ROMAR BECOMING THE SAINT IN SAINT LOUIS.

Byline: Karen Crouse

Saint Louis University is why you don't pop off like Billy Packer and declare teams dead before the last jumper is buried.

There undoubtedly are many who, in the fumbling tradition of the boorish broadcaster who wrote off UCLA in the final minute of its overtime win at Stanford, expected to see Elvis at this year's NCAA Tournament before Lorenzo Romar.

From No. 9 seed to Cloud Nine, records and power ratings don't begin to explain how Romar's Saint Louis University squad beat Southern Mississippi, top-ranked Cincinnati, Tulane and DePaul on consecutive days last week to win the Conference USA Tournament and the automatic NCAA berth that goes with it.

Romar is a God-fearing man who knows the Bible as well as he does the NCAA rulebook. Given how tight he is with our Creator, it's easy to conclude Romar got a timely assist from Him. But the more plausible explanation is defense.

The Billikens, who will meet Utah on Thursday in a Midwest sub-regional game in Cleveland, held their four conference tournament foes to an average of 51 points and 35.7 percent shooting from the field.

And while much was made of the wounded leg that sidelined Cincinnati's best player, Kenyon Martin, in the fourth minute of the Bearcats' game against St. Louis, the Billikens' wounded pride was no small factor in the 68-58 result.

Five days earlier, Cincinnati had handed St. Louis a 43-point defeat on the Bearcats' Senoir Day and the embarrassed Billikens sorely wanted to make amends. ``There was a look in our guys' eyes after that,'' said Romar, a Compton native who took the job in St. Louis last March after coaching for three seasons at Pepperdine. ``They lost their poise in that game and their pride was hurt.''

The Billikens showed a lot of polish last week and in doing so, they buffed the repute of their coach. It got a little scuffed up on this coast when Romar's successor at Pepperdine, Jan van Breda Kolff, coached Romar's recruits to the West Coast Conference regular season title and an NCAA Tournament berth using a more up-tempo system than the one Romar had employed.

Pepperdine athletic director John Watson recently was quoted as saying, more than a bit uncharitably, if you ask us, that the Waves' success this year ``is almost entirely a credit to Jan. He took the players that he inherited and has instilled in them confidence in a number of areas. . . . He has brought life back into our basketball program.''

Who knew it needed CPR? The program looked pretty hale last year when Romar guided the Waves to their first postseason appearance in five years, albeit in the NIT. Pepperdine, which showed an 11-game improvement in Romar's first season, finished 19-13 in his third and last at the school.

``We felt this year would be our best team at Pepperdine,'' Romar said Sunday afternoon from his home in St. Louis. ``We just felt we'd be really good. It was tough to walk away from it.''

An assistant at UCLA for four seasons (1992-96) prior to taking the Pepperdine job, Romar had rebuffed a couple of very attractive head- coaching overtures from Pacific-10 schools while in Westwood and Malibu out of loyalty to his employers and his players.

Though the Billikens' job came packaged like a Cartier watch, Romar said it wasn't an easy decision to leave Southern California for Saint Louis. ``It was extremely, extremely difficult because I knew some of the players had transferred to Pepperdine trusting I'd be there.''

Transfers Nick Sheppard (LSU), David Lalazarian (Notre Dame) and Tommie Prince (ASU) came into their own this season under van Breda Kolff, as did Brandon Armstrong, who had redshirted last season.

Romar was thrilled to see it.

Really.

The world is full of people who start to build something, leave it for somebody else to finish and then can't see the edifice for their ego. Then there's Romar, who said, ``When I've watched Pepperdine play this year (on television) I've had fun watching them. Some of the comments (coming out of Malibu), some people may look at them as a knock on myself and my staff. I look at Pepperdine's success this season as a great thing. I just can't tell you how happy I am for them.

``I remember talking to John Watson about the next coach coming in and I remember thinking to myself, `I hope it's a guy that's going to be successful.' Jan has helped complete what we started. He's done a great job.''

If Romar had an ounce of arrogance, he'd say the same thing about himself. He took a Saint Louis team that returned three starters from a group that finished 15-16 and guided it to a 19-13 record by - forgive us if this sounds familiar - stepping up the pace. The Billikens scored at least 70 points in 12 games despite employing a patchwork backcourt for much of the season.

Saint Louis lost senior point guard John Redden for 10 games when he broke his foot in their season opener. And the Billikens have been without freshman Marque Perry since he dislocated his left ankle during an eight-point loss at Louisville last month.

They've lost games (one badly), they've lost players, but the one thing the Billikens never lost is hope. Romar has his players believing all things are possible. Everyone else will just have to get up to speed.