Pepperdine men’s hoops fans will see two other new faces on the Waves’ sideline next season along with new head coach Lorenzo Romar.
Ken Bone, a head coach of 23 seasons, and Curtis Allen, an assistant coach of 13 seasons and former college basketball player, are new additions to the team’s coaching staff. Both have worked with the new top Wave before.
Bone was an assistant coach at the University of Washington for three seasons, during Romar’s 15-season tenure as the team’s head coach. Allen was a guard on Washington’s 2002-03 and 2003-04 squads coached by Romar.
Allen was an assistant coach under Bone for nine seasons when he coached at Portland State and Washington State.
Bone, the owner of a 414-253 record in 23 head coaching seasons, served as a special assistant to Gonzaga head coach Mark Few during the 2016-17 season. Before that, he was an associate head coach at Montana for two seasons. Bone was the head coach at Washington State for five seasons and Portland State the previous four seasons.
Bone joined Romar’s Washington coaching staff in 2002 after leading Division II Seattle Pacific for 12 seasons. He was the head coach at Olympic Community College for a season. Bone spent one season as an assistant coach and one season as a head coach at Cal State Stanislaus also.
When Romar was an assistant coach at UCLA, he tried to talk Bruins’ head coach Jim Harrick into adding Bone to the coaching staff.
“When I was hired at Washington, the first guy I wanted to bring on was Ken Bone, and so he joined me on that staff,” Romar recalled. “He went on to be a successful head coach. He’s a great basketball mind who really understands the game. I think he will be a fantastic addition at Pepperdine.”
Bone said he trusts and respects Romar.
“He’s a terrific basketball coach and has always had a huge impact on the student athletes he’s worked with, on and off the court,” Bone said. “I appreciate and look forward to the opportunity of working with the young men at Pepperdine and helping them reach their goals.”
Allen, previously an assistant coach at Washington State, announced on March 19 that he was joining Pepperdine’s coaching staff.
Romar took over the Washington program in 2002 when Allen was a junior.
Bone, Portland State’s coach from 2005-09 and Washington State’s coach from 2009-14, gave Allen his first coaching job as an assistant in 2005. Allen coached under Bone at both of his stops in the Pacific Northwest.
When Ernie Kent replaced Bone as Washington State’s coach, Allen stayed on as an assistant coach until deciding to head to Pepperdine.
