Former KU assistant Robinson retires: ‘He has no weaknesses. He’s incredible’
Former Kansas assistant men’s basketball coach Steve Robinson, who spent eight years in Lawrence as a member of Roy Williams’ KU coaching staff, has announced his retirement at the age of 67.
Robinson was a head coach at Tulsa (1995-97) and Florida State (1997-2002) — and also an assistant on Williams’ coaching staff at North Carolina for 18 seasons of a 42-year NCAA Div. I coaching career. He spent the past four seasons as an assistant at Arizona under coach Tommy Lloyd.
“After more than 40 years of coaching and mentoring young men from around the world, I feel it is the right time for me to step away and spend more time with my wife, our kids and our grandkids,” Robinson said in a release.
“Coaching has been my passion from the day that I started and I want to thank each and every former player, coach or manager for the impact they have made on my life. There are so many lifelong friendships and memories that my family has been able to take away from college basketball, I could never begin to list them all.”
In his four seasons on Lloyd’s coaching staff, Robinson helped the Wildcats win four conference championships: two Pac-12 regular season titles and two Pac-12 tournament titles. Arizona also advanced to the Sweet 16 in three of his four seasons and had 14 all-conference honorees and two All-America recipients.
Robinson, a native of Roanoke, Virginia who played at Radford University, was on Williams’ original KU coaching staff in 1988-89 and stayed through the 1994-95 season when he headed to Tulsa as head coach. He returned to Williams’ KU coaching staff in 2002-03, then spent 18 seasons with Williams at North Carolina where the Tar Heels won three NCAA titles.
At KU, Robinson was an assistant on the 1990-91 team that fell to Duke in the NCAA title game and also the 1993 Final Four squad. The 2002-03 Jayhawks also reached the Final Four, losing to Syracuse in the title game.
“I think he’s just fantastic,” Williams told the Arizona Daily Star. “Twenty-six years together and not one time did I ever have any worries about Steve Robinson. Not one time did I ever have any doubts about anything that was going on with Steve Robinson.
“Maybe the finest decision I ever made in my life was hiring him. He left and was gone for seven years (as a head coach), but was with me for 26 years and I just loved everything about him.”
Former Oregon coach Jerry Green, another Williams assistant, first recommended Robinson for the KU coaching job.
“A friend of mine said, ‘I think you should talk to this guy,’ because I was looking for one more assistant (at KU) and I chose to call Steve and have a meeting,” Williams said. “I met with him that night, then decided after meeting with him that I was going to offer him the job and I think I did the next day or the following day. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
“He has no weaknesses. He’s got the whole package. He was able to do things with kids on the court. He’s able to do things in recruiting. He’s able to do things with game management, he’s able to do things in game planning. He’s incredible.”
Williams recalled circumstances of Robinson rejoining the KU coaching staff after leaving Florida State, which fired him in 2002.
I said, ‘Why don’t you come to St. Louis to meet us and watch us in the (NCAA Tournament) regional,’ and he did. My assistant Neil Dougherty at that time left and took a job at TCU so I told Steve, ‘If you want to take a year off or something like that I would understand. But if you want to get back into it, I’d love you to come back with me and I won’t even talk to anybody else.’ And that’s exactly what happened,” Williams explained to the Daily Star.
Robinson In his career advanced to the NCAA Tournament 31 times, won three national titles, made it to the Final Four eight times, won 18 conference regular-season titles and eight conference tournament championships. He was inducted in the Step Up Assistant Coaches Hall of Fame in 2019. He’s also a member of the Hall of Fame at William Fleming High School in Roanoke, as well as Ferrum (Virginia) Junior College and Radford.
He had great success as a head coach at Tulsa, leading the Hurricane to a 23-8 record and an NCAA Tournament bid his first season. During his second season Tulsa won 23 games again and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. He was named Western Athletic Conference Mountain Division Coach of the Year. He headed to Florida State after that second year at Tulsa, going 64-86 in five seasons. The team went 25-55 in ACC play, reaching the NCAAs once in five seasons.
In speaking of Robinson, Arizona coach Lloyd said: “We are grateful that coach Robinson and his family took the chance on me and moved to Tucson to help a first-time head coach. From the first day, he brought a wealth of knowledge and experience that few coaches in the country have. His remarkable career has spanned four decades and some of the best basketball players in the game, which speaks to him as a person and a coach. He has represented the University of Arizona and our program at the highest level with integrity and respect. It’s an honor to call him a friend and, on behalf of Arizona Basketball, we wish him and his wife, Lisa, all the best in retirement.”
Former KU guard Evan Manning also is on the staff at Arizona. He is director of basketball operations.
This story was originally published April 26, 2025 at 11:35 AM with the headline "Former KU assistant Robinson retires: ‘He has no weaknesses. He’s incredible’."
