Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 13, 1995 TAG: 9504130072
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS AND STAFF REPORTS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Steve Robinson, a graduate of William Fleming High School in Roanoke and a former player at Ferrum College and Radford, has been named men's head basketball coach at Tulsa.
Robinson, an assistant for the past seven years at Kansas, takes over a program that has won back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference titles and has reached the Sweet 16 the past two years.
That, he said, made the offer enticing.
``I wanted to come into a program that already has a winning tradition,'' Robinson said. ``I believe you can continue those winning ways a little easier than trying to change the attitude of people who don't care about their basketball program.''
Tulsa, which first flourished under Nolan Richardson in the early 1980s, was slipping in ability and fan support when it hired Tubby Smith, the top assistant under Rick Pitino at Kentucky, four years ago.
In three years, the Golden Hurricane reached the round of 16 with wins over UCLA and Oklahoma State in 1994, and it got there again this year before losing to Massachusetts.
Smith left two weeks ago to replace Hugh Durham at Georgia.
Robinson, 37, began his college coaching career as an assistant at Radford. He subsequently was an assistant for two years at Cornell.
``I am not Tubby Smith. I am not [Kansas coach] Roy Williams,'' he said. ``What you see is what you get.''
What Robinson gets is a team that returns top player Shea Seals, but is in desperate need of a replacement for point guard Pooh Williamson. Smith's son, one of the top high school guards in the state, is going with his father to Georgia.
When asked if he had a point guard in his back pocket, Robinson replied, ``If I do, he's too small to play for Tulsa.''
Robinson went from William Fleming to Ferrum, where he played for Joe Davis. After leaving Ferrum, then a two-year junior college, he followed Davis to Radford. Robinson was an assistant to Davis at the same time that Smith was on the staff at Virginia Commonwealth.
``Tubby was my mentor, the guy I looked up to when I first got started,'' Robinson said. ``What he's done here is fantastic. But let me repeat, I am not Tubby Smith. I do believe I can be just as effective as he was, doing it my way.''
Robinson favors a transition game, pushing the ball up the floor, shooting 3-pointers and playing pressure defense.
``The bottom line is, if you've seen the University of Kansas play ... I want to play a lot like Kansas,'' he said.
Tulsa athletic director Chris Small said Manhattan coach Fran Fraschilla - who withdrew on Monday - was strongly considered.
"I feel like I have lost a brother, and the Tulsa program and community is much better today because Steve Robinson is there," Kansas' Williams said.
by CNB