MALIBU, California – Pepperdine men's basketball coach
Lorenzo Romar will be inducted into the SoCal Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2022, the organization announced today.
Romar is beginning his 26th season as a college head coach and he has a career record of 445-355 between Washington, Saint Louis and two stints at Pepperdine.
A native of Compton, Romar graduated from Pius X High School and earned an associate's degree from Cerritos College. He then went on to Washington, where he was a two-year starter at point guard.
Romar was selected in the seventh round of the 1980 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors, He would go on to play five seasons in the NBA with Golden State, Milwaukee and Detroit.
After the 1984-85 season, Romar joined Athletes in Action and played with the organization for seven years (and also served as player-coach). That eventually led him to becoming an assistant coach at UCLA under former Pepperdine head coach Jim Harrick. The Bruins won the 1995 NCAA title among his four seasons there.
As a head coach with the Waves, Huskies or Billikens, Romar has had 17 players taken in the NBA Draft. As either a head coach or an assistant, he's worked with 26 future NBA Draft picks. Seventeen of his players at Washington went on to see time in the NBA. In 2021, Kessler Edwards became the first Wave to be picked in the NBA Draft since 2005.
The inauguration date for the Class of 2022 has not yet been set. The other inductees will be Bill Armstrong, Stacey Augmon, Mitchell Butler, Jay Bilas, Michael Cooper, Keith and Nicole Erickson, David Greenwood, Ebony Hoffman, Andre and Eugenia Miller, Paul Pierce, Tayshaun Prince,
Lorenzo Romar, Willie West Jr. and Candice Wiggins.
This is the third induction class for the SoCal Basketball Hall of Fame. Previous inductees with Pepperdine ties include Harrick (2020) and Dennis Johnson (2021).
Pepperdine's first game of the 2022-23 season is Monday, November 7, against Rice in Firestone Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. The game will be streamed on the WCC Network.
