USD Men's Basketball 1996-1997

MIKING WAVfS Continued

"] asked Coach Harrick how much longe r he thought he'd be at UCLA," Romar said. "He said, 'Quite a long time,' and that sti rred my thinking: 'Do I want to be an assistant for that long?' I didn't come to UCLA to be an assistant. I came here to be a head coach. You love your mother and father and free room and board, but sooner or later you want to move out and go your own way." At that time, Romar, a Los Angeles nati ve, was considered a good bet to one day replace Harri ck on the UCLA throne. But not now. Not if the current UCLA administrati on is in place when Harri ck steps down-hi s con tract runs into the next century-because Romar hadn't so much as decorated hi s new offi ce when tur– moil moved in. Aware of the close personal relati onships Romar had developed with many Bruins, UCLA AthlPti c Director Peter Dalis asked that Romar not recruit any Bruins to Pepperdine. 'No prob– lem." Romar said, 'You have my word .' But when reserve center omm'A Givens asked to be released from hi s scholarship a few weeks after the season- to transfer to Pepperdine, no less-the Brnins flipped. Continued

WHEN RESERVE CENTER OMM'A GIVENS ASKED TO BE RELEASED FROM HIS SCHOLARSHIP AHWWHKS AFTER THE SEASON- TO TRANSFER TO PEPPERDINE,

on myri ad lPvels . For Pepperdine, it reprPsPnt– ed a hold attPmpt to reclaim its place atop thP WPst Coast Confnence. For college baskethall throughout the West, and especially in south– ern Californi a, it signaled a sli ght shift in thP recruiting balance of power. Suddenly, the Waves would contend for top players, perhaps not the best of the best and perhaps not immP– r!i ately, but eventually. And for Romar, a former mini ster who had uprooted hi s family fi ve times in seven years hefore arri ving at UCLA in 1992, PepperrlinP was the only chance to become a hear! coac h without moving his wife, Leona, and three chil – dren. The Waves' Malibu campus was closer to his Calabasas home than UCLA, just eight mil es away. "If thi s job hadn't come up, I would have stayed at UCLA," he said . ThP move oozed with irony. Almost 20 years earlier, a UCLA assistant named Jim Harrick took the head coaching joh at Pepperdine, huilt the Waves into a perennial NCAA Tournament participant, then became the Bruins' head coach in 1988. Now, here was Romar, a UCLA assistant of four years, following the path his boss took.

NO USS- THE BRUINS FLIPPED.

Center omni'A Givens ( above , left) and guard J eln11i Gardner ( above, right) left their scholarships with UCLA and Cal, respectively, to play under the tutelage of Romar at Pepperdine .