Romar set to return as coach at Pepperdine
Lorenzo Romar is returning to Pepperdine for a second stint as men’s basketball coach.
Athletic director Steve Potts said Monday that Romar will be back in Malibu as soon as Arizona’s season ends. Romar is currently in his first season as associate head coach at Arizona and the Wildcats are in the NCAA tournament.
He previously guided the Waves from 1996-99, going 42-44 in his first head coaching job.
Romar, 59, says he preferred to stay on the West Coast and his comfort level with Potts and university President Andrew Benton “played a huge role” in his decision to return to Pepperdine.
Romar left Malibu to become head coach at Saint Louis and then spent 15 years in the same job at Washington, where he was a three-time Pac-12 coach of the year.
He was an assistant at UCLA under Jim Harrick when the Bruins won the 1995 national championship. His career head coaching record is 391-284.
Romar, who is from Compton, was a two-year starter at Washington and played five seasons in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons.
Gottfried to CSUN
Mark Gottfried, a former UCLA assistant and later coach at Murray State, Alabama and North Carolina State, is expected to be introduced Tuesday as the men’s basketball coach at Cal State Northridge.
Jeff Goodman of ESPN first reported the hiring.
And Harrick, his former boss, could be joining Gottfried, whose record as a head coach is 401-241.
“I’m back in it,” Harrick said Monday, declining to reveal specifics ahead of the news conference.
Gottfried, like Romar, was an assistant for UCLA’s 1995 NCAA championship team.
CSUN last week fired coach Reggie Theus and athletic director Brandon Martin. — Eric Sondheimer NCAA not limited
Federal prosecutors have not asked the NCAA to refrain from penalizing schools or individuals connected to the college basketball bribery and corruption probe or to hold off announcing the results of any investigation.
“The Government has neither the authority nor desire to influence the NCAA’s determination of what, if any, penalties to impose for violations of its rules,” the filing last week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan said, “nor does the Government have any knowledge of whether the NCAA will impose penalties for the conduct alleged in the Indictment and, if so, what those penalties will be.”
But people involved with the case say the NCAA is delaying investigating the allegations — linked to at least three NCAA tournament teams and three bubble teams that weren’t selected, USC among them — until the federal cases conclude.
The filing in one of three cases federal authorities brought against nine people, including former USC associate head coach Tony Bland, says that postponement isn’t the government’s doing.
Federal authorities have asked a variety of institutions, including the NCAA, not to interview “certain witnesses” connected to the case as the investigation continues.
“While this might delay the NCAA’s investigations, the Government has no reason to believe it will have any impact on the outcome of those investigations,” the filing said.
The NCAA didn’t return a request for comment.
Bland and the eight other men charged have pleaded not guilty. — Nathan Fenno