Barack Obama's Brother-In-Law Hired as Oregon State head coach?

He sounds like a great coach, and hopefully he can put us back on the map.

I think this could end up turning out pretty well for OSU.  

Robinson runs a variation of the Princeton offense.  The Princeton offense is just the type of offense the Beavers need to become competitive again.  It's the type of offense that quickly evens out the playing field.  It relies a lot less on players creating their own shots (which requires talented, athletic players), and a lot more on precision and execution (which requires teamwork and practice).  The latter you can teach, the former not so much.  OSU players are clearly a notch below the rest of the Pac-10 in terms of talent, but this type of game-plan will enable them win a game here or there that they otherwise wouldn't have won.

That said, this could obviously take a while.  As I said, this type of offense requires lots and lots of practice.  The offense requires players to make reads on their own as to where to cut/pass/etc...  The first half of the season (or maybe the whole season) could be pretty ugly.  It will take time for 1) the existing players to learn the offense and 2) Robinson to get his own type of players to be successful.  (Here's a website on the Princeton offense: http://www.cybersportsusa.com/hooptactics/princetonoffense.asp )

I'm not really sure which of our players will be successful in this type of system, but off the top of my head it seems like Omari Johnson could thrive in this type of offense.  He's pretty athletic and handles the ball fairly well for a big guy.

Beyond that, success in college basketball is probably most closely related to how well you recruit (shocking, I know).  Recruiting kids to come to OSU is a little different than recruiting for an Ivy league school, I imagine.  I don't think anyone will be able to predict how successful Robinson will be able to recruit.

Overall, I think this could end up being a pretty good hire.  I think hiring Bone from PSU would have been a little too safe.  Whatever happens, it's going to take time and patience

Brown was picked 5th in the preseason media polls (out of 8) and finished 2nd in league play at 11-3, with 2 of their losses coming to undefeated conference champions Cornell (my alma mater and a team that gave Duke a very good game at Cameron this year but admittedly played scared against the Lopez twins and co. in the tournament).  Robinson got a lot out of a team that had mediocre talent and turned a decent player in Mark McAndrew into the Ivy League's top scorer and a consensus 1st team all conference player.

Robinson's offense is a more free flowing variant of the Princeton offense and is very tough to prepare for.  Don't be shocked if a less talented OSU club pulls a couple stunners next year.

Robinson's task is monumental- a 9th place finish next year should earn him Pac-10 C.O.Y. and merit consideration for national awards- the OSU talent is just not there right now.

It is unprecedented for an Ivy League coach to make the jump to a major conference so quickly and without a league title (Penn's Fran Dunphy only got the Temple job after 17 years and numerous titles) but Robinson had very little to work with at Brown and the Ivy League has produced a number of excellent coaches, including Chuck Daly and Pete Carill.  Good luck to Robinson in Corvallis.

Haven't seen an official announcement that this is a done deal... I guess most college hoops guys are covering the title game tonight.

But hey... who cares if Phil Knight is your daddy, if you got the President of the United States?  Especially one who isn't a complete idiot like the current Prez?  :)