Losing Season Costs Florida State’s Robinson a Job

Steve Robinson was fired Monday after coaching Florida State to four straight losing seasons--and one big upset victory.

Robinson was 64-86 in five years at Florida State, but only 46-72 over the last four seasons and 25-55 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“We haven’t won a lot of games and that’s why we’re here today,” Athletic Director David Hart Jr. said.

“We just couldn’t turn the corner competitively.”

Hart said he had expected a breakout year for the Seminoles but, “We’re still trying to learn how to win. It’s nobody’s fault, it just didn’t happen.”

Robinson, 44, had two years left on his contract.

Hart said Robinson would be paid $250,000 to cover the remaining two years on his base salary and that he would immediately begin looking for a new coach.

Possible successors include Richmond Coach John Beilein, Tennessee Tech’s Jeff Lebo, Davidson’s Bob McKillop, Western Kentucky’s Dennis Felton, Winthrop’s Gregg Marshall, Hampton’s Steve Merfeld and Florida assistant John Pelfrey.

Florida State scored arguably the biggest upset of the season when it ended Duke’s 22-game winning streak with a 77-76 victory on Jan. 6, but went 4-12 after that game, finishing at 12-17.

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Murry Bartow resigned as coach at Alabama Birmingham after failing to lead the Blazers to the postseason for the third year in a row.

Bartow, who succeeded his father, Gene, as head coach, had a 103-83 record in six seasons. He was 44-45 the last three seasons.

UAB is coming off the worst season in its 24-year history, going 13-17 and losing in the first round of the Conference USA tournament. It was only the second losing season for the Blazers.

“Coach had some injuries the last couple of years,” Athletic Director Herman Frazier said. “It’s been somewhat of a struggle for him in following in his father’s footsteps here at UAB.”

Gene Bartow became the program’s first coach and athletic director in 1977, guiding the Blazers to seven straight NCAA tournaments in his first nine years.

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Duke moved back into the No. 1 spot in the AP men’s poll, a record fourth straight year the Blue Devils were on top of the final rankings of the season.

Duke (29-3), which won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament Sunday with a 91-61 victory over North Carolina State, had been tied with UCLA for the most consecutive years as the final No. 1. The Bruins’ run was 1971-73.

This is the sixth final regular-season No. 1 ranking for Duke, leaving it one behind UCLA and Kentucky for most ever.

The Blue Devils received 58 first-place votes and 1,759 points from the national media panel to easily outdistance runner-up Kansas (29-3), which had been No. 1 the last three weeks.

Seven schools--UCLA, Missouri, Iowa, St. Joseph’s, Virginia, Boston College and Syracuse--were ranked in the top 10 at some point this season but weren’t in the final poll.

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Ratings for the NCAA tournament selection show and three of four conference championship games produced significant increases over last year for CBS.

The selection show earned an overnight rating of 5.8 and a share of 11, up 5% from last year.

Ratings for the Conference USA, Pac-10 and Southeastern Conference title games also were higher.

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Prairie View A&M; dismissed coach Elwood Plummer. In 18 seasons at Prairie View, Plummer’s record was 153-377.... Coach Tubby Smith said Kentucky guard Gerald Fitch did not play during a first-round loss in the Southeastern Conference tournament because of a curfew violation. After Kentucky’s 70-57 loss to South Carolina on Friday, Smith said it was a coach’s decision.... Kansas, Gonzaga, Stanford and California will make up the field at the sixth annual Pete Newell Challenge, to be held Dec. 28 at Oakland.