Any Athletic Director knows that when your Women’s basketball team outdraws your Men’s team in attendance for a postseason game, then you know you have problems.
No disrespect to any Women’s sports, or the women who compete, but let’s be honest, Oregon State’s men’s basketball program is in dire straits after only drawing-selling 1,000 tickets to its recent CBI Tournament game in which OSU paid a reported $30,000 to host.
And, only to lose the game to a no-name school, Radford.
We all know the problem is that the Beavers haven’t even come close to finishing in the top of the Pac-12 in the 6 years Craig Robinson has been head coach.
The other problem for those fans that want Robinson ousted is that he has 3 years remaining on his contract that is valued at $4 million dollars, and there is no buyout clause in that deal.
So, what does OSU do?
If they fire him, they have to scrape up the money he is owed. Or, do they retain him with conditions for the upcoming season?
Or, better yet….being Robinson is the brother-in-law of the President of the USA, Barack Obama, would Robinson do the honorable thing, and resign amid the ill-feelings fans have toward him and the program now?
Or, rumor has it that Robinson may be in the running for the Athletic Director job at Princeton, his Alma mater where he starred as a player. The current AD’s gig ends in June.
So is Robinson just waiting on that to be offered him, and then OSU is off the hook for the money they owe him should he take an offer.
After a long meeting Thursday with Robinson, Oregon State AD Bob Decarolis sent this letter via email to members of the accredited media statewide:
I want to thank you for your continued support of Oregon State Athletics.
Many of you have recently sent your thoughts to me about the OSU men’s basketball program. No one is more disappointed in our inability to reach our goals than head coach Craig Robinson and myself.
Coach Robinson and I have met multiple times in the past two weeks, and he has presented me with a plan that will move the Oregon State men’s basketball program forward to achieve the goals that this university supports. Our goals in every sport are to win a conference title; to play in NCAA postseason events; to compete with character and integrity; and to help guide our student-athletes to graduate and succeed in life.
I’m looking forward to watching Coach Robinson continue to build our program. He is a man of great character and someone who represents Oregon State University with integrity. I ask for your continued support of Beaver basketball.
I close with a few facts about Coach Robinson’s OSU career:
· He is the fourth-winningest coach in Oregon State history with 94 victories and trails only Hall of Famers Slats Gill, Ralph Miller and Bob Hager.
· Oregon State has been .500 or better four times since 1991 and he has coached his teams to three of those seasons.
· Oregon State has won eight conference games three times since 1993 of which he has had two of those seasons.
· Oregon State had four wins against top-50 and six against top-100 NCAA basketball programs this past season, including wins over two teams that advanced to the Sweet 16.
· Five Oregon State players have received All-Pac-12 recognition.
· Nine Oregon State student-athletes have received Pac-12 All-Academic recognition.
· Eight Oregon State players have been named Pac-12 Player of the Week.
· Three of his players are in the top 15 on Oregon State’s all-time scoring list (Roberto Nelson is fourth, Devon Collier is seventh and Jared Cunningham is 15th).
· He will be the head coach of a Pac-12 All-Star team that will compete in China in August.
Go Beavs!
Bob De Carolis
Oregon State Director of Athletics
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