Norman Roberts (born July 21, 1965) is a former men's college

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach who was most recently an assistant coach at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

. He also is the former head coach at St. John's University.

Early life

Roberts attended

Springfield Gardens High School Springfield Gardens High School was a public 4-year high school located in the Springfield Gardens section in the New York City borough of Queens. The school was opened in 1965. Closed in 2007, The Springfield Gardens High School building is now ...

, where he was a teammate of Anthony Mason.

Coaching career

Roberts's first coaching opportunity came when Jack Curran hired him as coach of the freshman team at

Archbishop Molloy High School Archbishop Molloy High School (also called Molloy, Archbishop Molloy, or AMHS) is a four-year private, college preparatory, Catholic school for grades 9–12, located on on 83-53 Manton Street, Briarwood, Queens, New York. It is part of the D ...

. In 1991 Roberts became head coach at

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

, a position he held until 1995. Prior to the 1996–97 season, Roberts was hired by then-

Oral Roberts Granville Oral Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009) was an American Charismatic Christianity, Charismatic Christianity, Christian televangelist, who was one of the first to propagate Prosperity theology, Prosperity Gospel Theo ...

head coach

Bill Self Billy Eugene Self Jr. (born December 27, 1962) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball, Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team. Self has held various coaching roles at the collegiate level an ...

. Roberts followed Self to the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a Private university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

(in 1998),

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

(in 2000) and

(in 2003). On April 13, 2004, he signed a five-year contract to coach the men's basketball team at St. John's University. His assistants included

Glenn Braica Glenn Braica (born September 16, 1964) is an American college basketball coach, currently an assistant coach at Fairfield University. He was previously the head coach at St. Francis College from 2010 until the program was cut in 2023. Braica w ...

Chris Casey Chris Casey (born October 15, 1963) is an American head college basketball coach. He is currently the head coach for the Fairfield Stags men's basketball team. He was the head coach of the Niagara Purple Eagles men's basketball : ''For informat ...

, and Fred Quartlebaum. In April 2012 Roberts returned to the

as an assistant coach, filling the position left by

Danny Manning Danny is a masculine given name. It is related to and short for the male name Daniel.🖾🖾 People *Danny Altmann, British immunologist * Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer * Danny Baker (born 1957), English j ...

St. John's

On April 13, 2004, Roberts signed a five-year contract to coach the men's basketball team at St. John's University. Although Roberts was thought of as a longshot, school officials were impressed by his work as Self's top recruiter over the past four years. Additionally, he was a New York City native, and it was hoped he would rebuild the Red Storm's traditional pipeline to the area's rich pool of high school basketball players. Historically, St. John's has been known for fielding powerhouse teams built mainly on New York City talent. He succeeded Kevin Clark, who served as the interim coach after

Mike Jarvis Michael D. Jarvis (born April 12, 1945) is an American college basketball coach most recently as head men's basketball coach at Florida Atlantic University. He has coached at Boston University, George Washington University and St. John's Univer ...

, who was fired midway through the 2003–04 season. Roberts was fired by St. John's on March 19, 2010, after the Red Storm lost in the first round of the 2010 NIT. In 2011, Florida coach

Billy Donovan William John Donovan Jr. (born May 30, 1965) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Before moving to the NBA, he served as the head ...

hired Roberts as an assistant coach.

Florida

Roberts served as an assistant coach for

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

for one season.

Kansas

Roberts was hired by

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

in 2012 as an assistant. He won his first national championship in the 2021–22 season. The following season, while head coach

served a 4-game suspension for recruiting violations, he served as acting head coach. He went 4–0 in the games he was acting head coach. Later that season, after Self was hospitalized, Roberts also coached the Jayhawks in the 2023 Big 12 Tournament and the NCAA Tournament due to Self's health issues. On May 5 2025, Roberts announced his retirement after 37 years of coaching, including 14 with Kansas.

Family

Roberts and his wife have two sons. Both of his sons played Division I basketball; Niko played at Kansas as an invited walk-on and Justin played at Niagara.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Kansas Jayhawks bio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Norm 1965 births Living people African-American basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New York (state) Basketball players from Queens, New York College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Florida Gators men's basketball coaches High school basketball coaches in the United States Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball coaches Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball coaches Oral Roberts Golden Eagles men's basketball coaches Queens Knights men's basketball coaches Queens Knights men's basketball players Sports coaches from New York City St. John's Red Storm men's basketball coaches Tulsa Golden Hurricane men's basketball coaches 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportsmen