Oregon State fires basketball coach Craig Robinson

Oregon State has fired men's basketball coach Craig Robinson, the school announced in a statement Monday.

Sports Illustrated was the first to report the news.

"I want to thank Coach Robinson and his family for their contributions to Oregon State University," said athletic director Bob De Carolis. "This was a difficult decision, but after further evaluation, I believe it is in the best interests of our student-athletes, our basketball program and our University."

Robinson, the brother of first lady Michelle Obama, was 93-104 in six years at Oregon State with no NCAA tournament appearances. The Beavers were 16-16 last season and will lose all five starters. Robinson had three more years remaining on this contract and the university is expected to owe him more than $4 million.

The move comes more than a month after Oregon State lost to Radford in the CBI. And it comes five weeks after an end-of-season meeting after which De Carolis said, "I'm looking forward to watching Coach Robinson continue to build our program."

"During a phone call with him on Thursday, I acknowledged to him that I had changed my mind," De Carolis said. "Despite my sincere want for Craig to be successful at Oregon State, as the days moved on since March, it became clear to me that wanting it to work with Craig as our coach was not good enough. Oregon State University, our student-athletes and our loyal supporters deserve more than a simple desire. They deserve success."

The Beavers will add Maryland transfer Nick Faust, but will have no returning starters in 2014-15 after Eric Moreland declared early for the NBA draft, Hallice Cooke decided to transfer and Challe Barton left to play professionally overseas. Leading scorer Roberto Nelson, Devon Collier and Angus Brandt were seniors last season and won't be back, either.

De Carolis said he hopes to move quickly in finding a replacement.

"We want to move quickly, but we want to make the right choice," he said. "So fast but deliberate."

Robinson played at Princeton, where he was a two-time Ivy League player of the year as a 6-foot-6 forward. He started his career in the business world before serving as an assistant at Northwestern under Bill Carmody, an assistant coach at Princeton during Robinson's senior season.

Contributing: The Associated Press