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Bobby Cremins

Participates in 1 Session

Bobby Cremins (born July 4, 1947) is a retired American college basketball coach, having formerly served as a head coach at Appalachian State, Georgia Tech, and, most recently, the College of Charleston.

Georgia Tech

When Cremins arrived at Georgia Tech, he walked into a situation that was as bad, if not worse, than what he'd inherited at Appalachian State. Georgia Tech had only notched one winning season in the previous 10 years, and had just suffered the worst season in school history--a 4-23 overall record and a winless record in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

Considering the poor state of the program he'd inherited, Cremins engineered a very quick return to respectability. In only his third year in Atlanta, he led the Yellow Jackets to the 1984 National Invitation Tournament--their first postseason berth of any sort in 13 years. A year later, the Yellow Jackets shocked the ACC by winning a share of the regular season title, then winning the conference tournament. They then advanced all the way to the Elite Eight, tallying an overall record of 27-8. In 1990, Cremins's team advanced all the way to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament, with an overall 28–7 record. The 28 wins are still a school record for wins in a season.

Cremins was three times the ACC "Coach of the Year": In 1983 with the first ever Yellow Jackets' ACC tournament victory, and an overall 13–15 won/loss record; again in 1985, and again in 1996 when his team posted a 24–12 record, won the ACC regular-season championship with a 13–3 record (only the second time in 15 years that a team from North Carolina hadn't won at least a share of the title), and progressed to the NCAA Basketball Tournament's "Sweet 16". Cremins' coaching of the 1990 Yellow Jackets' team earned him the Naismith College Coach of the Year honor.

Cremins had a host of players that went on to have successful National Basketball Association (NBA) careers. First there was Mark Price (the Cleveland Cavaliers) and John Salley (the Detroit Pistons) in the early 1980s, then Duane Ferrell, Tom Hammonds, Dennis Scott, Brian Oliver, Kenny Anderson, Jon Barry, Travis Best, Stephon Marbury, Jason Collier and Matt Harpring.

Cremins was also an assistant coach on the first-ever gold-medal-winning American World University Games team in 1986, assisting the head coach. Lute Olson of the University of Arizona. Cremins also assisted Olson at the 1986 FIBA World Championship, also winning the gold medal there. During the summer of 1989 he coached the American team that qualified for the World Championships in 1990.

Cremins also assisted the former National Basketball Association coach Lenny Wilkens in the American basketball team's appearance in the Summer Olympic Games of 1996 in Atlanta. This team was the second of the "Dream Teams" in the Olympic Games, and it featured such NBA stars as Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Reggie Miller, Shaquille O'Neil, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson and John Stockton, several of whom were returning for their second Olympic Games basketball tournament. This "Dream Team" was undefeated in the Olympic basketball tournament, of course, and it defeated the second-place Yugoslavian team 95–69 in the championship game in winning the gold medal.

On March 24, 1993, Cremins agreed to coach basketball at his alma mater, the University of South Carolina, before changing his mind and deciding three days later to continue at Georgia Tech. In 2003, Georgia Tech officially named the basketball court at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum on the Georgia Tech campus, the "Cremins Court". Paul Hewitt would take his place at Georgia Tech in 2000.

Cremins announced his retirement after the 1999-2000 season with a 25-year coaching record of 452–303 (a winning percentage of .600), and with a Georgia Tech coaching record of 354-237 in 19 seasons (also a .600 winning percentage). He is far and away the winningest coach in Georgia Tech history.

Sessions in which Bobby Cremins participates

Sunday 2 April, 2017

Time Zone: (GMT-07:00) Arizona
3:00 PM
3:00 PM