Speaker 1: This Yes, kJ Live with Chris john Salli and Chris
Speaker 1: is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
Speaker 1: entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You are
Speaker 1: now teamed in to kJ Live. Today's guest on the show.
Speaker 1: We spent twenty five seasons as a head coach of
Speaker 1: this compowder, record of four hundred and forty five and
Speaker 1: three hundred fifty five. Today, he won a national championship,
Speaker 1: is an assistant coach at u C l A and
Speaker 1: is currently the head coach of Pepperdine Waves Men's basketball.
Speaker 1: Please welcome in the great Lorenzo Romar to the show.
Speaker 1: Coach Romar, what's happened my man? How you doing, Kristan?
Speaker 1: I'm great, coach, got this little show. Thank you for
Speaker 1: taking some time to come on. Man. You know life
Speaker 1: is good, coach house, life been for you. It's been fine, man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have no complaints. Man. Yeah. Good. So whoever drew
Speaker 1: that picture you in the background, they did a great job.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Man. That shout out to the team
Speaker 1: over at the I Heart Radio. They looked that up
Speaker 1: a little some some coach. That's make me feel like
Speaker 1: I'm big time uh coach. I wanted to get right
Speaker 1: to it. I'm glad I got you on the show.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about just a little bit about
Speaker 1: this year's team, your outlook for the twenty three season.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got some guys Maxwell Lewis, Michael Mitchell,
Speaker 1: um um, some other guys in there that are really
Speaker 1: poised to have big years. What's your outlook expectations and
Speaker 1: do you even level set for seasons like you're entering
Speaker 1: and this year. You know, I think we have some
Speaker 1: really good pieces. But we have pieces. You have to
Speaker 1: learn how to win. We have to, uh learn how
Speaker 1: to pull out games. Often times last year we were
Speaker 1: in games for third minutes and then we would falter
Speaker 1: down the stretch. And again being young, that that can happen.
Speaker 1: But we need to take the next step and if
Speaker 1: we can. I feel good about our team. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I think we have some good pieces. What does the
Speaker 1: offseason preparation look like for you with your guys in
Speaker 1: the summertime and kind of you know, folks, you know,
Speaker 1: as you head until the fall, what did that look like?
Speaker 1: And and did guys get better? Yeah, that's one of
Speaker 1: the things you get back. Remember when UH play for
Speaker 1: coach Harrotck, you know, you would always talk about, UH,
Speaker 1: you build your individual game in the summer, you build
Speaker 1: your team in the fall in the winter, and it's
Speaker 1: it's very important that you go out in the summer
Speaker 1: man and you you grind it. You grind it and
Speaker 1: you do everything that you can to get better. And
Speaker 1: that's where passion comes in. Those that that have a
Speaker 1: passion for the game, those are the ones that you
Speaker 1: see developing the summers. The ones that don't, they don't
Speaker 1: they come back maybe just a little bit better because
Speaker 1: because they're a little older. But the ones that make
Speaker 1: the big jumps have passion for the game. And I
Speaker 1: feel like we have some of those guys that have
Speaker 1: that passion. In June and July were able to get
Speaker 1: out there four hours a week on the floor with
Speaker 1: our guys and work out. And this year we took
Speaker 1: a foreign tour to Costa Rica, so we were able
Speaker 1: to practice ten times before we took that tour. So
Speaker 1: being on the floors, young guys are incoming freshman getting
Speaker 1: acclimated to our system, the other guys reviewing it, kind
Speaker 1: of getting the head start on the season. And then
Speaker 1: some weight training and conditioning, as well as taking classes
Speaker 1: in the summer. But between all those things, uh, we
Speaker 1: feel we were able to make some progress during the summer. No. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: It seems like in the summertime there's just never enough time,
Speaker 1: especially when you got a new group to acclimate. You
Speaker 1: got ten practices. You wish it was more like thirty.
Speaker 1: But you may do. We may do what you got.
Speaker 1: Coach Um, I had a question for you because our
Speaker 1: relationship obviously goes back to U C l A. But
Speaker 1: I met you before then leave. We were in Cincinnati
Speaker 1: or something at the AID. Yeah, Scottsdale, Scottsdale. It wasn't
Speaker 1: it was insane. It was in Cincinnati, Cincinnati. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: so we we go way back, coach, And one of
Speaker 1: my most vivid memories of my college experience with you
Speaker 1: as my assistant coach was our one on one games
Speaker 1: the coach coach the knockout, you know, for for my listeners.
Speaker 1: Coach Romar played in the NBA high level, played at
Speaker 1: you dub major league point guard with a lot of
Speaker 1: herpie jerky hesitation, change your page, changing direction, you know,
Speaker 1: crazy high arching threes and then he'll run away and
Speaker 1: fall off into the stands. I mean, he used to
Speaker 1: do it all. Coach Romar, I had a question for you,
Speaker 1: and you still do You still get down in ones
Speaker 1: with the guys or you leave that stuff to the
Speaker 1: guys like Jeral Browner or some of your younger assistants. Man,
Speaker 1: I hate to say it. I can't give it to
Speaker 1: him anymore, to him anymore. What I'm what I'm really
Speaker 1: good at right now is calling somebody out, challenging somebody.
Speaker 1: Of course it's got to be my ball right one
Speaker 1: possession hey, and and usually goes in that one possession,
Speaker 1: and it's like, you know what I'm I'm through, man,
Speaker 1: I don't hate y'all. Forget y'all. Many y'are not do
Speaker 1: an I'm that guy. Now, what do you still go
Speaker 1: to the jab? Triple threat jab game jumper? I mean,
Speaker 1: what what's your go to move? Just this last thing
Speaker 1: on this? You got to scout You got to scout down. Hey,
Speaker 1: That's all I got. I'm not gonna go buy anybody.
Speaker 1: I just gotta jab you to get off me. I
Speaker 1: love it. I love it goes in after that. That's
Speaker 1: all I got. Oh man, that's hilarious. Coach, think about
Speaker 1: I'm not. Hey, I'm not like you. You You you were
Speaker 1: a bucket. Well yeah, with the bucket, the footwork extraordinary.
Speaker 1: I learned for some good from some good ones. You know,
Speaker 1: Pops had me around, you know, a lot of pros
Speaker 1: early and you know you're soaking You're soaking up like
Speaker 1: a sponge man. You did that, Yeah, no question. But
Speaker 1: back to are you s l a days coach? I mean,
Speaker 1: my find Another one of my fondest memories was obviously
Speaker 1: winning the championship. Um. We were all heartbroken. Um And
Speaker 1: I've never really publicly talked about this, but after the championship,
Speaker 1: you you obviously had a chance to advance your career
Speaker 1: and go to Pepperdine as for your first stentis head coach.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to know kind of publicly as close
Speaker 1: as we were to you, as much as we loved you,
Speaker 1: and and it's well documented how much we all love
Speaker 1: coach Romar. How hard was it to leave that u
Speaker 1: c l A group or was it hard and easy
Speaker 1: at the same time because you were achieving sort of
Speaker 1: a first kind of goal as becoming a head coach
Speaker 1: in college? It was extremely hard, extremely hard. And then
Speaker 1: even when I went on to become a head coach.
Speaker 1: I had to leave a couple of times. And it
Speaker 1: was extremely hard when when we were together at U
Speaker 1: C l A. You know, as far as recruiting and
Speaker 1: spending all the time together and the phone calls and
Speaker 1: time away from from the court, you know, time laughed together,
Speaker 1: cry together, all that stuff, you know, and uh, you
Speaker 1: feel a bond, You're feel an attachment and to where
Speaker 1: it's almost like a movie where you don't want to
Speaker 1: leave because you want to see how it ends and
Speaker 1: to be there with you guys to see how it
Speaker 1: was gonna end. You know, it was hard to to
Speaker 1: uh to leave that. And but again it was for
Speaker 1: a situation where I was able to become a head
Speaker 1: coach and and and move from there. But it was
Speaker 1: it was difficult. There was some one on one conversations
Speaker 1: and but uh, everybody was just fine. Yeah, everybody was
Speaker 1: just fine. I can't say we would have turned out
Speaker 1: the same way had you stayed, but who knows now, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, hindsight is always, Uh, coach, what made you
Speaker 1: believe that a six four and three quarter two hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy five pounds center out of Crenshaw High School
Speaker 1: could play I was to seventy five, could play at
Speaker 1: u C l A and contribute in the Pac ten.
Speaker 1: How did you could, guys convince Poach Herrick to take
Speaker 1: a flyer on me because he didn't like my game
Speaker 1: at first? Coach, I know this, so you don't don't
Speaker 1: try to play it off. I know what's up, coach,
Speaker 1: Coach rolling? Interesting interesting story. Uh, Chris, you were you
Speaker 1: were one of those that had passion. You love to play,
Speaker 1: you love to work out, and you know, we we
Speaker 1: knew it was in the jeans as well. You know
Speaker 1: with your the DNA that was in year. It was
Speaker 1: in there, and you know, people act like you were
Speaker 1: this late bloomer. You were the were two times city
Speaker 1: player of the year. Yeah, I believe that if you
Speaker 1: can recollect yeah right right, yeah, yeah, you were the
Speaker 1: player of the year. You could play. The question is
Speaker 1: what position does he play? He's undersize what you know,
Speaker 1: who does he guard? And it was kind of figure
Speaker 1: that out for the other four guys. Just have him
Speaker 1: on the court in that matter position he plays. And uh,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you we kept talking to coach about you.
Speaker 1: About coach. We're telling you we'll put our reputation we'll
Speaker 1: put our jobs on the line. But Chris, Chris can play.
Speaker 1: Chris can play for us? You think, so, yeah, but
Speaker 1: what position? Uh, Coach, let's go watch and play. So
Speaker 1: we drive out to cal Poly Pomona to watch you play,
Speaker 1: and coach Eric hadn't seen you play yet. So it's
Speaker 1: him and I and we're talking. I'm saying that, just coach,
Speaker 1: just remember now, this is his game and don't expect this.
Speaker 1: He's not just gonna be flying through the air dunking
Speaker 1: on everybody. That's not his game. He's just going to
Speaker 1: be able to score it whenever he wants to score it.
Speaker 1: And we said, he said, all right, all right, I'm listening,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch. And we get there. I think we're
Speaker 1: two minutes late for your game. We walk in, we
Speaker 1: sit down, and we weren't there for two minutes. When
Speaker 1: you out of rebound, you busted out of the pack
Speaker 1: and drove the land, drove coast to coast, and someone
Speaker 1: got in your way and drew a charge and you
Speaker 1: hurt your ankle on the same place. Do you remember
Speaker 1: that your ankle? And you were done and he said,
Speaker 1: roma r, let's go, let's go. We got up and left,
Speaker 1: and then you continued to just dominate the circuit that summer.
Speaker 1: So finally we were all in coaches houses condo and
Speaker 1: him and the staff, myself, coach laughing, Coach Godfrey. We
Speaker 1: were all over there and we're just telling him, coach,
Speaker 1: just it doesn't matter what you take. We gotta we
Speaker 1: gotta take. He said. We said, look, you know what,
Speaker 1: let's call Ed Pepper rest in peace, blessing soul. Let's
Speaker 1: call Ed Pepper, who was at the time the winning
Speaker 1: his coach and the state of Washington history. He was
Speaker 1: a coach at Mercer Island and he was coached against you,
Speaker 1: and in a game you had thirty one of your
Speaker 1: many times that you had thirty, and just forched him.
Speaker 1: So we put him on speaker phone. We said, Coach Pepper,
Speaker 1: just tell us how good is Chris Johnson And what
Speaker 1: do you think you think he could play? U C
Speaker 1: l A. He says, I just know we had nobody
Speaker 1: to guard him. He said his footwork was was impeccable.
Speaker 1: We couldn't stop him. And then he was a tough kid.
Speaker 1: He got the rebounds and he went on and on,
Speaker 1: and we said, all right, we're all staring at coach
Speaker 1: while he's telling us this, right because he's on speaker
Speaker 1: phone on and he hung up, and uh, coach eventually
Speaker 1: decided to take you. And eventually, at one time you
Speaker 1: were leading the entire conference and scoring right before you left. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, exactly, that's so brother. Well, I appreciate that, coach,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate you guys for going to bad for me.
Speaker 1: You know, I know it could be tough sometimes when
Speaker 1: you got a player that was like me. I wasn't
Speaker 1: fashionable back then. I would be fashionable now because they
Speaker 1: people I'm like a Bruce Brown or Draymond Green, where
Speaker 1: you know, six four or six five, and you know,
Speaker 1: we could get this going. But back then they wanted
Speaker 1: the stereotypes, not the stereotype, but the prototypes of of
Speaker 1: of a forward or guard. So but I appreciate PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker absolutely. I mean I didn't have that defensive prowess
Speaker 1: is PJ. But everything else I could do it and
Speaker 1: not just as good, if not better, But I really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. That and we capped that thing with with
Speaker 1: a championship and that was just an amazing experience. Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
Speaker 1: com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
Speaker 1: s R to listen live. But coach, speaking of the
Speaker 1: state of Washington, you you brought up ed Pepple, You
Speaker 1: went up to you dub after I believe it was St. Louis.
Speaker 1: You're standing St. Louis right, because you follow you follow
Speaker 1: spoonball swoon ouncer. And I remember that you did the St.
Speaker 1: Louis thing for a little bit, very competitive there, and
Speaker 1: then you went to you dub, you dub. You coach
Speaker 1: seventeen players taken in the NBA Draft, including eleven first rounders.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite players of all time and during
Speaker 1: your tenure is Brandon Roy. Coach, how special was Brandon Roy?
Speaker 1: And how special could he have been if it were
Speaker 1: not for the injuries? Grandon, let me just tell you this,
Speaker 1: he was extremely gifted. And you sit down and watch
Speaker 1: an NBA game or college game or any game and
Speaker 1: listen to him analyze the game, and you listen to
Speaker 1: his comments, and at some point you're gonna go, my goodness,
Speaker 1: I mean, he's just a brilliant high basketball like you.
Speaker 1: He uh had trouble passing the s a t. He
Speaker 1: finally passed it, so he became eligible in January of
Speaker 1: his freshman year. He couldn't practice with us because of that,
Speaker 1: and he comes out and uh, we talked. I said,
Speaker 1: hey man, you passed your eligible to play, so let's
Speaker 1: go up and he was fired up. Let's go up
Speaker 1: to the gym and just trying to teach you best
Speaker 1: we can the offense. And he learned it in forty
Speaker 1: five minutes. Forty five minutes something that everybody else was
Speaker 1: still trying to learn after several months. Forty five minutes
Speaker 1: and knew it. And we go out and play and
Speaker 1: it was just you couldn't speed him up. He could
Speaker 1: play around the rim with either hand, he could pass
Speaker 1: the ball, he could dribble the basketball. He just was
Speaker 1: He was just a phenomenal player. And you know, I
Speaker 1: remember his junior year, we did our research. He was
Speaker 1: thinking about coming out, by the way, he would have
Speaker 1: liked to going straight out of high school if he could.
Speaker 1: He realized he wasn't quite ready and take his credit.
Speaker 1: He continued to work and after his junior year, we
Speaker 1: did our research and NBA's feedback was that he was
Speaker 1: going to be a second rounder. And he said, well,
Speaker 1: that's not what my goals are. He says, I'm coming
Speaker 1: back to school. I don't need to go to the
Speaker 1: pre draft camp. He said, I'll come back to school.
Speaker 1: He comes back and uh, he was just phenomenal and
Speaker 1: just put us on his back, and uh did some
Speaker 1: extraordinary things as a senior. And we went to the
Speaker 1: sweet six team and it wasn't for the dumb coach
Speaker 1: not call making us file. They hit the three points
Speaker 1: to send the game, and over time, you can, yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember that game. Understand that. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we just had a good chance to go to the
Speaker 1: final four. What's really funny, I'm looking at your face.
Speaker 1: Usually you would say something like, yeah, what happened with that?
Speaker 1: Why did No? No, I'm not gonna do that. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna do that right now, but I'm thinking it.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking it, but I'm not gonna do that. But anyway,
Speaker 1: that's how good of a basketball player he was. He gone.
Speaker 1: He went on to become the sixth pick in the draft,
Speaker 1: first team All America, Rookie of the Year, and then
Speaker 1: an NBA All Start And I believe, I truly believe
Speaker 1: he would have been in the Basketball Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: and one has gone down is one of the greatest
Speaker 1: guards to ever played. Again, I agree with that assessment. Coach.
Speaker 1: We're not for his knee injuries. That's what prevented him
Speaker 1: from doing Yeah. Absolutely, I mean a big guard high
Speaker 1: i Q could make all the shots. Even Kobe had
Speaker 1: the highest of praises for Brandon Roy, but coach a
Speaker 1: lot of them guys out of that area UM during
Speaker 1: your years and even a little bit before you kind
Speaker 1: of fit that mold I would. I've been talking to
Speaker 1: different Cats about the state of Washington. So Roberto Bergerson
Speaker 1: is a guy that's gonna be in a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks on an episode, and we talked at length about
Speaker 1: just the culture of basketball up in that Seattle Tacoma
Speaker 1: area up in Washington. Can you talk about just what
Speaker 1: that connectivity is like in that basketball culture and why
Speaker 1: it produces so many high level UH basketball players that
Speaker 1: fit a certain mode high i Q skilled and usually
Speaker 1: with some size. I've never seen anything like it, and
Speaker 1: I've been there a lot of cities, a lot of
Speaker 1: states have been around basketball a long time. You know,
Speaker 1: the Doug Christie's and Michael Dickerson's Donnie Marsh some of
Speaker 1: those guys began to pay the weight for these guys
Speaker 1: and to create kind of that interest, that thirst. And
Speaker 1: then Jamal Crawford was so dynamic in high school, so dynamic,
Speaker 1: an absolute wizard, charismatic and a great, great human being,
Speaker 1: to where there's so many that just they wanted to
Speaker 1: be doing what Jamal Crawford did. You know. Right after that,
Speaker 1: Jason Terry and so on and so forth, Well, Jamal
Speaker 1: kind of was the guy that really started from Seattle
Speaker 1: started to mentor some of the younger kids, you know,
Speaker 1: and that was right around you know, Jason Terry and
Speaker 1: those guys, and then the Brandon Roys came around and
Speaker 1: they would mentor Isaiah Thomas's and then Isaiah Thomas with
Speaker 1: with mentor you know, Nate Robinson, Will Conroy. These guys
Speaker 1: kept they continue to hand down their knowledge and work
Speaker 1: with these kids, and uh, it was just a thing
Speaker 1: of beauty. And you know they would come up to
Speaker 1: the University of Washington all the time and and work
Speaker 1: out and use the gym, and and you're right, it's
Speaker 1: carried all the way down now to Pollo Ben Carroll
Speaker 1: to where those same guys that mentor and you watch
Speaker 1: he's gonna be mentoring some kids, he's gonna be mentoring
Speaker 1: the next ones, and it just keeps getting handed down.
Speaker 1: And that's why I think he continued as one of
Speaker 1: the reasons you continue to see great talent come out
Speaker 1: of the Seattle Tacoma area. Yeah, and I like, what
Speaker 1: something that something someone talked about as far as like
Speaker 1: how that area you have like coaches that kind of
Speaker 1: instilled this foundation of fundamentals and drilling, and then you
Speaker 1: had the athletes and sort of that thing kind of
Speaker 1: married that that that match, that match of athleticism with
Speaker 1: that old school sort of fundamentals and you know, you know,
Speaker 1: the drilling of that side of the game, and that's
Speaker 1: why a lot of those guys are so guild and talented.
Speaker 1: I mean, when I'm looking at your resume, coach, and
Speaker 1: you coached the number one pick in the draft, I mean,
Speaker 1: you've coached a six pick. You've coached a bunch of
Speaker 1: high level guys from that area, and um, I just
Speaker 1: want to say, man, props to you for that, coach.
Speaker 1: I got a couple more questions for you. I know,
Speaker 1: you got films and stuff like that, and you gotta go.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to know this because no one ever
Speaker 1: talks about this and this hit me out the blue
Speaker 1: when you took the job, talk to me about this.
Speaker 1: You've been on the sidelines at u c l A,
Speaker 1: you dubed and you have a coach. What was that
Speaker 1: year behind the bear down iron curtain? Like? I always
Speaker 1: wanted to know about what was that experience like in
Speaker 1: Arizona coach, because that was that was an interesting thing
Speaker 1: when I read it across the ticker. You know, it
Speaker 1: had to be interesting, right because competing against Arizona all
Speaker 1: those years at U c l A and then even
Speaker 1: at Washington, there was a time when you know, we
Speaker 1: were able to win a couple of championships and uh
Speaker 1: beat them out and you know, they they were the
Speaker 1: top dog a lot of times with U c l A.
Speaker 1: And it was interesting, as you said, going behind the
Speaker 1: scenes there. Uh, they have a really nice operation over there.
Speaker 1: The support fan support is unbelievable. You you really can
Speaker 1: feel that there. It happened to be the year where
Speaker 1: there was the FBI investigation. It happened to be that year,
Speaker 1: my only year that was there. But I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you what, Uh it wasn't always fun because of that.
Speaker 1: But aside from that, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.
Speaker 1: I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with Sean Miller and
Speaker 1: the assistance the group that I was with. It was
Speaker 1: I just really enjoyed it, really enjoyed my time. Man,
Speaker 1: that was a really interesting time. You guys did pretty
Speaker 1: good that season. I think he won twenty seven games.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously coached the big time players, but that
Speaker 1: I always wanted to ask you that coach one more
Speaker 1: question then I'll let you go. I wanted to just
Speaker 1: talk to you about how the n I L and
Speaker 1: the Transfer Portal has either altered or affected the way
Speaker 1: that you're approach to recruiting. Has that cause you to
Speaker 1: sort of change up the way you do things a
Speaker 1: little bit, or are you sticking to your guns um
Speaker 1: and and kind of gonna do things how you've always
Speaker 1: done them. First of all, I think the n I
Speaker 1: L is great, I really do. The n I L
Speaker 1: to me is a modern version of back in the day,
Speaker 1: long time ago. You get recruited, Hey can you get
Speaker 1: me a summer job? You know, and they provide summer
Speaker 1: job for you, right, so, so now it's not the
Speaker 1: summer job as much as an N I L. I
Speaker 1: do think the question I had asked before, how will
Speaker 1: you monitor it? And that's the thing that I think
Speaker 1: the n C double A is still working through. And Uh,
Speaker 1: there's definitely the rich can get richer with it because
Speaker 1: a lot of programs aren't able to provide what some
Speaker 1: others can with that N I L situation. So I
Speaker 1: think it's great. It just has to be worked out. Uh.
Speaker 1: The transfer porter is something that I don't like at all.
Speaker 1: I really don't like that at all. Why not coach? Well?
Speaker 1: I think when you combine the two, then I think
Speaker 1: players get soft and don't learn how to stick things out.
Speaker 1: I think, I mean, Chris, if you would, uh this
Speaker 1: is day and age, you could just leave and you'd
Speaker 1: be eligible the next year. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you have stayed at U C L A. I
Speaker 1: don't know if there I can name me a lot
Speaker 1: of players that wouldn't have stayed at the school that
Speaker 1: they were staying. And I'm not talking about where they
Speaker 1: went somewhere and it worked out. I'm talking about where
Speaker 1: they stayed and it worked out, and you're glad they
Speaker 1: didn't lead, and they learned so many lessons because of it.
Speaker 1: I just think when you combine the two, it's just
Speaker 1: easier to to not have two feet on the ground
Speaker 1: where you are. And I don't think you learned from that.
Speaker 1: Our approach as uh, you know, maybe it won't be effective,
Speaker 1: but try to find those that, uh, that's not the
Speaker 1: number one thing they're looking for. The first thing something
Speaker 1: goes wrong, I'm gonna blame someone and jump ship. We're
Speaker 1: trying to find those that have a passion for the
Speaker 1: game and are are committed to what you're doing. Character.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think character is important now, being loyal
Speaker 1: when you make a commitment, stick to it, and also
Speaker 1: not giving these kids. Sure you can give them whatever,
Speaker 1: but there still needs to be a level of accountability
Speaker 1: in the sense of you earn this, um, you know,
Speaker 1: everything just can't be handed to you. I feel like
Speaker 1: if a kid signs in an I L deal, I
Speaker 1: question you know his motivation. I've heard kids talk about
Speaker 1: how I'm gonna work harder once I get the n
Speaker 1: I L. But you don't see that. But you necessarily
Speaker 1: don't see that all the time. You're about dudes like
Speaker 1: so because because getting fifty dollars in your bank account
Speaker 1: is like a you know, transcendent type of experience. You know,
Speaker 1: you you know your body, you don't know what your
Speaker 1: minds at that age. You see all the zeros coaching. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I don't you know, I don't say this is
Speaker 1: this is terrible. I don't say that all. I think
Speaker 1: if the student athlete can get that, it's great. Uh,
Speaker 1: but we're not gonna change. We're not gonna baby someone
Speaker 1: because they might leave. We're not gonna do that. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then I feel like I'm cheating the kids that we're coaching.
Speaker 1: If we're gonna do that, you're gonna have to go
Speaker 1: out there in the real world and you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to survival when it's tough. You're gonna have to make
Speaker 1: it through. So again, hopefully, if we can recruit kids
Speaker 1: that have the makeup, the mental makeup to be able
Speaker 1: to weather the storm, then we can we can be Okay,
Speaker 1: absolutely coach. Last question, w C C. Laugh is down
Speaker 1: in San Diego. The Zags are the Zags. St Mary's
Speaker 1: is gonna be St. Mary's. How does Pepperdine get into
Speaker 1: the mix, crack that mix and then get into the tournament.
Speaker 1: How do you do it this year. I think this
Speaker 1: will be the first year that we've been here that
Speaker 1: we feel we have built a solid, solid foundation. And
Speaker 1: I think we have some talent. I think we have
Speaker 1: some players with some passion for the game. We've been younger,
Speaker 1: we've had injuries. I think this is the first year
Speaker 1: where we're solid and when you say, how are you
Speaker 1: gonna do that, We're gonna worry more about ourselves and
Speaker 1: get where we are, build on this foundation, and then, UM,
Speaker 1: I'm not good at predictions, but uh, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: That's all good cause we'll be pulling from you. I
Speaker 1: might come out to a game in Malibu come check
Speaker 1: you out. UM, I appreciate you today for coming on
Speaker 1: kJ Live. Ladies and gentlemen. Coach Lorenzo Romar, keep doing
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Man, you're doing great. Yes, sir, I
Speaker 1: appreciate your coach,