It's now official. Craig Robinson will be the head Men's Basketball Coach at Oregon State University.
Bobby D is taking a lot of criticism and a lot of praise for this hire. Before we get into all of that, let's just get some background info on Robinson:
Robinson was a Two-Time Ivy League Player of the Year for Princeton from 1982-1983, and graduated with a degree in sociology. He is fourth on the Princeston all-time scoring list.
Robinson began his coaching career as an assistant coach at the Illinois Institute of Technology from 1988-90. He was responsible for offense implementation, game strategy, recruiting and advance scouting. He was also the head coach at the University of Chicago High School in 1999-2000. Robinson, who also has an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (1992), took a hiatus from coaching and went into private business in 1990. He was a Vice President for Continental Bank from 1990-92, Vice President for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter from 1992-99, and then Managing Director for Loop Capital Markets before he made his move to Northwestern.
At Northwestern, Criag coached for six years under head coach Bill Carmody, a former Princeston head coach. There he was responsible for the team's recruiting, before moving on to take the head coaching position at Brown.
In his first season at Brown, he led the Bears to a 11-18 overall record, and 6-8 in the Ivy League. In this past season, Robinson led Brown to a 19-10 record, the best in Brown Basketball history.
Here's some of what Robinson has to say about himself:
RECRUITING I have recruited and will continue to recruit locally, nationally and internationally. Given my extensive relationships, I will recruit skillful, athletic and intelligent players whose goals are to win and learn. The players I recruit will be multi-dimensional and athletic. There will be a bias toward good shooters and defenders. Big men will be skillful runners who are comfortable on the perimeter. I have also spearheaded the development of an Internet-based recruiting tool that is currently being used by various Division I programs across the country.
This tool enables me and my staff to communicate on a regular, systematic basis with hundreds of recruits annually. My ability to recruit talented players is based on my tre- mendous communication skills bolstered by my skills in evaluating and developing talent. This enables me to target prospects earlier and provide them with an honest evaluation of where they fit in my plans. I believe that this up-front honesty is key to getting in early with recruits and their families.
My recruiting successes include: Michael Thompson, a former McDonald's All-American and Duke transfer who chose Northwestern over Notre Dame, UCLA, Texas and Ohio State; T.J. Parker, who was recruited by Marquette and Georgia Tech; and Vedran Vukusic, who turned down a pro contract to play for Northwestern.
Here's a taste for a Ivy League Game. Coach Robinson and Brown came up short in this game against NCAA-tourney bound Cornell, but it's still worth a watch:
GO BEAVERS!
--JB--