Robinson named Oregon St. basketball coach

CORVALLIS, Ore., April 7 (UPI) -- Craig Robinson, former coach at Brown University, was named Monday as Oregon State's new men's basketball coach.

Robinson, brother-in-law of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., directed Brown to a second-place finish in the Ivy League this past season behind Cornell. He was 30-28 in two seasons with the Bears and led Brown to a school record 19 victories this past season.

Prior to Brown, Robinson, 45, worked at Northwestern, where he spent six seasons with the Wildcats under Coach Bill Carmody.

Robinson takes over an Oregon State program that fired Jay John during the season and finished playing under interim Coach Kevin Mouton.

The Beavers were 6-25 in 2007-08 and finished last in the Pac-10, the first team in league history to go 0-18 in the conference.