Section B·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, February 16, 2001
Seminoles hope win will build fan morale
The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
Working in the shadows of the nation's most successful football program, Florida State's Steve Robinson has struggled to put together a respectable basketball team in the rugged Atlantic Coast Conference.
A 74-71 Valentine's Day win at No. 17 Maryland may be just what the fourth-year coach had been seeking to rekindle fan interest in his young Seminoles.
"I would inwould probably be the biggest boost to his program of anything that has happened yet," football coach Bobby Bowden said yesterday.
"I would think that win there
The win left Florida State with a 7-17 record, 2-9 in the ACC, going into tomorrow's home game
"We just can't be a football team. We have to be a basketball team also. We're in the best basketball league in the
al participants in the NCAA College World Series although they have never won it.
"Our fans have become accustomed for us competing for national titles and we're not there by any means yet," Robinson said. "They want us to be at that level."
against No. 12 Virginia. "I told the guys enjoy it," the former Kansas assistant said. "Now we get to play the team that beat Duke."
"We just can't be a football team," said Jim Giroux, a longtime Florida State fan and season-
country.'
Attendance in the 13,000-seat Civic Center has fallen in recent years. Less than 4,000 fans showed up for the game against Duke.
It's been a long haul for the 43 year-old Robinson, who left a successful Tulsa program to try to get Florida State into the ACC's upper echelon.
Bowden, who coached a little basketball himself when he was young, said Robinson was the right person for the challenge.
The Seminoles were 18-14 in his first year with talent recruited by former coach Pat Kennedy, but fell to 13-17 and 12-17 the past two seasons and are in danger of losing 20 games for the first time in 49 years.
Jim Giroux FSU fan and season ticket holder
"The big thing his kids need is some success," Bowden said. "When you are not getting some success it's tough to get them to believe."
Robinson's 50-65 coaching record at Florida State includes a 21-43 record against ACC opponents.
Meanwhile, Bowden's football teams have contended for the national championship for 14 straight years, winning nine straight league titles. Florida State's baseball teams are perenni-
ticket holder.
"We have to be a basketball team also. We're in the best basketball league in the country."
At times this season the Seminoles were almost a sideshow as Robinson sought desperately to find the right
combination.
but the progress of first-year players Michael Joiner, Mike Mathews, Andrew Wilson and Monte Cummings combined with point guard Delvon Arrington has produced a pair of ACC wins in the last four games.
"They give us some good things to build on," Robinson said. Next year, he will have J.D. Bracy, sidelined this year for academic reasons, and two other top high school prospects who have committed. Robinson believes all contribute immediately.
Arrington can regain a fourth year of eligibility if he graduates this spring, giving the Seminoles their floor leader back. And Robinson hopes 6-9, 380-pound Nigel "Big Jelly" Dixon can drop a hundred pounds or so and improve his endurance and production.
Robinson, who has shed nearly 20 pounds during the wear-and-tear of the season, is confident Florida State's basketball fortunes are turning around.
"I look at the big picture," he said. "I know where I'm going and I feel like I have a handle on how to get there."
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