ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603250111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RALEIGH
SOURCE: Associated Press
AFTER FIVE STRAIGHT losing seasons, the coach says he can't get the Wolfpack over the hump.
Les Robinson, who restored academic integrity to the North Carolina State basketball program but lost 50 of 64 Atlantic Coast Conference games the past four seasons, resigned as Wolfpack coach Friday.
``Academics hasn't lost today and `winning is everything' hasn't won,'' Robinson said at an afternoon news conference following a meeting with his team. ``It was just a process that took a little longer than we wanted. The bad didn't win out over the good, it just didn't.''
Robinson, 48, had one year remaining on his contract. Many believed the veteran coach was looking for a contract extension as a show of support from the Wolfpack administration, but he said he turned down a two-year extension that would have left him on the bench through 1999.
N.C. State athletic director Todd Turner said a search committee would be formed to find a new coach. He said he would like to have a coach in place by signing day in mid-April.
``It's time to talk about the future,'' Turner said. ``N.C. State will be an attractive site for one of the nation's very best coaches to follow in Les' footsteps.''
Robinson, who will stay at the school as an associate athletic director, took over at his alma mater in 1991 for the late Jim Valvano. He encountered a program on NCAA probation, academic and recruiting restrictions and faculty hostility unmatched in the ACC.
But in Robinson's six seasons, he mended fences with N.C. State's academic community and raised the team's cumulative grade point average to 2.69.
The results on the court weren't as good. He compiled a 78-98 overall record, which included a school-record five straight losing seasons. What made matters worse this season was a series of close losses - 10 ACC defeats by a combined 30 points - that resulted in a 15-16 record and a last-place ACC finish.
``When Les came I think we all knew that what we were doing was more than simply building a basketball program,'' said Turner. ``We were changing the culture of athletics on a great university campus.''
Robinson apologized for taking two weeks to make a decision. He also said he spent the better part of those 14 days weighing all his options, which included other coaching jobs.
``What I did was project myself and I went right on up to the first game against Penn State [next year] and said, `Who would our kids feel better playing [for] if it was a tight game, down to the last two minutes, X [coach] over there or me.'
``My answer was somebody else over there. They would play more relaxed and they wouldn't feel the pressure. I just felt like I created pressure on them.''
Robinson, who also was a head coach at The Citadel and East Tennessee State before coming to N.C. State, said he probably wouldn't coach again.
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