Cliff Kirkpatrick

Craig Robinson, the GT’s OSU Male Sports Coach of the Year. PHOTO/AP

The GT usually runs year-end stories on players and coaches of the year from Oregon State and Benton County preps, but for whatever reason it was scrapped this year.

It was my idea I brought from San Diego five years ago, so I figure I’d keep it alive on the blog, for OSU anyway. These are my picks only, not the typical staff vote.

So here is my review of the 2008-09 starting with OSU Male Sports Coach of the Year. This was an easy one. The slam dunk, so to speak. It’s men’s basketball coach Craig Robinson.

He made a splash his first season by taking a team that didn’t win a conference game the year before to an 18-18 overall record and 7-11 in the Pac-10.

The Beavers went on to win the second College Basketball Invitational tournament. How the team played was stunning. Improvement was easily seen from the beginning to the end.

Robinson got the most out of those players anyone could. He earned this distinction 100 percent on what he did on the court. However, he also signed five players for a top-25 recruiting class.

Past winners to the GT award were Pat Casey (2005), Casey (2006), Mike Riley (2007) and Riley (2008).

Check back tomorrow for the OSU women’s coach of the year. Then I’ll hit the players.

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Related posts:

1. Year-end awards II
2. Year-end male player
3. Football team awards
4. Cliff: Year-in-review
5. Year in review