University of Arizona Athletics

Steve Robinson was named an assistant coach at Arizona on Sept. 2, 2021 and announced his retirement from coaching following the 2024-25 season, which was his 42nd year as an assistant coach or head coach at the Division I level.

In his 42 seasons, he went to the NCAA Tournament 31 times. He’s won three national championships in eight Final Four appearance and claimed 18 conference regular season titles in addition to eight conference tournament crowns, including two regular season and two Pac-12 Tournament titles with the Wildcats.

On the way to helping Arizona capture the 2024 Pac-12 regular season championship, Robinson was reunited with former UNC standout Caleb Love and helped Love earn Pac-12 Player of the Year honors.

Robinson's second year in Tucson saw Arizona post a 28-7 overall record and earn a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Junior forward Azuolas Tubelis was a consensus Second Team All-American and became one of seven players in Pac-12 history to lead the conference in scoring and rebounding in the same season. The Wildcats won the Maui Invitational and Oumar Ballo was crowned MVP of the three-day event. 

He played a part in mentoring three top 33 NBA Draft Picks in 2022, increasing his career total of NBA players coached to 59. He was also influential in helping first-year head coach Tommy Lloyd to a 33-4 overall record, the second-most wins by a first time head coach in NCAA history.
 
On four occasions during his time with the Tar Heels, Robinson was named one of the top-25 recruiters in college basketball and one of the top five high-major assistant coaches in college basketball.
 
Robinson served as Williams’ top assistant coach with the Tar Heels, where he was heavily involved in recruiting, scout and in-game strategy while working with the perimeter players. He counts Harrison Barnes, Danny Green, Marvin Williams, Brendan Wright and Paul Pierce as recruits that he helped bring to Chapel Hill and Lawrence.
 
He helped mentor Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson and Kendall Marshall, all of whom won the Cousy Award for the top point guard in the country in addition to 2017 Final Four MVP Joel Berry II.
 
Robinson got his start in coaching as an assistant coach at Radford, his alma mater, for three seasons (1984-86) and then two seasons (1986-88) at Cornell. Prior to the 1988-89 season, he was named an assistant coach at Kansas under Roy Williams, a position he would hold for seven seasons before being named the head coach at Tulsa.
 
In his two seasons with the Golden Hurricanes, he went 46-18, won a conference championship in his first season and made two NCAA Tournament appearances.

Following the two years at Tulsa, he was named head coach at Florida State and led the Seminoles for five seasons (1997-2002). His overall record as a head coach is 110-104 in seven seasons.
 
He returned to Kansas as Williams’ assistant in 2002-03 before Williams was named the head coach at North Carolina prior to the 2003-04 season and brought Robinson along with him to Chapel Hill.
 
The Roanoke, Virginia native was inducted into the A Step Up Assistant Coach Hall of Fame in 2019, the same Hall of Fame that current Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd was inducted into in May 2021.
 
A graduate of William Fleming High School in Roanoke, he went on to play two seasons at Ferrum Junior College. He continued his collegiate career at Radford, where he was the team captain in 1979 and 1980 before earning his bachelor’s degree in Health and Physical Education in 1981. He received his master’s degree in counseling from Radford in 1985.
 
Robinson has since been inducted into the Hall of Fame at William Fleming High School, Ferrum Junior College and Radford University.
 
Along with his wife, Lisa, they have four children – daughters Shauna and Kiaya and sons Tarron and Denzel. Tarron and his wife, Kathryn, have a daughter, Chloe, and a son, Cole. Denzel played two seasons for the Tar Heels before graduating in 2014.