Catching Up With ...
          Gymnast-turned circus performer Kai Tindall (June 12)
          SPU's coaching dads (June 19)

 
By MARK MOSCHETTI
SPU Sports Information
 
SALT LAKE CITY – She was deadly from downtown's wide-open spaces. Tenacious in traffic jams under the basket.
 
Whether throwing up a three or reeling in a rebound, Lynne Roberts remembers it well.
 
 "You've heard of triple-threat?" Roberts asked in reference to a player who can shoot, pass, or drive from her stance on the floor. "I'm double threat," she said with a laugh.
               
"Those are the only two things I could do."
                                       
But in time, Roberts has become even better at another aspect of the game. In fact, one might even say she has developed her own concept of triple threat:
 
Shooting … rebounding …
 
… and coaching.
 So what if that doesn't square with the traditional definition? It sure has worked for Roberts, whose talent for teaching the game and mentoring players has taken her all the way to the Pacific-12 Conference after being named the new head coach at the University of Utah on April 20.
 
"It has been good. (But) I still feel like I'm flying around, trying to identify what needs to be going on," the 39-year-old said of settling into her new position. "When this situation came up, I thought it was intriguing. They reached out, and I kind of went from there.
 
"Nothing can replace being a player," she added. "This (coaching) is the next-best thing."
 
Roberts, whose first coaching job was as an SPU assistant to Gordy Presnell for five seasons (1997-2001) takes over a Utes squad that just went 9-21 (3-12 in the Pac-12). But nine of those losses were by single-digit margins, one of them in overtime. From the 15-player roster, 12 are slated to return.
 
"The good thing about this job is it's not a ship at the bottom of the sea," Roberts said. "It's a good program. They've had a couple rough years, but before that, it has been very, very good.
 
"We're in one of the best conferences in the country, so it's not going to be easy," Roberts added. "But we can get it done."
 
WHICH DIRECTION TO GO?
It was basketball that brought Roberts to Seattle Pacific from her hometown of Redding, Calif., in the fall of 1993. The 5-foot-9 guard was one of six freshmen on that year's squad and saw limited action in 11 games as the Falcons went 17-10.

 

Roberts was a regular off the bench as a sophomore, playing in all 29 games of a 21-8 season that extended into the second round of the NCAA West Regionals. By her junior year, she started all 26 games, led the team in rebounding at 8.4 per game, hit 82 of 218 shots from 3-point range (the makes and attempts still stand as SPU single-season records) and averaged 14.6 points.
 
Although the Falcons fell short of postseason play that year, they made up for it in 1996-97. Roberts averaged 10.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, and shot .445 from downtown during a 26-3 campaign that included a 13-game winning streak and advancement to the second round of the NCAAs.
 
"I loved SPU – that was such a great place for me," Roberts said. "You just know that when you're on a visit and drive away, you know that's where you're going to go."
 
But she wasn't sure where she was going academically. She tried pre-med ("because my two older brothers were pre-meds"), English ("that was too abstract, too poet-ish"), theatre ("I didn't have to sit still very long, which played into my personality"), and teaching ("I thought I was going to change the world, and realized quickly that wasn't going to be the case").
 
Roberts finally settled on history. As she was doing that, Presnell suggested something else:
 
Coaching.
 
 "It was the beginning of my senior year, and I thought, 'Maybe I'll try that," Roberts recalled. "I graduated in June (1997), went right into grad school, and became a grad assistant for Gordy.
 
"I learned that's what I wanted to do."
 
NO LOOKING BACK
Even before the opening tip of 1997-98, Roberts and coaching were the right fit.
 
That was no surprise to Presnell, who built the Falcons into a national power and now has coached Boise State for the past decade.

 

"She was a terrific part of my 18 years there – four years as a player, then five as my assistant," Presnell said. "She has the ability to relate to young people. She commands respect, but she still has that fine line where it's fun to play for her.
 
"She has a lot of talent, ability, and communicates very well," he added. "I knew she would be a very good coach, and she has done that."
 
Though no longer on the same sideline, Roberts says she still communicates regularly with Presnell.
 
"He's a great friend of mine and a great mentor," she said. "In coaching, you have to have one or two people you can call and say, 'What would you do here?' or 'What would you be thinking there?' But we don't want to play each other unless we have to."
 
After five years of helping the Falcons go 113-31 with an NCAA appearance each year, Roberts was named the head coach at Chico State in 2002. She was just 26 at the time, but her Wildcats ultimately went 82-33 and made the NCAAs in all four seasons she was there, getting as far as the semifinals in 2006.
                                                                                                                            
She then spent nine seasons at the University of Pacific in Stockton, Calif. Her first Tigers team was 8-22, but her last four made it to the WNIT.
 
"Every coach at some point in their career should be the underdog," Roberts said. "That will teach you how to really coach and recruit and how to grind it out. Pacific is a place where I was able to develop and kind of polish myself as a coach."
 
She wasn't necessarily looking to leave, either. In the same 18 years that Roberts has divided between just three schools, some other coaches might have called the shots at twice as many.
 
"That's not really my style," she said of bouncing from job to job. "Eventually, I wanted the opportunity to be somewhere where you can be on the national stage. I'd had some discussions with other places through the years, but it just never felt right. I was treated very well at Pacific, they took care of me, and I worked for an incredible athletic director (Ted Leland)."
 
RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE – RIGHT CHANCE
After Utah decided to part ways with coach Anthony Levrets following this past season's 9-21 finish, Roberts was on the school's short list. Initially, she saw it as that national-stage opportunity. But it quickly became much more.
 
In her mind, it became the perfect opportunity.

 

"I wanted to be in a place where there are good people. What I've learned in my career is it comes down to the people you work with and work for," Roberts said. "Every layer I got through the process, the more exciting it was."
 
The other clincher for Roberts was the mindset of those who reached out to her.
 
"The bottom line is women's basketball matters here," she said.
 
Utah athletic director Chris Hill made special note of Roberts' tenacity in building her 221-177 career record.
 
"I wanted someone who has been through challenges, and Lynne has done that," he said during Roberts' introductory press conference. "She has worked through some tough situations and become very successful."
 
Roberts is guaranteed at least two trips to Seattle next season: first during Pac-12 play (the official schedule has not yet been released), and again in March for the conference tournament
 
During the tourney, one or two of the teams usually come to Brougham Pavilion to practice before heading back across town to KeyArena. In the past, Utah has been one of those teams. If that works out again, Roberts will have a chance to step onto some familiar hardwood.
                                                                                           
"It's a fun place – I know that building up and down," she said. "I wouldn't want to embarrass my players, but I probably would have to beat them at HORSE and show them that's where the magic started."
 
Or better yet, show them it's where Lynne Roberts started becoming a triple threat, whether as a 3-point shooter, a rebounder …
 
… or as a coach.