Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Oregon State men’s basketball team is one victory away from a winning season.

The Beavers beat the University of Texas, El Paso last night, 75-69, to notch their 17th win.

It also puts the team one win away from a postseason championship.

That’s a big milestone.

Craig Robinson is the head coach of the Beavers.

Craig Robinson: “It’s significant. I’m not going to try to pooh-pooh it or anything like that. It’s very significant. But I still maintain that our early, I should use the word, non-success. Because that’s what it was. It wasn’t a negative, but it just wasn’t a success from a scoring standpoint. And I know kids, I know young men, and they would have thought their way was the right way. And those first losses were actually positives for us.”

Regardless of where Oregon State winds up in this tournament, there's no question the team has come a long way.

Craig Robinson: “Getting to .500 is really, it’s a nice thing to say and its great for your record when you are expected to be 10 games under .500 or eleven games .500. So, it’s significant from that standpoint, but more so its significant from a psychological standpoint for these guys, for all the guys.”

And most observers point to Coach Robinson as the major reason for the surprising success.

Remember, Robinson is also the brother-in-law of the President of the United States.

Both men inherited programs in need of a turnaround.

Ethan Lindsey reports from Corvallis.

The 10,000 seat Gill Coliseum, on the idyllic campus of Oregon State University, has seen a lot.

Conference championships. Final four teams.

But nobody expected this. A nearly-packed house, excited fans, and big-time college basketball in late March of this year.

It’s not March Madness. Or at least not the trademarked March Madness of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament.

Oregon State is in the finals of the College Basketball Invitational. It’s a fallback chance at postseason action for teams that weren’t particularly stellar during the regular season.

But outside the arena, Bryan Rebar, a grad student at OSU, clutches to his CBI tickets as if they were for the Super Bowl.

He says he goes to almost every Beavers home game, and last year, when the team was struggling, he says that means he went to ‘too many’ games.

Bryan Rebar: “It was painful. But, I came out because you are always hopeful. That’s why you come to cheer your team.”

After the dismal 2007-2008 season, Oregon State forced out its head coach. The school then hired Craig Robinson, who was the head coach at Brown University.

As everybody here knows, he has another claim to fame. Robinson is First Lady Michelle Obama’s brother.

Bryan Rebar: “The connection to the White House, or at the time, I guess, the candidate, was pretty exciting. He’s charismatic and motivational and a good speaker, and fun to watch.”

Jerry Walls: “A lot of what is involved in being a very successful basketball coach is motivating people. Getting people to believe in themselves.”

Jerry Walls is a philosopher and is writing a book called ‘Wisdom from the Hardwood.’  His book draws philosophical parallels between the business world and basketball.

Walls says when Robinson took over the losing Oregon State basketball team, the coach did what a lot of successful business and political leaders would do.

Jerry Walls: “He started imposing discipline. He started these 5:30 am practices. And there’s something about that, that says, 'I’m expecting you to win, and I’m expecting some things out of you.'”

Coach Robinson says he believes that you can draw real world lessons from basketball.

At the Democratic National Convention last year, Robinson introduced his sister by talking about the first time he played basketball against Barack Obama.

Craig Robinson: “If you are looking for a political analysis based on his playing, than here it is: he’s confident but not cocky, he’ll take the shot if he’s open, he’s a team player who improves the team around him, and he won’t back down from any challenge.”

It’s like how his brother-in-law took on a failing economy, Jerry Walls, the philosopher says.

Like his brother-in-law, Robinson also refused to back down from a difficult challenge in the sports arena by entering this tournament in the first place. 

Jerry Walls: “Coach Robinson said some people wondered why they were even doing this. We shouldn’t even do this. It’s almost embarrassing. Well, look, ‘where were you last year??’ You were 6-25. Don’t expect to go straight from 6-25 to the NCAA tournament. And I think there is a great lesson to be learned from that. We would like to go straight to the economy humming and everybody’s employed. And it’s not going to happen instantly.”

Walls says President Obama could learn a lot from his brother-in-law,

Lewis & Clark University political scientist  Robert Eisinger says you can take the sports and politics comparisons too far.

Robert Eisinger: "I don’t want to say, ‘because Barack Obama plays pick-up basketball, and has a brother-in-law who is the head coach of a basketball team that is turning around we will turnaround the economy and have world peace imminently. I think saying so would be ridiculous.”

But Eisinger points out that the way leaders see sports is a window on how they see leadership.

Robert Eisinger: “At best it is an interesting metaphor. And I think we should appreciate how this president, and for that matter, the previous one, understood sports.”

Back at the Oregon State game, grad student and basketball fan Bryan Rebar says it might be fun to listen in on a hypothetical phone call between Coach Robinson and his powerful brother-in-law.

Bryan Rebar: “I think he would say, you got to work with the cards your dealt. It’s the same principles. You have to work hard and be disciplined and work together as a team, and you’ll find success. A turnaround doesn’t take place overnight, but you can see the seeds of it from the start.”

And for Oregon State students, fans, and players, those seeds were the discipline and confidence that came from Craig Robinson.