KU’s acting head coach, Norm Roberts, orchestrates season-opening win against Omaha
Kansas assistant basketball coach Norm Roberts normally walks through the northwest tunnel of Allen Fieldhouse onto James Naismith Court to monitor pre-game drills close to two hours before tipoff.
On Monday, as the Jayhawks’ acting head coach, he made his first appearance before 16,300 fans just two minutes before introductions of the starting lineups — prior to the regular-season opener between the Jayhawks and Omaha Mavericks of the Summit League.
“Yeah, I came out late,” Roberts said after the Jayhawks’ 89-64 victory.
The 11th-year KU assistant noted his game-day routine mirrored that of a head coach in his first of four games as substitute for 20th-year KU coach Bill Self, who is serving a four-game university-imposed suspension to begin the 2022-23 campaign.
“I actually took a nap today, I needed that. I didn’t do bigs/littles (pregame drills) with the guys. Coach Dooley (Joe, KU staff member) took over that for me. It was great. It was a lot of fun.”
Roberts worked his first game as a head coach since his days at St, John’s, where he went 81-101 in six seasons in the Big East. His last season at St. John’s was 2009-10.
“The arena’s energy, when that place (Allen Fieldhouse) gets juiced and starts going crazy, it’s a lot of fun to be in there,” Roberts noted. “Our guys felt the energy and really pushed forward.”
The 57-year-old Roberts — he felt the need to call just two timeouts to stop runs in the 40-minute game — said it did feel at times Monday that he was back in charge of a college program.
As part of his suspension, Self can have no contact with coaching staff members or players on game day these first four games. Self can lead practices up to game day.
“What it is, you are anxious leading up to it. Then when you get out there, it was kind of like, ‘OK, Coach. Try to help the guys,’’’ Roberts said.
“They (Jayhawks) know it’s about players. I think me and Joe (Dooley) talked about that earlier today at shootaround because there had to be a voice. There had to be the one voice, which was mine. And it kind of rekindled that feeling of running your own shootarounds and those things. It was fun in that way.”
Roberts couldn’t help but have fun watching some stellar individual performances that led to the team win.
Junior forward Jalen Wilson scored 19 points with 11 rebounds and seven assists, coming close to a triple-double. Freshman guard Gradey Dick, who led all scorers with 23 points, hit 9-of-13 shots including 4-of-6 threes.
Sophomore backup point guard Bobby Pettiford scored a career-best 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, while junior starting point guard Dajuan Harris had 11 points and eight assists. Sophomore forward KJ Adams secured a career-high nine rebounds and senior Kevin McCullar contributed 10 points and two steals.
Freshman center Ernest Udeh had five boards, five points and a block.
Wilson said it was a pleasure to play for Roberts on Monday.
“It was great. One thing about our team, no matter what year it has been, we always step up when we have any type of adversity,” Wilson said. “Our biggest motto through my years of being here is ‘Faces change, expectations don’t.’ That’s one thing we did today was come together. We want to set the tone for the year. We have the greatest coaching staff in America.
“It doesn’t matter who is up there leading us. As long as it’s player-led we’ve got all the coaches’ backs. We’ll be fine, Coach Rob has been through a lot. He knows exactly what he’s doing out there. See how we did today.”
Wilson pointed out a moment in which he knew Self wasn’t in the building.
“When Bobby (gave up) the three before halftime ... that’s one of coach Self’s biggest pet peeves, them scoring before the half,” Wilson said. Indeed the Mavs stroked a three to beat the halftime buzzer; KU led 46-33 at the break. “As soon as he (made) it I looked for (Self) to yell. It was, ‘Yeah he ain’t yelling today.’ So that was my moment for sure.”
Pettiford, who failed to prevent that three, realizes he escaped Self’s wrath on that one.
“I’ll hear coach Self tomorrow,” Pettiford said.
Roberts, who will coach the team again Thursday when the Jayhawks meet North Dakota State in a 7 p.m. tip at Allen Fieldhouse, did not receive a text from Self immediately following the contest.
“No, I cannot talk to him until tomorrow. We (both) know that,” Roberts said of the rules regarding the suspension.
This story was originally published November 7, 2022 at 11:02 PM.
