Roy Williams says hiring Steve Robinson was 'maybe the finest decision I ever made'

Before retiring after 33 years as a head coach last spring, Roy Williams figured out a way to win 903 games between stops at Kansas and North Carolina, including three in the national championship game.

But one of the best decisions Williams said he ever made came before he coached in a single one of those. That’s when he hired Steve Robinson, Arizona’s new assistant coach, at Kansas in 1988.

“I think he’s just fantastic,” Williams said. “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. Gosh, 33 years ago now. 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.”

Williams said Robinson will quickly gain respect from Arizona players and be an asset to new UA coach Tommy Lloyd, a rookie head coach who now has two former head coaches — Robinson and former NAU coach Jack Murphy — on his first UA staff.

In a recent interview with the Star, Williams detailed the history of their relationship, which started when Williams was filling out his first Kansas staff in 1988, after Larry Brown left the Jayhawks. Robinson said former Oregon and Tennessee coach Jerry Green, then the head coach at UNC-Asheville, gave him a recommendation.

Williams described how it played out from there:

“A friend of mine said, ‘I think you should talk to this guy,’ because I was looking for one more assistant and I chose to call him 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 33 years ago and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

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In an assistant coaches’ hall of fame, Robinson has received praise for his recruiting and player development skills. But Williams said everything jumped out at him, Williams said.

“He has no 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.”

Robinson left Kansas in 1995 to take over as Tulsa’s head coach for two seasons before spending five at Florida State, which fired him in 2002. Williams took Robinson back right away.

“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 said Robinson returned a different coach. He had taken Tulsa to the NCAA Tournament in both of his years there; his first Florida State team went, too.

“I think what I got was a guy who had been a head coach for seven years and so I think that’s something that, in my opinion, would be valuable to Tommy. Because here’s a guy who’s been a head coach and Tommy’s throwing himself out there to the wolves. He’s going to be able to use some of those experiences that Steve has.”

When Williams retired this spring, North Carolina had a number of qualified candidates within its own family to pick a successor. Robinson was considered for the job, but it went to former UNC player Hubert Davis, and Robinson was not retained. That process was not easy on Williams.

“Well, I had tremendous amount of concern for the program. But also I was retiring after 48 years as a head coach. So I had my emotions running a million different directions and it was something that was a very difficult time. It’s still a very difficult time. But this is I think a perfect situation for Steve Robinson, and I think Tommy will look back on it and think it’s one of the great situations for him, too.”