COLUMBIA — Les Robinson knew the voice. He knew the name. He just didn’t understand why Clemson athletic director Bobby Robinson was calling him in the winter of 1989.
The East Tennessee State coach was widely viewed as the heir apparent to Jim Valvano for the men’s basketball job at North Carolina State, so much so that a satellite truck from Raleigh’s WRAL television had parked itself right outside his house in Johnson City. So when Clemson’s AD called, Les Robinson figured it was to inquire whether he would be interested in the Tigers’ job — which Cliff Ellis still held at the time.