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UA associate head coach Jim Rosborough talks to former UA forward Eugene Edgerson during a game last season in McKale Center. Rosborough has coached for 27 years, all but one of them with head coach Lute Olson.

Wednesday August 29, 2001 |

Arizona Daily Wildcat

With the pressure on collegiate coaching staffs this day and age, success can be measured strictly by winning percentage, titles and the number of top recruits a staff signed for the next season.

For UA men's basketball associate head coach Jim Rosborough, there's more to his definition of success. He measures success not only by the final score, but the lasting impression he leaves on the athletes he recruits and coaches.

Rosborough grew up in the small town of Moline, Ill., a stone's throw from the Illinois-Iowa border. Like many boys in the Midwest, he spent a lot of his free time tickling the twine on sun-baked, outdoor basketball courts.

An all-state forward in high school, Rosborough left Illinois to attend the University of Iowa, where he earned a political science degree in 1966.

He later earned a teaching degree from Loyola (Ill.) University in 1970.

Rosborough then took a junior high school coaching job at Corkey Junior High in west Chicago following his graduation.

Shortly thereafter, Lute Olson assumed the head coaching position at the University of Iowa. Although Rosborough was only coaching five-foot-nothing 13-year-olds, he was considered as a candidate for the recruiting job under Olson because of his knowledge and ties to the Chicago area, which was, and is still, a massive recruiting area for college basketball.

"I knew the city," Rosborough says. "And that was very good for recruiting."

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UA associate head coach Jim Rosborough confers with fellow assistant coach Josh Pastner last year during a game in McKale Center. This season will be Rosborough's twelfth with the Wildcats.

Rosborough spoke with Olson within a month of Olson's hiring at Iowa, and soon, the silver-haired head coach had a new recruiter.

Between Rosborough's recruiting and Olson's coaching, the two revived the Iowa basketball program with a Big Ten Conference title in 1979 and a trip to the Final Four, the first of multiple appearances in the national semifinals for Olson and Rosborough.

After nine seasons with Iowa - the two had led the Hawkeyes to a 167 -91 record including six 20-win seasons - Olson decided to move on, taking the head-coaching job at UA in 1983.

But the rest is not just history. Olson nabbed the head-coaching job at Arizona, but Rosborough did not make the trip to Tucson with him.

Instead, he accepted an administrative position at Iowa.

"It just wasn't a great time to move," Rosborough says. "So when Lute (went to Arizona), I stayed on as an administrator."

As Olson began rebuilding of the UA basketball program, Rosborough was offered an assistant coaching job at Tulsa under J.D. Barnett.

"(Barnett) was a different style of coach," Rosborough says. "But that was good for me. It exposed me to new things."

After a year under Barnett, Rosborough left to take the helm at Northern Illinois.

He helped recruit a talented group of underclassmen and promised the team would make the NCAA tournament as they matured and played more.

Unfortunately, Rosborough never saw the day NIU was selected to the big dance, at least not from the head coaching spot.

Rosborough was removed from the head coaching position after his starting lineup of five sophomores won just 11 games. Two years later, that same group of players won 26 games and made their trip to the NCAA tournament.

"We really worked hard (at Northern Illinois)," Rosborough says. "I liked what we had when I was there. As sophomores, they were still learning. Unfortunately, I wasn't there to enjoy (the selection to the tournament)."

Fortunately for Olson, Rosborough needed a job. In 1989, he joined the Wildcat coaching staff - and hasn't looked back.

"I like our staff," Rosborough says. "We get along well. Everybody is on the same page and does their job."

During 11 years with Arizona and 27 years in coaching, Rosborough has been a part of three Final-Four teams, made 17 trips to the postseason and helped capture at least a share of seven conference titles.

"What you look at is the results," Rosborough said. "We turn out pretty good kids in all areas. They don't graduate because they turn professional, but we coach the heck out of them. Everything that is good about the college game, we try. We try very hard with academics, but we hate it when people don't see it."

Rosborough maintains that the most rewarding part of his job has been the relationship with the players.

"I like to interface with people," Rosborough says. "I still like to talk with guys who have been in and out of here as many times as humanly possible.

"Sure, you have to get on them once in a while, but getting to know them and help them get through four years and into whatever their life will hold is special."

Graduate assistant coach and former player Josh Pastner worked with Rosborough from two different perspectives and said that UA's top assistant is one of the main reasons Arizona basketball remains at the top of its class.

"He is just flat out a great basketball coach," Pastner says. "But even more impressive is he's an even better person."

Pastner says that while he played, he would follow Rosborough around, attempting to learn as much as he could.

"I was basically his shadow," Pastner says. "I would follow him in while he would look at film."

Olson is also quick to point out the importance of Rosborough as a part of his coaching staff.

"What he brings is experience and knowledge of the system," Olson says. "It has been great from my standpoint, having an assistant coach so familiar with everything that I would want in a program."

With all the praise and respect throughout the basketball world, Rosborough remains focused on his goal to coach the athletes, and not just fill his resume.

As for his future, Rosborough says he and his family are content with the position he holds right now.

"We like it here," Rosborough says. "I would like to coach eight to ten more years. But we will just see what happens. I have made enough moves, and I think stability is something that is important to my family and the program."