Norman Roberts (born July 21, 1965) is a men's college
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
coach who is an assistant coach at the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...
. He also is the former head coach at
St. John's University.
Early life
Roberts attended
Springfield Gardens High School
Springfield Gardens High School was a public 4–year high school located in the Springfield Gardens section in the New York City borough of Queens. The school was opened in 1965. Closed in 2007, The Springfield Gardens High School building is now ...
, where he was a teammate of
Anthony Mason.
Coaching career
Roberts's first coaching opportunity came when
Jack Curran
John Joseph Curran (September 6, 1930 – March 14, 2013) was an American baseball and basketball coach. Curran was the head coach at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, New York. Curran won more basketball and baseball games than any ...
hired him as coach of the freshman team at
Archbishop Molloy High School
Archbishop Molloy High School (also called Molloy, Archbishop Molloy, or AMHS) is a co-educational, college preparatory, Catholic school for grades 9-12, located on on 83-53 Manton Street, Briarwood, Queens, New York. It is part of the Roman C ...
. 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
Granville Oral Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009) was an American Charismatic Christian televangelist, ordained in both the Pentecostal Holiness and United Methodist churches. He is considered one of the forerunners of t ...
head coach
Bill Self. Roberts followed Self to the
University of Tulsa (in 1998),
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...
(in 2000) and
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...
(in 2003). On April 13, 2004, he signed a five-year contract to coach the men's basketball team at St. John's University. His assistants included
Glenn Braica,
Chris Casey, and Fred Quartlebaum. In April 2012 Roberts returned to the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...
as an assistant coach, filling the position left by
Danny Manning
Daniel Ricardo Manning (born May 17, 1966) is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the Associate Head Mens Basketball Coach at the University of Louisville. Manning played high school basketball at Walter Hin ...
.
St. John's
On April 13, 2004, Roberts signed a five-year contract to coach the men's basketball team at St. John's University. Although Roberts was thought of as a longshot, school officials were impressed by his work as Self's top recruiter over the past four years. Additionally, he was a New York City native, and it was hoped he would rebuild the Red Storm's traditional pipeline to the area's rich pool of high school basketball players. Historically, St. John's has been known for fielding powerhouse teams built mainly on New York City talent. He succeeded
Kevin Clark, who served as the interim coach after
Mike Jarvis
Michael D. Jarvis (born April 12, 1945) is an American college basketball coach most recently as head men's basketball coach at Florida Atlantic University. He has coached at Boston University, George Washington University and St. John's Univers ...
, who was fired midway through the 2003–04 season.
Roberts was fired by St. John's on March 19, 2010, after the Red Storm lost in the first round of the 2010 NIT. In 2011, Florida coach
Billy Donovan hired Roberts as an assistant coach.
Florida
Roberts served as an assistant coach for
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
for one season.
Kansas
Roberts was hired by
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...
in 2012 as an assistant. He won his first national championship in the
2021–22 season. The following season, while head coach
Bill Self served a 4-game suspension for recruiting violations, he served as acting head coach. He went 4–0 in the games he was acting head coach. Later that season, after Self was hospitalized, Roberts also coached the Jayhawks in the
2023 Big 12 Tournament and the NCAA Tournament due to Self's health issues.
Family
Roberts and his wife have two sons. Both of his sons played Division I basketball; Niko played at Kansas as an invited walk-on and Justin played at Niagara.
Head coaching record
References
External links
Kansas Jayhawks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Norm
1965 births
Living people
African-American basketball coaches
American men's basketball players
Basketball coaches from New York (state)
Basketball players from New York City
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Florida Gators men's basketball coaches
High school basketball coaches in the United States
Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball coaches
Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball coaches
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles men's basketball coaches
Queens Knights men's basketball coaches
Queens Knights men's basketball players
Sportspeople from Queens, New York
St. John's Red Storm men's basketball coaches
Tulsa Golden Hurricane men's basketball coaches
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American sportspeople