Pepperdine is expected to hire Arizona basketball associate head coach Lorenzo Romar as its next head coach, according to unnamed sources quoted by FanRag.
An official announcement will likely come early this week, according to FanRag, and Romar is expected to remain with Arizona for the remainder of the season. Romar did not respond to message from the Star seeking comment.
The report came mere hours after Arizona captured its second consecutive Pac-12 Tournament title by knocking off USC in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Romar held his first head coaching job at Pepperdine from 1996–1999 after five years as a UCLA assistant. Romar then coached at St. Louis before beginning a 15-year stint as Washington's head coach in 2002. Romar won two Pac-10/12 conference championships and three tournament titles while coaching the Huskies.
Upon his hiring at the UA, Romar had hinted at his interest in becoming a head coach again sometime in the future, but said he was committed to Arizona.
“I am not coming here thinking, ‘OK, I’ll put up with this for a few months so that I can ... No. That’s not my train of thought," he said at his introductory UA press conference on April 20, 2017. "I’m here and locked in and we’ll just go and see what happens. I’m not in a hurry to get away from this situation.”
Romar, hired to Sean Miller's staff just last offseason, was a three-time Pac-12 coach of the year at Washington — in 2005, 2009 and 2012. He served as acting head coach for the Wildcats' game at Oregon on Feb. 24 after ESPN reported a day earlier that Miller allegedly discussed paying a recruit with an agent.
Former Pepperdine coach Marty Wilson, who coached the Waves for seven seasons with a 46-90 overall record, resigned following the team's second consecutive losing season. Wilson's Waves never reached the NIT or NCAA Tournament, and lost in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational twice.
Pepperdine finished dead last in the West Coast Conference this season — won outright by Gonzaga for the sixth straight year — with a 6-26 overall record and 2-16 conference record.
UW fired Romar in March 2017 after a dismal 9-22 season that saw the Huskies finish 11th in the Pac-12. He was making $1.7 million per year at the time of his dismissal. UA is paying him $400,000 as its assistant.
Though Romar played college ball at UW from 1978-1980, and coached there for 15 seasons, Arizona and Miller didn't hire him solely to recruit the Seattle area.
“It was never communicated to me by coach Miller that, ‘we’re bringing you in because we want you to get the Seattle kids,’” Romar said after being hired.
Allonzo Trier, an Arizona commit in the class of 2015 from Findlay Prep in Nevada, is from Seattle and was recruited by Romar at Washington.
Romar and Miller were unable to make a splash in the recruiting market this season in large part to Arizona's involvement in the sweeping federal probe into college basketball. The Wildcats are currently without a commit in their class of 2018, after Shareef O'Neal and Brandon Williams decommitted.
The assistant appeared to make quick work bonding with his new players at the UA last offseason, turning the heads of several Wildcats players.
“I met him two days ago and he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met in my life," senior Dusan Ristic said when Romar was hired. "He’s going to help not only me, but the rest of the team. He was head coach at Washington, but he accepted this role and I think it’s a great thing for us.”
Romar has coached the likes of several NBA talents at the college level, including Isaiah Thomas, Nate Robinson, Brandon Roy, Spencer Hawes, Quincy Pondexter, Terrence Ross and recent No. 1 overall draft pick Markelle Fultz, among others.
Mark Phelps would be Miller's remaining assistant should Romar take off for Pepperdine. Phelps joined Miller's staff in June 2015, and has spent a bulk of his time molding Arizona's big men, including Deandre Ayton, Kaleb Tarczewski and Ryan Anderson.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
