As the game between the Kansas JayHawks and the Syracuse Orangemen came to a close Monday, I thought about opportunity, luck and loss.
Kansas coach Roy Williams was crying after the game, it’s almost a sure possibility that he will be leaving the JayHawks after this season. Already speculation is circulating about whether he will take over the North Carolina Tar Heels next year.
His emotion reminded me of another successful coach who left for the Tar Heel state after the 1992 season.
The coach was none other than Les Robinson, the North Carolina native who led the Buccaneers to four NCAA tournament births.
In 1989 Robinson took a No. 16 seed ETSU team and lost to the top-seeded Oklahoma 72-71.
The first round of the 1990 version of the NCAA tournament for Bucs were held in Knoxville where Robinson and the Bucs had gained a No. 13 seed against Dennis Scott and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. ETSU lost 99-83 in what was Robinson’s biggest loss in the tournament with the Bucs.
I came home from school in 1991 to watch Calvin Talford and his teammates lose a squeaker to Iowa, 76-73. It was not really a loss for Robinson or the gang, just another chance to show ETSU pride and lower bracket strength.
Then in 1992 it happened. Lute Olson and the Arizona Wildcats were shocked when their foe, a No. 14 seed whipped them 87-80.
ETSU went on in the second round to face the fab five of Michigan.
The Bucs played a heroic game against a great basketball team but came up short at 102-90 when the clock wound down. That year Michigan went on to face Duke in the championship game in Indianapolis in the fifth largest attended final in NCAA tourney history.
Robinson is now the athletics director at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. I met up with him during the beginning of the 2003 NCAA tournament and he had nothing but good things to say about the time he spent in Johnson City.
“I loved my years at ETSU. I enjoyed them immensely,” Robinson said. “I liked Johnson City because it was near where I grew up in North Carolina,” Robinson said.
When I asked Robinson what essentials he needed to build a powerhouse, he automatically pointed to his assistant coaches.
“The assistant coaches would lay out the plans and then I would make the final decision,” Robinson said.
He said that his assistant coaches drew great recruits while he taught them the fundamentals.
After Robinson, student attention to the basketball program began waning.
Robinson said in order to draw out the students he “would talk to any student group that would listen. You have no success without the student body.” Not only did he build good relationships with the students but also with his players.
The coach still sees his old players and he said he’s still in contact with most of them.
“Tell ETSU I’m proud of them and I want to congratulate coach DeChellis and his staff,” Robinson said, smiling at the Bucs showing in the tournament.
Robinson is still active in NCAA basketball as he is now on the committee. But he said he is still remembered for his time at ETSU not being part of the powerful NCAA committee.
I’m happy to say that coach Robinson looked well and was in great spirits when I interviewed him.
Robinson is a legend in his own right and will always be remembered for his glory days when basketball players stayed all four years and the Mini-Dome could not hold his crowds.

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