Impelman, Brown Take Operations Roles on Basketball Staff
3/26/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MALIBU, California – John Impelman will be retained on the Pepperdine men's basketball staff as its director of operations, while former Waves standout Gerald Brown will join the program as the assistant director of operations, head coach Lorenzo Romar announced today.
"John brings a wealth of experience at this university," said Romar, who was recently named Pepperdine's head coach for the second time. "He's very, very competent, and we're fortunate that he wanted to stay on with us. Gerald played for me and he had so much success at Pepperdine. He was always a very cerebral winner. He's going to bring something very valuable, that know-how of someone who persevered and carved out a great career for himself. He's going to bring those same attributes to this program."
The 2018-19 season will be Impelman's 10th working with the Pepperdine men's basketball program. He was a graduate manager in 2008-09 and 2009-10, left for a season and returned as the director of operations in 2011-12. He served as an assistant coach for the past five seasons.
"First and foremost I want to thank Marty Wilson for not only the opportunity he gave me to coach at Pepperdine, but more importantly the daily example he set and the mentorship he has provided me over the years," Impelman said. "I'm extremely excited to continue on with Coach Romar and the new staff. I'm eager to assist in any way I can to help the program and am confident that my experience at Pepperdine will be an asset moving forward."
Brown was a three-time All-West Coast Conference first team selection for the Waves between 1993-94 and 1997-98, and his final two years at Pepperdine coincided with Romar's first stint as head coach.
"My time here at Pepperdine as a student was great," Brown said. "I'm so excited about returning to be a part of Coach Romar's staff. I enjoyed playing for him and had a great relationship with him. It's just a blessing that I'm back here almost 20 years later. I'm excited about helping get Pepperdine back to where it should be."
For the past three years, Brown has been an assistant coach at Concordia-Irvine. He helped the NCAA Division II school to a 59-27 record, a pair of 20-win seasons and a share of the PacWest Conference regular-season title in 2016.
Previously, he was an assistant coach at Arizona Christian in 2014-15, helping the Firestorm to a school-record 25 wins and the program's first-ever victory at the NAIA Tournament. He was also the head coach of the Arizona Scorpions of the American Basketball Association and led the Scorpions to the ABA Final Four in 2015.
Brown left Pepperdine #12 on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,467 points (he's currently #14). He earned All-WCC first team honors in 1995, 1996 and 1998 and the led the Waves in scoring each of those years. In 1996, he led the WCC in scoring at 17.8 points per game. He played on the Waves' 1994 NCAA Tournament team as a freshman.
Brown, a native of Phoenix, is married (his wife's name is Jessica) and they have two daughters, Janae and Jaelah.
