By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com

It was only a couple of years into his coaching career that Franklin & Marshall’s Glenn Robinson got to sit down and chat with one of the legends of college basketball. While at a coaches convention, Robinson struck up a conversation with North Carolina coach Dean Smith. Eventually Smith told Robinson to come to the campus for more guidance. Robinson was on the next plane there.

Glenn Robinson, center, could tie Dennie Bridges' record as early as Feb. 7 at Ursinus.

“I remember sitting in a corner of the Carolina Inn with Coach Smith, just talking,” Robinson said. “I learned more in those three hours then I did the rest of my life. I would ask a one-level question. He answered it on three levels. I sat up all night when I got back to the room, just writing down what he said.”

That material has been put to good use. What Smith is to Division I, the 59-year-old Robinson will soon be to Division III. He is closing in on Illinois Wesleyan’s Dennie Bridges’ record for most career wins by a Division III coach — 666. Robinson entered the weekend with a record of 656-233, all at F&M.

Robinson grew up in Yeadon, Pa., just outside of Philadelphia, learning the game from watching local legends Jack Boyd and ‘Wheaties’ Parker, played high school basketball at nearby Aldan Lansdowne High and collegiate baseball and basketball at Division II West Chester, graduating in 1967 and earning a masters degree a year later.

He came to Franklin & Marshall as an assistant basketball coach and intramurals coordinator. In 1971 he replaced Chuck Taylor as head coach and has averaged upwards of 20 wins a season since.

That first season was bumpy for the Diplomats. After a loss to Moravian, Robinson challenged his players’ commitment and courage. Five players quit in response, but those that stayed rallied to win their last five games to finish 7-14. Success was not that far away as a strong recruiting class followed. Robinson’s teams have since won 20 games 18 times, made the NCAAs 18 times, advanced to four Final Fours, and the NCAA championship game in 1991 (a season in which F&M rallied from seven points down in the quarterfinals to beat defending champion Rochester). His squads have usually been the ones to beat in either the MAC, or the Centennial and are very tough to beat on their home floor, the Mayser Center.

“We were well prepared for every game,” said current Florida International men’s basketball coach Donnie Marsh, who early in his freshman year spent three hours a day with Robinson learning the shooting technique that would make him the team’s all-time leading scorer and an All-America selection in 1977 and 1979. “He got us all on the same page, sacrificing to make us the best possible team.”

Sounds like something right out of Smith’s book. In fact it comes right from that one conversation.

“I asked him how many players I should keep,” said Robinson, who also talked with Smith’s assistants at the time, future head coaches Bill Guthridge and Roy Williams. “He told me that any beyond seven or eight had better be great kids. I was talking to him about screens. He went on to tell me more about screening than I ever knew existed. I would ask him about the X's and O's of a play. He would talk about how in the middle of the move, a players feet needed to be facing a certain way. All those little techniques in basketball that worked, they were all there (in that discussion).”

Robinson borrowed Smith’s four corners offense, not as a weapon to stall, but instead to score — a lot. He modified Smith’s other systems with others to fit his squads’ abilities.

“He is an offensive genius,” said Dave Troxell, Robinson’s first recruit at F&M and a former boys’ basketball coach at Annville-Cleona High School. “He is a mastermind at how to take talent and mold it into a machine in his open offense (a spread offense that requires five good ballhandlers). He’s also a great motivator. He knows how to get the most out of people.”

In Division I, most programs measure graduation rate in a self-serving manner, based on the percentage of four-year players who get a degree. F&M has a different standard. During Robinson’s tenure, all but one player to earn a varsity letter in basketball, has earned a degree.

The stick-to-it-iveness that has kept Robinson from bolting for a bigger program runs in the family. Robinson’s father worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad for 49½ years. Robinson lives on a farm not far from the campus with his wife, Kathleen, and two children. If Robinson can stay in this business as long as his dad stayed at his job, Smith’s overall mark of 897 wins might be in jeopardy. That doesn’t figure to happen, but just being mentioned in the same company is something special.

“This isn’t a coaching milestone, it’s one for all the people that have come through here,” Robinson said, referring to the possibility that he’ll break Bridges’ mark later this season. “I haven’t scored a point. I was fortunate to become a head coach so young and super-fortunate to get the players that have got us going in the right direction. I will be very proud if it happens.”

HOLY EJECTIONS, BATMAN: Robinson has had his share of high moments, but he’s had a few that have kept him humble too. Robinson says he has never cursed at an official, but he can get very energetic when talking to them. One of the stories he tells was about a game from a few years back:

“I got called for a technical early in the game,” Robinson said. “Later on in the first half, I was kneeling at my seat and I thought things were getting out of hand. I said to the referee ‘You have to control the game’ and I got my second technical for that. Now, this was on St. Paul’s Night. Sixty people from my church were there and I got ejected. Let me tell you, that second half was the most miserable hour you can imagine. It felt like it lasted a year.”

“I always felt that where I was on the sidelines was an excellent vantage point to call the game, and I felt the officials should know that,” Robinson said with a laugh.

GREAT DAY TO BE A PIONEER: All day Wednesday, athletic department staff members were teasing their men’s basketball cohorts a day after UW-Platteville’s women’s basketball team upset No. 1 UW-Stevens Point. The men were getting set to eventually upset the No. 2 Pointers that night.

“We just told them that the gym was all warmed up for them,” said UW-Platteville women’s coach Denise Dunbar, whose team heads into the weekend 8-4, 4-1 in the WIAC. “We were all sitting right behind their bench during the game. When it came down to the free throws at the end, we had missed a couple, and I said to our kids ‘It’s time for spirit fingers,’ and they all started wiggling their fingers. That’s the way we are. We always can do something to make you laugh.”

Platteville has been consistently middle of the pack the last two seasons, going 2-14 against the four teams that finished above them in the league standings, but 14-2 against those below them. The slogan on the Web site reads “Time for us to Fly.”

Dunbar has a lot of confidence in her veterans and refers to her top three seniors -- guards Katie Fries and Angie Sisson and forward Tiff Flesch as “Coach Fries, Coach Sisson and Coach Flesch.”

“They all know what needs to be done,” Dunbar said. “That’s a key. “We’ve been knocking on the door, but haven’t gotten it open all the way. This year’s team has a very good balance of young and experienced players. Our kids put it all together against Stevens Point.”

GAME OF THE YEAR: For the sake of his graying hairs, Cornell men’s basketball coach Ed Timm could do without the stretch of three consecutive overtime games. Hopefully for his sake, the best one was the last one.

Cornell upset Loras 104-100 in triple overtime in a dramatic contest on Jan. 3 in a game that could be a catalyst in the early stages of IIAC play. The Rams improved to 3-7, with two of the wins coming in dramatic extra sessions.

“Every team has a townsperson who has been going to games forever,” Timm said. “Our guy said this game was the best one he had seen in 25 years.”

Andy Fox scored 18 of his 30 points after regulation, including a 3-pointer that put Cornell up for good with 57 seconds remaining. Fox had hit a 3-pointer to tie the game with two seconds left in the first overtime, and assisted on Matt Ditch’s game-tying 3-pointer with seven seconds left in regulation.

Ditch, who had 24 points and 12 rebounds in 52 minutes, has the distinction of playing in one of the strangest football games (an Aztec Bowl selection at wide receiver, Ditch had 10 catches and scored three touchdowns in a 66-63 loss to Coe) and basketball games in Cornell history within a three-month stretch. It wasn’t the first time that Ditch came up big. In his season debut, he hit a game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime in a win over Franciscan. Ditch has played in three games and all have gone beyond the distance.

“We lost an overtime game that we gave away the night before the Loras game, so things have a way of evening out,” Timm said. “Matt’s shot to tie was a heck of a shot. He had both his legs crossed on the baseline and he shot it around his defender’s hip.”

SCHOLARSHIP, SHMOLARSHIP: We often talk about Division III teams putting forth great performances against Division I competition, but rarely do we see such an outstanding performance by an individual. The University of Dallas men lost at Rice 102-79 on Dec. 30, but.senior forward Shane Lungwitz, scored a school-record 43 points, also a record for most points scored against Rice by an individual player. Lungwitz’s total surpassed that of New York Knicks forward Kurt Thomas, who tallied 42 against Rice while at TCU.

SCOUTING REPORT: Eastern Connecticut State senior forward Allison Coleman, a two-time All American and leading candidate for Player of the Year honors, picked a good night to put up 19 points and 22 rebounds in a 51-40 win over Coast Guard on Jan. 6. It just so happened that Scott Hawk, an assistant coach from the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun was on hand for a look.

Coleman could be one of just a handful of Division III players to attend a WNBA tryout camp, joining Ronda Jo Miller (Gallaudet), Cori Carson (Marymount) and Meredith Eisenhut (St. Lawrence), each of whom struggled in such a setting against top Division I competition. While Coleman almost certainly won’t be drafted, multiple people, including Hawk have told us that she could improve her chances to play professionally in the U.S. with a few strong seasons in a European league. That would give her the chance to maximize her skills against a higher level of competition. Coleman recently told the Hartford Courant that she would consider any pro options more seriously after the season.

Coleman is averaging 17.9 ppg, 10.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists for the No. 7 ranked Warriors, who are 8-1 through nine games. Our one glance at her this season indicated she has improved both her shooting (44% from the field, 88% from the foul line) and her shot selection, and is living up to the billing we gave her last season as the Diana Taurasi of Division III.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Even thousands of miles away, in Spain on a scouting jaunt in his role as director of player personnel for the San Antonio Spurs, Sam Presti (Emerson ’00), still feels a closeness to Division III.

“It’s an extremely pure form of the game,” said Presti, who averaged 14 points per game in two seasons with the Lions.

The 27-year-old Presti was recently tabbed in a Washington Post story as an NBA executive to watch. He is modest when talking about himself and his work, giving credit to his mentors — among them Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and Emerson men’s basketball coach Hank Smith, who guided the team to 39 wins in the two seasons Presti played.

“Coach Smith believed in me,” said Presti, who was a Rhodes Scholar nominee while at the school, and is also an accomplished musician. “He taught me survival. He’s had a heck of a record for someone who’s been faced with what he’s been faced with (Emerson presently doesn’t have its own gym).

Presti’s most significant impact as a captain may have been the day he brought his teammates contracts to sign in which they pledged to play hard.

“I thought we should be accountable for what we can control,” Presti said. “Regardless of your skill or size, you can control your effort, preparation and execution. We had to master those. Putting a name on paper makes you accountable to your teammates.”

Presti handles NBA draft preparation and player evaluation for the Spurs, which includes some statistical analysis similar in nature to that being done in Major League Baseball.

“My mind doesn’t ever stop working,” Presti said. “But I don’t consider it work. I love what I do.”

WELCOME TO THE BIG TIME: Those who weren’t familiar with the Chestnut Hill men’s basketball team probably are now after the first-year program’s stunning upset at Christopher Newport last week. A further examination revealed just how far this program has come so quickly to go 4-6 through 10 games under first-year coach Jesse Balcer.

Chestnut Hill, formerly an all-women’s school that admitted 78 men earlier this year, truly is starting from scratch as an independent. Seven of the 15 players on the preseason roster were walk-ons and five players had never even played high school basketball. Five players have since quit or been cut, but the remaining 10, nine of whom are freshmen, have bonded well. Balcer stressed fundamentals in practice, setting up 3-on-3, no-dribble scrimmages to build teamwork.

Chestnut Hill didn’t have a deep bench, but the team had shown flashes of what it could do prior to the Newport game, having led Lebanon Valley at halftime and Gwynedd-Mercy by as much as 15 in defeats. There was some concern when top scorer Delton Morgan-Hines came down with the flu prior to the Christopher Newport Tournament, but other players stepped up. Among them was Nate Waronker, cut from the varsity in each of his four years of high school basketball, who hit a 3-pointer to give the Griffins the lead going into halftime.

“A lot of people thought I was crazy to set up this tough a schedule,” said Balcer, a former assistant at Philadelphia University. “But I want us to be able to go into next season knowing where we want to be.”

UPDATE? It seems we get asked this question every season. Can anyone out there tell us the longest current homecourt win streaks for both men’s and women’s Division III program, all games, not just regular season. The Bowdoin women’s team has won 29 straight home games and SID James Caton wants to know if that is the best current mark. We believe the best current men’s mark to be Williams, with 48 (through Wednesday, Jan. 7).