Norm Roberts
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Norman Roberts (July 21, 1965 – ) is a college men's basketball coach and the current head coach of the St. John's University, New York. He succeeded Mike Jarvis, who was fired midway through the 2003-04 season.
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 accepted the offer for the head coaching position at St. John's University.
Upon Norm's hiring, he signed Eugene Lawrence, Cedric Jackson, Rodney Epperson, and Dexter Gray. Epperson was unable to participate in the majority of the 2004-05 season due to expected fraudulent academic records; Epperson later withdrew from the University. In his first year at St. John's University, the Red Storm finished the season with a record of 9-18 (3-13).
Norm had four new incoming recuits for the 2005-06 season, including Ricky Torres, Anthony Mason Jr., Tomas Jasuilionis and 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 with 82-70 loss to Rutgers in which Rutgers star Quincy Douby scored 36 points. During the season, Dexter Gray decided to transfer to Iona College. It should also be noted that Cedric Jackson decided to transfer following the season's end. Both transfers are believed to be due to lack of playing time.
The recruiting class for the 2006-07 season has received much attention. Players include: Avery Patterson, Derwin Kitchen, Rob Thomas, Larry Wright and Qa'rraan Calhoun. It should be also noted that Norm had received a verbal commitment from Doug Wiggins who later backed out of this commitment to attend the University of Connecticut. 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 and Christ the King point guard Malik Boothe.
Preceded by Mike Jarvis |
St. John's Men's Basketball Head Coach 2004 – |
Succeeded by incumbent |