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UNC Basketball: Former Tar Heel assistant coach joins Arizona Wildcats

By Blake Cockrum

LOUISVILLE, KY - FEBRUARY 02: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels sits with assistants Steve Robinson, Hubert Davis and Brad Frederick during the game against the Louisville Cardinals at KFC YUM! Center on February 2, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KY - FEBRUARY 02: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels sits with assistants Steve Robinson, Hubert Davis and Brad Frederick during the game against the Louisville Cardinals at KFC YUM! Center on February 2, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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The Arizona Wildcats are hiring former UNC basketball assistant coach Steve Robinson.

The Arizona Wildcats are hiring former North Carolina basketball assistant Steve Robinson to the same position in Tucson, that according to a report from WildcatAuthority.com of the 247Sports network. Their sources state that an announcement could be coming from the university’s athletic department as soon as this week.

Robinson is set to replace former Wildcat and 19-year NBA veteran Jason Terry, who recently left the staff to take a head coaching position with the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G-League. Robinson joins an Arizona staff led by first-year head coach Tommy Lloyd, who took over for former head coach Sean Miller after his firing from the program following the 2020-21 season.

Robinson spent 18 years as an assistant under Roy Williams at North Carolina, and eight years in the same role at the University of Kansas. During that span, Robinson was a part of seven Final Four teams (two at Kansas, five at North Carolina), and three national championship victories (all at UNC). He was Williams’ right hand man for nearly three decades, primarily focused on scouting, recruiting and bench coaching.

He had brief stints as a head coach at Tulsa and Florida State from 1995 to 2002, though he never saw the same kind of success on his own as he did with his long-time running mate. For his work as an assistant coach, Robinson was inducted into the Assistant Coach Hall of Fame in 2019.

Following Williams’ sudden retirement in April 2021, Robinson wasn’t retained on new UNC head coach Hubert Davis’ coaching staff, though the latter had nothing but good things to say about the former. Robinson is the second-longest tenured assistant in UNC basketball history behind long-time Dean Smith assistant Bill Guthridge (30 years).

Robinson’s contributions to the UNC basketball program will never be forgotten, and we’ll wish him good luck in his new assignment in the desert.

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