBA high level, played at
(04:28):
you dub major league point guard with a lot of
herpie jerky hesitation, change your page, changing direction, you know,
crazy high arching threes and then he'll run away and
fall off into the stands. I mean, he used to
do it all. Coach Romar, I had a question for you,
and you still do You still get down in ones
with the guys or you leave that stuff to the
(04:48):
guys like Jeral Browner or some of your younger assistants. Man,
I hate to say it. I can't give it to
him anymore, to him anymore. What I'm what I'm really
good at right now is calling somebody out, challenging somebody.
Of course it's got to be my ball right one
possession hey, and and usually goes in that one possession,
(05:10):
and it's like, you know what I'm I'm through, man,
I don't hate y'all. Forget y'all. Many y'are not do
an I'm that guy. Now, what do you still go
to the jab? Triple threat jab game jumper? I mean,
what what's your go to move? Just this last thing
on this? You got to scout You got to scout down. Hey,
That's all I got. I'm not gonna go buy anybody.
(05:32):
I just gotta jab you to get off me. I
love it. I love it goes in after that. That's
all I got. Oh man, that's hilarious. Coach, think about
I'm not. Hey, I'm not like you. You You you were
a bucket. Well yeah, with the bucket, the footwork extraordinary.
I learned for some good from some good ones. You know,
Pops had me around, you know, a lot of pros
early and you know you're soaking You're soaking up like
(05:53):
a sponge man. You did that, Yeah, no question. But
back to are you s l a days coach? I mean,
my find Another one of my fondest memories was obviously
winning the championship. Um. We were all heartbroken. Um And
I've never really publicly talked about this, but after the championship,
you you obviously had a chance to advance your career
(06:14):
and go to Pepperdine as for your first stentis head coach.
I always wanted to know kind of publicly as close
as we were to you, as much as we loved you,
and and it's well documented how much we all love
coach Romar. How hard was it to leave that u
c l A group or was it hard and easy
at the same time because you were achieving sort of
(06:37):
a first kind of goal as becoming a head coach
in college? It was extremely hard, extremely hard. And then
even when I went on to become a head coach.
I had to leave a couple of times. And it
was extremely hard when when we were together at U
C l A. You know, as far as recruiting and
spending all the time together and the phone calls and
(06:59):
time away from from the court, you know, time laughed together,
cry together, all that stuff, you know, and uh, you
feel a bond, You're feel an attachment and to where
it's almost like a movie where you don't want to
leave because you want to see how it ends and
(07:19):
to be there with you guys to see how it
was gonna end. You know, it was hard to to
uh to leave that. And but again it was for
a situation where I was able to become a head
coach and and and move from there. But it was
it was difficult. There was some one on one conversations
and but uh, everybody was just fine. Yeah, everybody was
(07:43):
just fine. I can't say we would have turned out
the same way had you stayed, but who knows now, Uh,
you know, hindsight is always, Uh, coach, what made you
believe that a six four and three quarter two hundred
and seventy five pounds center out of Crenshaw High School
could play I was to seventy five, could play at
(08:05):
u C l A and contribute in the Pac ten.
How did you could, guys convince Poach Herrick to take
a flyer on me because he didn't like my game
at first? Coach, I know this, so you don't don't
try to play it off. I know what's up, coach,
Coach rolling? Interesting interesting story. Uh, Chris, you were you
were one of those that had passion. You love to play,
(08:26):
you love to work out, and you know, we we
knew it was in the jeans as well. You know
with your the DNA that was in year. It was
in there, and you know, people act like you were
this late bloomer. You were the were two times city
player of the year. Yeah, I believe that if you
can recollect yeah right right, yeah, yeah, you were the
(08:49):
player of the year. You could play. The question is
what position does he play? He's undersize what you know,
who does he guard? And it was kind of figure
that out for the other four guys. Just have him
on the court in that matter position he plays. And uh,
I'll tell you we kept talking to coach about you.
About coach. We're telling you we'll put our reputation we'll
(09:10):
put our jobs on the line. But Chris, Chris can play.
Chris can play for us? You think, so, yeah, but
what position? Uh, Coach, let's go watch and play. So
we drive out to cal Poly Pomona to watch you play,
and coach Eric hadn't seen you play yet. So it's
(09:32):
him and I and we're talking. I'm saying that, just coach,
just remember now, this is his game and don't expect this.
He's not just gonna be flying through the air dunking
on everybody. That's not his game. He's just going to
be able to score it whenever he wants to score it.
And we said, he said, all right, all right, I'm listening,
I'm gonna watch. And we get there. I think we're
(09:53):
two minutes late for your game. We walk in, we
sit down, and we weren't there for two minutes. When
you out of rebound, you busted out of the pack
and drove the land, drove coast to coast, and someone
got in your way and drew a charge and you
hurt your ankle on the same place. Do you remember
(10:14):
that your ankle? And you were done and he said,
roma r, let's go, let's go. We got up and left,
and then you continued to just dominate the circuit that summer.
(10:39):
So finally we were all in coaches houses condo and
him and the staff, myself, coach laughing, Coach Godfrey. We
were all over there and we're just telling him, coach,
just it doesn't matter what you take. We gotta we
gotta take. He said. We said, look, you know what,
let's call Ed Pepper rest in peace, blessing soul. Let's
(11:00):
call Ed Pepper, who was at the time the winning
his coach and the state of Washington history. He was
a coach at Mercer Island and he was coached against you,
and in a game you had thirty one of your
many times that you had thirty, and just forched him.
So we put him on speaker phone. We said, Coach Pepper,
just tell us how good is Chris Johnson And what
(11:20):
do you think you think he could play? U C
l A. He says, I just know we had nobody
to guard him. He said his footwork was was impeccable.
We couldn't stop him. And then he was a tough kid.
He got the rebounds and he went on and on,
and we said, all right, we're all staring at coach
while he's telling us this, right because he's on speaker
(11:41):
phone on and he hung up, and uh, coach eventually
decided to take you. And eventually, at one time you
were leading the entire conference and scoring right before you left. Yeah,
that's right, exactly, that's so brother. Well, I appreciate that, coach,
and I appreciate you guys for going to bad for me.
(12:02):
You know, I know it could be tough sometimes when
you got a player that was like me. I wasn't
fashionable back then. I would be fashionable now because they
people I'm like a Bruce Brown or Draymond Green, where
you know, six four or six five, and you know,
we could get this going. But back then they wanted
the stereotypes, not the stereotype, but the prototypes of of
of a forward or guard. So but I appreciate PJ.
(12:25):
Tucker absolutely. I mean I didn't have that defensive prowess
is PJ. But everything else I could do it and
not just as good, if not better, But I really
appreciate it. That and we capped that thing with with
a championship and that was just an amazing experience. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
(12:47):
s R to listen live. But coach, speaking of the
state of Washington, you you brought up ed Pepple, You
went up to you dub after I believe it was St. Louis.
You're standing St. Louis right, because you follow you follow
spoonball swoon ouncer. And I remember that you did the St.
Louis thing for a little bit, very competitive there, and
then you went to you dub, you dub. You coach
seventeen players taken in the NBA Draft, including eleven first rounders.
(13:12):
One of my favorite players of all time and during
your tenure is Brandon Roy. Coach, how special was Brandon Roy?
And how special could he have been if it were
not for the injuries? Grandon, let me just tell you this,
he was extremely gifted. And you sit down and watch
an NBA game or college game or any game and
(13:34):
listen to him analyze the game, and you listen to
his comments, and at some point you're gonna go, my goodness,
I mean, he's just a brilliant high basketball like you.
He uh had trouble passing the s a t. He
finally passed it, so he became eligible in January of
(13:55):
his freshman year. He couldn't practice with us because of that,
and he comes out and uh, we talked. I said,
hey man, you passed your eligible to play, so let's
go up and he was fired up. Let's go up
to the gym and just trying to teach you best
we can the offense. And he learned it in forty
(14:15):
five minutes. Forty five minutes something that everybody else was
still trying to learn after several months. Forty five minutes
and knew it. And we go out and play and
it was just you couldn't speed him up. He could
play around the rim with either hand, he could pass
the ball, he could dribble the basketball. He just was
(14:36):
He was just a phenomenal player. And you know, I
remember his junior year, we did our research. He was
thinking about coming out, by the way, he would have
liked to going straight out of high school if he could.
He realized he wasn't quite ready and take his credit.
He continued to work and after his junior year, we
did our research and NBA's feedback was that he was
going to be a second rounder. And he said, well,
(14:59):
that's not what my goals are. He says, I'm coming
back to school. I don't need to go to the
pre draft camp. He said, I'll come back to school.
He comes back and uh, he was just phenomenal and
just put us on his back, and uh did some
extraordinary things as a senior. And we went to the
sweet six team and it wasn't for the dumb coach
(15:20):
not call making us file. They hit the three points
to send the game, and over time, you can, yeah,
I remember that game. Understand that. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah,
we just had a good chance to go to the
final four. What's really funny, I'm looking at your face.
Usually you would say something like, yeah, what happened with that?
Why did No? No, I'm not gonna do that. I'm
not gonna do that right now, but I'm thinking it.
(15:42):
I'm thinking it, but I'm not gonna do that. But anyway,
that's how good of a basketball player he was. He gone.
He went on to become the sixth pick in the draft,
first team All America, Rookie of the Year, and then
an NBA All Start And I believe, I truly believe
he would have been in the Basketball Hall of Fame
(16:02):
and one has gone down is one of the greatest
guards to ever played. Again, I agree with that assessment. Coach.
We're not for his knee injuries. That's what prevented him
from doing Yeah. Absolutely, I mean a big guard high
i Q could make all the shots. Even Kobe had
the highest of praises for Brandon Roy, but coach a
lot of them guys out of that area UM during
(16:23):
your years and even a little bit before you kind
of fit that mold I would. I've been talking to
different Cats about the state of Washington. So Roberto Bergerson
is a guy that's gonna be in a couple of
weeks on an episode, and we talked at length about
just the culture of basketball up in that Seattle Tacoma
area up in Washington. Can you talk about just what
(16:47):
that connectivity is like in that basketball culture and why
it produces so many high level UH basketball players that
fit a certain mode high i Q skilled and usually
with some size. I've never seen anything like it, and
I've been there a lot of cities, a lot of
states have been around basketball a long time. You know,
(17:07):
the Doug Christie's and Michael Dickerson's Donnie Marsh some of
those guys began to pay the weight for these guys
and to create kind of that interest, that thirst. And
then Jamal Crawford was so dynamic in high school, so dynamic,
an absolute wizard, charismatic and a great, great human being,
(17:29):
to where there's so many that just they wanted to
be doing what Jamal Crawford did. You know. Right after that,
Jason Terry and so on and so forth, Well, Jamal
kind of was the guy that really started from Seattle
started to mentor some of the younger kids, you know,
and that was right around you know, Jason Terry and
those guys, and then the Brandon Roys came around and
(17:52):
they would mentor Isaiah Thomas's and then Isaiah Thomas with
with mentor you know, Nate Robinson, Will Conroy. These guys
kept they continue to hand down their knowledge and work
with these kids, and uh, it was just a thing
of beauty. And you know they would come up to
the University of Washington all the time and and work
(18:13):
out and use the gym, and and you're right, it's
carried all the way down now to Pollo Ben Carroll
to where those same guys that mentor and you watch
he's gonna be mentoring some kids, he's gonna be mentoring
the next ones, and it just keeps getting handed down.
And that's why I think he continued as one of
the reasons you continue to see great talent come out
(18:33):
of the Seattle Tacoma area. Yeah, and I like, what
something that something someone talked about as far as like
how that area you have like coaches that kind of
instilled this foundation of fundamentals and drilling, and then you
had the athletes and sort of that thing kind of
married that that that match, that match of athleticism with
that old school sort of fundamentals and you know, you know,
(18:55):
the drilling of that side of the game, and that's
why a lot of those guys are so guild and talented.
I mean, when I'm looking at your resume, coach, and
you coached the number one pick in the draft, I mean,
you've coached a six pick. You've coached a bunch of
high level guys from that area, and um, I just
want to say, man, props to you for that, coach.
I got a couple more questions for you. I know,
(19:16):
you got films and stuff like that, and you gotta go.
But I wanted to know this because no one ever
talks about this and this hit me out the blue
when you took the job, talk to me about this.
You've been on the sidelines at u c l A,
you dubed and you have a coach. What was that
year behind the bear down iron curtain? Like? I always
wanted to know about what was that experience like in
(19:37):
Arizona coach, because that was that was an interesting thing
when I read it across the ticker. You know, it
had to be interesting, right because competing against Arizona all
those years at U c l A and then even
at Washington, there was a time when you know, we
were able to win a couple of championships and uh
beat them out and you know, they they were the
top dog a lot of times with U c l A.
(20:00):
And it was interesting, as you said, going behind the
scenes there. Uh, they have a really nice operation over there.
The support fan support is unbelievable. You you really can
feel that there. It happened to be the year where
there was the FBI investigation. It happened to be that year,
my only year that was there. But I'm gonna tell
(20:21):
you what, Uh it wasn't always fun because of that.
But aside from that, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with Sean Miller and
the assistance the group that I was with. It was
I just really enjoyed it, really enjoyed my time. Man,
that was a really interesting time. You guys did pretty
good that season. I think he won twenty seven games.
(20:43):
I mean, obviously coached the big time players, but that
I always wanted to ask you that coach one more
question then I'll let you go. I wanted to just
talk to you about how the n I L and
the Transfer Portal has either altered or affected the way
that you're approach to recruiting. Has that cause you to
(21:04):
sort of change up the way you do things a
little bit, or are you sticking to your guns um
and and kind of gonna do things how you've always
done them. First of all, I think the n I
L is great, I really do. The n I L
to me is a modern version of back in the day,
long time ago. You get recruited, Hey can you get
me a summer job? You know, and they provide summer
(21:25):
job for you, right, so, so now it's not the
summer job as much as an N I L. I
do think the question I had asked before, how will
you monitor it? And that's the thing that I think
the n C double A is still working through. And Uh,
there's definitely the rich can get richer with it because
a lot of programs aren't able to provide what some
(21:46):
others can with that N I L situation. So I
think it's great. It just has to be worked out. Uh.
The transfer porter is something that I don't like at all.
I really don't like that at all. Why not coach? Well?
I think when you combine the two, then I think
players get soft and don't learn how to stick things out.
(22:07):
I think, I mean, Chris, if you would, uh this
is day and age, you could just leave and you'd
be eligible the next year. I mean, I don't know
if you have stayed at U C L A. I
don't know if there I can name me a lot
of players that wouldn't have stayed at the school that
they were staying. And I'm not talking about where they
went somewhere and it worked out. I'm talking about where
(22:27):
they stayed and it worked out, and you're glad they
didn't lead, and they learned so many lessons because of it.
I just think when you combine the two, it's just
easier to to not have two feet on the ground
where you are. And I don't think you learned from that.
Our approach as uh, you know, maybe it won't be effective,
but try to find those that, uh, that's not the
(22:51):
number one thing they're looking for. The first thing something
goes wrong, I'm gonna blame someone and jump ship. We're
trying to find those that have a passion for the
game and are are committed to what you're doing. Character.
I mean, I think character is important now, being loyal
when you make a commitment, stick to it, and also
not giving these kids. Sure you can give them whatever,
(23:12):
but there still needs to be a level of accountability
in the sense of you earn this, um, you know,
everything just can't be handed to you. I feel like
if a kid signs in an I L deal, I
question you know his motivation. I've heard kids talk about
how I'm gonna work harder once I get the n
I L. But you don't see that. But you necessarily
don't see that all the time. You're about dudes like
(23:33):
so because because getting fifty dollars in your bank account
is like a you know, transcendent type of experience. You know,
you you know your body, you don't know what your
minds at that age. You see all the zeros coaching. Yeah,
but I don't you know, I don't say this is
this is terrible. I don't say that all. I think
(23:53):
if the student athlete can get that, it's great. Uh,
but we're not gonna change. We're not gonna baby someone
because they might leave. We're not gonna do that. Uh.
Then I feel like I'm cheating the kids that we're coaching.
If we're gonna do that, you're gonna have to go
out there in the real world and you're gonna have
to survival when it's tough. You're gonna have to make
it through. So again, hopefully, if we can recruit kids
(24:15):
that have the makeup, the mental makeup to be able
to weather the storm, then we can we can be Okay,
absolutely coach. Last question, w C C. Laugh is down
in San Diego. The Zags are the Zags. St Mary's
is gonna be St. Mary's. How does Pepperdine get into
the mix, crack that mix and then get into the tournament.
How do you do it this year. I think this
(24:38):
will be the first year that we've been here that
we feel we have built a solid, solid foundation. And
I think we have some talent. I think we have
some players with some passion for the game. We've been younger,
we've had injuries. I think this is the first year
where we're solid and when you say, how are you
gonna do that, We're gonna worry more about ourselves and
(25:01):
get where we are, build on this foundation, and then, UM,
I'm not good at predictions, but uh, we'll see what happens.
That's all good cause we'll be pulling from you. I
might come out to a game in Malibu come check
you out. UM, I appreciate you today for coming on
kJ Live. Ladies and gentlemen. Coach Lorenzo Romar, keep doing
what you're doing. Man, you're doing great. Yes, sir, I
(25:23):
appreciate your coach,
This Yes, kJ Live with Chris john Salli and Chris
is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You are
now teamed in to kJ Live. Today's guest on the show.
(00:24):
We spent twenty five seasons as a head coach of
this compowder, record of four hundred and forty five and
three hundred fifty five. Today, he won a national championship,
is an assistant coach at u C l A and
is currently the head coach of Pepperdine Waves Men's basketball.
Please welcome in the great Lorenzo Romar to the show.
(00:48):
Coach Romar, what's happened my man? How you doing, Kristan?
I'm great, coach, got this little show. Thank you for
taking some time to come on. Man. You know life
is good, coach house, life been for you. It's been fine, man. Yeah,
I have no complaints. Man. Yeah. Good. So whoever drew
that picture you in the background, they did a great job.
(01:12):
I appreciate it. Man. That shout out to the team
over at the I Heart Radio. They looked that up
a little some some coach. That's make me feel like
I'm big time uh coach. I wanted to get right
to it. I'm glad I got you on the show.
I want to talk about just a little bit about
this year's team, your outlook for the twenty three season.
I mean, you've got some guys Maxwell Lewis, Michael Mitchell,
(01:33):
um um, some other guys in there that are really
poised to have big years. What's your outlook expectations and
do you even level set for seasons like you're entering
and this year. You know, I think we have some
really good pieces. But we have pieces. You have to
learn how to win. We have to, uh learn how
(01:54):
to pull out games. Often times last year we were
in games for third minutes and then we would falter
down the stretch. And again being young, that that can happen.
But we need to take the next step and if
we can. I feel good about our team. Like I said,
I think we have some good pieces. What does the
offseason preparation look like for you with your guys in
(02:18):
the summertime and kind of you know, folks, you know,
as you head until the fall, what did that look like?
And and did guys get better? Yeah, that's one of
the things you get back. Remember when UH play for
coach Harrotck, you know, you would always talk about, UH,
you build your individual game in the summer, you build
your team in the fall in the winter, and it's
(02:41):
it's very important that you go out in the summer
man and you you grind it. You grind it and
you do everything that you can to get better. And
that's where passion comes in. Those that that have a
passion for the game, those are the ones that you
see developing the summers. The ones that don't, they don't
they come back maybe just a little bit better because
because they're a little older. But the ones that make
the big jumps have passion for the game. And I
(03:03):
feel like we have some of those guys that have
that passion. In June and July were able to get
out there four hours a week on the floor with
our guys and work out. And this year we took
a foreign tour to Costa Rica, so we were able
to practice ten times before we took that tour. So
being on the floors, young guys are incoming freshman getting
(03:24):
acclimated to our system, the other guys reviewing it, kind
of getting the head start on the season. And then
some weight training and conditioning, as well as taking classes
in the summer. But between all those things, uh, we
feel we were able to make some progress during the summer. No. Absolutely,
It seems like in the summertime there's just never enough time,
(03:44):
especially when you got a new group to acclimate. You
got ten practices. You wish it was more like thirty.
But you may do. We may do what you got.
Coach Um, I had a question for you because our
relationship obviously goes back to U C l A. But
I met you before then leave. We were in Cincinnati
or something at the AID. Yeah, Scottsdale, Scottsdale. It wasn't
(04:06):
it was insane. It was in Cincinnati, Cincinnati. Yeah, So
so we we go way back, coach, And one of
my most vivid memories of my college experience with you
as my assistant coach was our one on one games
the coach coach the knockout, you know, for for my listeners.
Coach Romar played in the NBA high level, played at
(04:28):
you dub major league point guard with a lot of
herpie jerky hesitation, change your page, changing direction, you know,
crazy high arching threes and then he'll run away and
fall off into the stands. I mean, he used to
do it all. Coach Romar, I had a question for you,
and you still do You still get down in ones
with the guys or you leave that stuff to the
(04:48):
guys like Jeral Browner or some of your younger assistants. Man,
I hate to say it. I can't give it to
him anymore, to him anymore. What I'm what I'm really
good at right now is calling somebody out, challenging somebody.
Of course it's got to be my ball right one
possession hey, and and usually goes in that one possession,
(05:10):
and it's like, you know what I'm I'm through, man,
I don't hate y'all. Forget y'all. Many y'are not do
an I'm that guy. Now, what do you still go
to the jab? Triple threat jab game jumper? I mean,
what what's your go to move? Just this last thing
on this? You got to scout You got to scout down. Hey,
That's all I got. I'm not gonna go buy anybody.
(05:32):
I just gotta jab you to get off me. I
love it. I love it goes in after that. That's
all I got. Oh man, that's hilarious. Coach, think about
I'm not. Hey, I'm not like you. You You you were
a bucket. Well yeah, with the bucket, the footwork extraordinary.
I learned for some good from some good ones. You know,
Pops had me around, you know, a lot of pros
early and you know you're soaking You're soaking up like
(05:53):
a sponge man. You did that, Yeah, no question. But
back to are you s l a days coach? I mean,
my find Another one of my fondest memories was obviously
winning the championship. Um. We were all heartbroken. Um And
I've never really publicly talked about this, but after the championship,
you you obviously had a chance to advance your career
(06:14):
and go to Pepperdine as for your first stentis head coach.
I always wanted to know kind of publicly as close
as we were to you, as much as we loved you,
and and it's well documented how much we all love
coach Romar. How hard was it to leave that u
c l A group or was it hard and easy
at the same time because you were achieving sort of
(06:37):
a first kind of goal as becoming a head coach
in college? It was extremely hard, extremely hard. And then
even when I went on to become a head coach.
I had to leave a couple of times. And it
was extremely hard when when we were together at U
C l A. You know, as far as recruiting and
spending all the time together and the phone calls and
(06:59):
time away from from the court, you know, time laughed together,
cry together, all that stuff, you know, and uh, you
feel a bond, You're feel an attachment and to where
it's almost like a movie where you don't want to
leave because you want to see how it ends and
(07:19):
to be there with you guys to see how it
was gonna end. You know, it was hard to to
uh to leave that. And but again it was for
a situation where I was able to become a head
coach and and and move from there. But it was
it was difficult. There was some one on one conversations
and but uh, everybody was just fine. Yeah, everybody was
(07:43):
just fine. I can't say we would have turned out
the same way had you stayed, but who knows now, Uh,
you know, hindsight is always, Uh, coach, what made you
believe that a six four and three quarter two hundred
and seventy five pounds center out of Crenshaw High School
could play I was to seventy five, could play at
(08:05):
u C l A and contribute in the Pac ten.
How did you could, guys convince Poach Herrick to take
a flyer on me because he didn't like my game
at first? Coach, I know this, so you don't don't
try to play it off. I know what's up, coach,
Coach rolling? Interesting interesting story. Uh, Chris, you were you
were one of those that had passion. You love to play,
(08:26):
you love to work out, and you know, we we
knew it was in the jeans as well. You know
with your the DNA that was in year. It was
in there, and you know, people act like you were
this late bloomer. You were the were two times city
player of the year. Yeah, I believe that if you
can recollect yeah right right, yeah, yeah, you were the
(08:49):
player of the year. You could play. The question is
what position does he play? He's undersize what you know,
who does he guard? And it was kind of figure
that out for the other four guys. Just have him
on the court in that matter position he plays. And uh,
I'll tell you we kept talking to coach about you.
About coach. We're telling you we'll put our reputation we'll
(09:10):
put our jobs on the line. But Chris, Chris can play.
Chris can play for us? You think, so, yeah, but
what position? Uh, Coach, let's go watch and play. So
we drive out to cal Poly Pomona to watch you play,
and coach Eric hadn't seen you play yet. So it's
(09:32):
him and I and we're talking. I'm saying that, just coach,
just remember now, this is his game and don't expect this.
He's not just gonna be flying through the air dunking
on everybody. That's not his game. He's just going to
be able to score it whenever he wants to score it.
And we said, he said, all right, all right, I'm listening,
I'm gonna watch. And we get there. I think we're
(09:53):
two minutes late for your game. We walk in, we
sit down, and we weren't there for two minutes. When
you out of rebound, you busted out of the pack
and drove the land, drove coast to coast, and someone
got in your way and drew a charge and you
hurt your ankle on the same place. Do you remember
(10:14):
that your ankle? And you were done and he said,
roma r, let's go, let's go. We got up and left,
and then you continued to just dominate the circuit that summer.
(10:39):
So finally we were all in coaches houses condo and
him and the staff, myself, coach laughing, Coach Godfrey. We
were all over there and we're just telling him, coach,
just it doesn't matter what you take. We gotta we
gotta take. He said. We said, look, you know what,
let's call Ed Pepper rest in peace, blessing soul. Let's
(11:00):
call Ed Pepper, who was at the time the winning
his coach and the state of Washington history. He was
a coach at Mercer Island and he was coached against you,
and in a game you had thirty one of your
many times that you had thirty, and just forched him.
So we put him on speaker phone. We said, Coach Pepper,
just tell us how good is Chris Johnson And what
(11:20):
do you think you think he could play? U C
l A. He says, I just know we had nobody
to guard him. He said his footwork was was impeccable.
We couldn't stop him. And then he was a tough kid.
He got the rebounds and he went on and on,
and we said, all right, we're all staring at coach
while he's telling us this, right because he's on speaker
(11:41):
phone on and he hung up, and uh, coach eventually
decided to take you. And eventually, at one time you
were leading the entire conference and scoring right before you left. Yeah,
that's right, exactly, that's so brother. Well, I appreciate that, coach,
and I appreciate you guys for going to bad for me.
(12:02):
You know, I know it could be tough sometimes when
you got a player that was like me. I wasn't
fashionable back then. I would be fashionable now because they
people I'm like a Bruce Brown or Draymond Green, where
you know, six four or six five, and you know,
we could get this going. But back then they wanted
the stereotypes, not the stereotype, but the prototypes of of
of a forward or guard. So but I appreciate PJ.
(12:25):
Tucker absolutely. I mean I didn't have that defensive prowess
is PJ. But everything else I could do it and
not just as good, if not better, But I really
appreciate it. That and we capped that thing with with
a championship and that was just an amazing experience. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
(12:47):
s R to listen live. But coach, speaking of the
state of Washington, you you brought up ed Pepple, You
went up to you dub after I believe it was St. Louis.
You're standing St. Louis right, because you follow you follow
spoonball swoon ouncer. And I remember that you did the St.
Louis thing for a little bit, very competitive there, and
then you went to you dub, you dub. You coach
seventeen players taken in the NBA Draft, including eleven first rounders.
(13:12):
One of my favorite players of all time and during
your tenure is Brandon Roy. Coach, how special was Brandon Roy?
And how special could he have been if it were
not for the injuries? Grandon, let me just tell you this,
he was extremely gifted. And you sit down and watch
an NBA game or college game or any game and
(13:34):
listen to him analyze the game, and you listen to
his comments, and at some point you're gonna go, my goodness,
I mean, he's just a brilliant high basketball like you.
He uh had trouble passing the s a t. He
finally passed it, so he became eligible in January of
(13:55):
his freshman year. He couldn't practice with us because of that,
and he comes out and uh, we talked. I said,
hey man, you passed your eligible to play, so let's
go up and he was fired up. Let's go up
to the gym and just trying to teach you best
we can the offense. And he learned it in forty
(14:15):
five minutes. Forty five minutes something that everybody else was
still trying to learn after several months. Forty five minutes
and knew it. And we go out and play and
it was just you couldn't speed him up. He could
play around the rim with either hand, he could pass
the ball, he could dribble the basketball. He just was
(14:36):
He was just a phenomenal player. And you know, I
remember his junior year, we did our research. He was
thinking about coming out, by the way, he would have
liked to going straight out of high school if he could.
He realized he wasn't quite ready and take his credit.
He continued to work and after his junior year, we
did our research and NBA's feedback was that he was
going to be a second rounder. And he said, well,
(14:59):
that's not what my goals are. He says, I'm coming
back to school. I don't need to go to the
pre draft camp. He said, I'll come back to school.
He comes back and uh, he was just phenomenal and
just put us on his back, and uh did some
extraordinary things as a senior. And we went to the
sweet six team and it wasn't for the dumb coach
(15:20):
not call making us file. They hit the three points
to send the game, and over time, you can, yeah,
I remember that game. Understand that. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah,
we just had a good chance to go to the
final four. What's really funny, I'm looking at your face.
Usually you would say something like, yeah, what happened with that?
Why did No? No, I'm not gonna do that. I'm
not gonna do that right now, but I'm thinking it.
(15:42):
I'm thinking it, but I'm not gonna do that. But anyway,
that's how good of a basketball player he was. He gone.
He went on to become the sixth pick in the draft,
first team All America, Rookie of the Year, and then
an NBA All Start And I believe, I truly believe
he would have been in the Basketball Hall of Fame
(16:02):
and one has gone down is one of the greatest
guards to ever played. Again, I agree with that assessment. Coach.
We're not for his knee injuries. That's what prevented him
from doing Yeah. Absolutely, I mean a big guard high
i Q could make all the shots. Even Kobe had
the highest of praises for Brandon Roy, but coach a
lot of them guys out of that area UM during
(16:23):
your years and even a little bit before you kind
of fit that mold I would. I've been talking to
different Cats about the state of Washington. So Roberto Bergerson
is a guy that's gonna be in a couple of
weeks on an episode, and we talked at length about
just the culture of basketball up in that Seattle Tacoma
area up in Washington. Can you talk about just what
(16:47):
that connectivity is like in that basketball culture and why
it produces so many high level UH basketball players that
fit a certain mode high i Q skilled and usually
with some size. I've never seen anything like it, and
I've been there a lot of cities, a lot of
states have been around basketball a long time. You know,
(17:07):
the Doug Christie's and Michael Dickerson's Donnie Marsh some of
those guys began to pay the weight for these guys
and to create kind of that interest, that thirst. And
then Jamal Crawford was so dynamic in high school, so dynamic,
an absolute wizard, charismatic and a great, great human being,
(17:29):
to where there's so many that just they wanted to
be doing what Jamal Crawford did. You know. Right after that,
Jason Terry and so on and so forth, Well, Jamal
kind of was the guy that really started from Seattle
started to mentor some of the younger kids, you know,
and that was right around you know, Jason Terry and
those guys, and then the Brandon Roys came around and
(17:52):
they would mentor Isaiah Thomas's and then Isaiah Thomas with
with mentor you know, Nate Robinson, Will Conroy. These guys
kept they continue to hand down their knowledge and work
with these kids, and uh, it was just a thing
of beauty. And you know they would come up to
the University of Washington all the time and and work
(18:13):
out and use the gym, and and you're right, it's
carried all the way down now to Pollo Ben Carroll
to where those same guys that mentor and you watch
he's gonna be mentoring some kids, he's gonna be mentoring
the next ones, and it just keeps getting handed down.
And that's why I think he continued as one of
the reasons you continue to see great talent come out
(18:33):
of the Seattle Tacoma area. Yeah, and I like, what
something that something someone talked about as far as like
how that area you have like coaches that kind of
instilled this foundation of fundamentals and drilling, and then you
had the athletes and sort of that thing kind of
married that that that match, that match of athleticism with
that old school sort of fundamentals and you know, you know,
(18:55):
the drilling of that side of the game, and that's
why a lot of those guys are so guild and talented.
I mean, when I'm looking at your resume, coach, and
you coached the number one pick in the draft, I mean,
you've coached a six pick. You've coached a bunch of
high level guys from that area, and um, I just
want to say, man, props to you for that, coach.
I got a couple more questions for you. I know,
(19:16):
you got films and stuff like that, and you gotta go.
But I wanted to know this because no one ever
talks about this and this hit me out the blue
when you took the job, talk to me about this.
You've been on the sidelines at u c l A,
you dubed and you have a coach. What was that
year behind the bear down iron curtain? Like? I always
wanted to know about what was that experience like in
(19:37):
Arizona coach, because that was that was an interesting thing
when I read it across the ticker. You know, it
had to be interesting, right because competing against Arizona all
those years at U c l A and then even
at Washington, there was a time when you know, we
were able to win a couple of championships and uh
beat them out and you know, they they were the
top dog a lot of times with U c l A.
(20:00):
And it was interesting, as you said, going behind the
scenes there. Uh, they have a really nice operation over there.
The support fan support is unbelievable. You you really can
feel that there. It happened to be the year where
there was the FBI investigation. It happened to be that year,
my only year that was there. But I'm gonna tell
(20:21):
you what, Uh it wasn't always fun because of that.
But aside from that, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with Sean Miller and
the assistance the group that I was with. It was
I just really enjoyed it, really enjoyed my time. Man,
that was a really interesting time. You guys did pretty
good that season. I think he won twenty seven games.
(20:43):
I mean, obviously coached the big time players, but that
I always wanted to ask you that coach one more
question then I'll let you go. I wanted to just
talk to you about how the n I L and
the Transfer Portal has either altered or affected the way
that you're approach to recruiting. Has that cause you to
(21:04):
sort of change up the way you do things a
little bit, or are you sticking to your guns um
and and kind of gonna do things how you've always
done them. First of all, I think the n I
L is great, I really do. The n I L
to me is a modern version of back in the day,
long time ago. You get recruited, Hey can you get
me a summer job? You know, and they provide summer
(21:25):
job for you, right, so, so now it's not the
summer job as much as an N I L. I
do think the question I had asked before, how will
you monitor it? And that's the thing that I think
the n C double A is still working through. And Uh,
there's definitely the rich can get richer with it because
a lot of programs aren't able to provide what some
(21:46):
others can with that N I L situation. So I
think it's great. It just has to be worked out. Uh.
The transfer porter is something that I don't like at all.
I really don't like that at all. Why not coach? Well?
I think when you combine the two, then I think
players get soft and don't learn how to stick things out.
(22:07):
I think, I mean, Chris, if you would, uh this
is day and age, you could just leave and you'd
be eligible the next year. I mean, I don't know
if you have stayed at U C L A. I
don't know if there I can name me a lot
of players that wouldn't have stayed at the school that
they were staying. And I'm not talking about where they
went somewhere and it worked out. I'm talking about where
(22:27):
they stayed and it worked out, and you're glad they
didn't lead, and they learned so many lessons because of it.
I just think when you combine the two, it's just
easier to to not have two feet on the ground
where you are. And I don't think you learned from that.
Our approach as uh, you know, maybe it won't be effective,
but try to find those that, uh, that's not the
(22:51):
number one thing they're looking for. The first thing something
goes wrong, I'm gonna blame someone and jump ship. We're
trying to find those that have a passion for the
game and are are committed to what you're doing. Character.
I mean, I think character is important now, being loyal
when you make a commitment, stick to it, and also
not giving these kids. Sure you can give them whatever,
(23:12):
but there still needs to be a level of accountability
in the sense of you earn this, um, you know,
everything just can't be handed to you. I feel like
if a kid signs in an I L deal, I
question you know his motivation. I've heard kids talk about
how I'm gonna work harder once I get the n
I L. But you don't see that. But you necessarily
don't see that all the time. You're about dudes like
(23:33):
so because because getting fifty dollars in your bank account
is like a you know, transcendent type of experience. You know,
you you know your body, you don't know what your
minds at that age. You see all the zeros coaching. Yeah,
but I don't you know, I don't say this is
this is terrible. I don't say that all. I think
(23:53):
if the student athlete can get that, it's great. Uh,
but we're not gonna change. We're not gonna baby someone
because they might leave. We're not gonna do that. Uh.
Then I feel like I'm cheating the kids that we're coaching.
If we're gonna do that, you're gonna have to go
out there in the real world and you're gonna have
to survival when it's tough. You're gonna have to make
it through. So again, hopefully, if we can recruit kids
(24:15):
that have the makeup, the mental makeup to be able
to weather the storm, then we can we can be Okay,
absolutely coach. Last question, w C C. Laugh is down
in San Diego. The Zags are the Zags. St Mary's
is gonna be St. Mary's. How does Pepperdine get into
the mix, crack that mix and then get into the tournament.
How do you do it this year. I think this
(24:38):
will be the first year that we've been here that
we feel we have built a solid, solid foundation. And
I think we have some talent. I think we have
some players with some passion for the game. We've been younger,
we've had injuries. I think this is the first year
where we're solid and when you say, how are you
gonna do that, We're gonna worry more about ourselves and
(25:01):
get where we are, build on this foundation, and then, UM,
I'm not good at predictions, but uh, we'll see what happens.
That's all good cause we'll be pulling from you. I
might come out to a game in Malibu come check
you out. UM, I appreciate you today for coming on
kJ Live. Ladies and gentlemen. Coach Lorenzo Romar, keep doing
what you're doing. Man, you're doing great. Yes, sir, I
(25:23):
appreciate your coach,
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