Norm Roberts
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Norman Roberts (July 21, 1965 – ) is a men's college basketball coach and the current head coach at St. John's University, New York. He succeeded Mike Jarvis, who was fired midway through the 2003-04 season.
[edit] Biography
Roberts attended Springfield Gardens High School, where he was a teammate of Anthony Mason. His first coaching opportunity came when Jack Curran hired him as coach of the freshman varsity at Archbishop Molloy High School. In 1991 Roberts became head coach at Queens College, a position he held until 1995. Prior to the 1996-97 season, Roberts was hired by then-Oral Roberts head coach Bill Self. Roberts followed Self to University of Tulsa (in 1998), University of Illinois (in 2000) and University of Kansas (in 2003). On April 13, 2004 he signed a five-year contract to coach the mens basketball team at St. John's University. His assistants include Glenn Braica, Chris Casey, and Fred Quartlebaum.
[edit] St. John's
Coach Roberts signed Eugene Lawrence, Cedric Jackson, Rodney Epperson, and Dexter Gray for his first recruiting class. Epperson was unable to participate in the majority of the 2004-05 season due to expected fraudulent academic records and later withdrew from the University. The Red Storm finished the season with a record of 9-18 (3-13).
In Coach Robert's second season, he recruited four players: Ricky Torres, Anthony Mason Jr., Tomas Jasuilionis and Junior College transfer Aaron Spears. St. John's finished the season with a record of 12-15 (5-11) and were one game away from qualifying for the Big East Tournament, yet fell short to Rutgers in the last game of the season. During the season, Dexter Gray decided to transfer to Iona College. Cedric Jackson also decided to transfer following the season's end. Both transfers are believed to be due to lack of playing time. Jermaine Maybank also transfered to Kansas State where he would finish his senior year under Bob Huggins.
The third season in the Norm Roberts era was viewed with much optimism due to an impressive recruiting class. Coach Roberts introduced Junior College transfer Avery Patterson, Derwin Kitchen, Rob Thomas, Larry Wright and Qa'rraan Calhoun. Coach Roberts had received a verbal commitment from Doug Wiggins earlier in the year, however, Wiggins later backed out of this commitment to attend the University of Connecticut. Rob Thomas was declared ineligible for his first three semesters of school and Kitchen was forced to withdraw from the university due to academic reasons.
The recruiting class for the 2007-08 season currently includes Dele Coker, Justin Burrell, Mike Cavataio, Paris Horne and Christ the King point guard Malik Boothe.
| Preceded by Mike Jarvis |
St. John's Men's Basketball Head Coach 2004 – |
Succeeded by incumbent |
J. Chestnut • Kersey • Fisher • Allen • O'Shea • Allen • O'Shea • Crenny • Kelleher • Crenny • Freeman • Lapchick • McGuire • DeStefano • Lapchick • Carnesecca • Mulzoff • Carnesecca • Mahoney • Fraschilla • Jarvis • Clark • Roberts
Categories: 1965 births | Living people | People from Queens | American basketball coaches | Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball coaches | Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball coaches | St. John's Red Storm men's basketball coaches | Queens College, City University of New York alumni | City University of New York people
