Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Think You're Having A Good Week?

So things are going well for you? Maybe you found a $20 bill in a pocket? Got a great parking space? You're an Arizona Cardinals fan?

That's nothing compared to what's been happening of late for Craig Robinson ’83, the current head basketball coach at Oregon State. He's also doubling these days as essentially the "first brother-in-law," as his sister Michelle (also a Princeton grad) is married to the President of the United States.

Robinson received some pretty good ink from his orange and black sweater and from spending inauguration night in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House. Robinson, though, is doing more than just hanging on his family's coattails.

Inheriting a team that was winless in the Pac-10 last year, Robinson began his first season at OSU with a loss at Howard, a team now 3-16, and followed that with losses to Nevada, Yale and Montana State to start 0-4 and run the team's losing streak to 24 straight.

And then some funny things started happening. OSU began to win a few games prior to the start of the league season and pulled even at 5-5. Then the Beavers knocked off USC to end the long Pac 10 streak, getting that behind them.

After a 1-5 league start, OSU has since swept Cal and Stanford on the road (the first time in 16 seasons) and then added a non-league win to make it three straight, a 3-5 league mark and a 9-10 overall record.

OSU was named the "Team of the Week" by Andy Katz on ESPN.com.

Robinson's success at OSU can only be helped during the recruiting process by his family ties. In other words, this pretty good week for Robinson is likely to be followed by many more.

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