FanHouse CraigRobinson

In case you've never seen the video, the President of the United States can't bowl. He should declare any alley he visits a major disaster area. Then again, after First Brother-In-Law Craig Robinson thought the other day about the pathetic ways of Barack Obama whenever he rolls a ball toward a set of pins, he told me with a playful frown, "I mean, bowling isn't even a sport, so why bring it up?"

Why, indeed? Except for bowling, this President is becoming the Commander In Chief of all things athletic. Just take it from Robinson, the older brother of First Lady Michelle Obama. Robinson also is the miracle worker of a basketball coach at Oregon State when he isn't the unofficial head of the Barack Obama Fan Club.

College basketball coaches are always looking for that edge. And Oregon State's Craig Robinson is no different than say, Ben Howland, Mike Montgomery or Tim Floyd in that respect. (Well, given USC's recent troubles, maybe Floyd isn't a good example.)

College recruiting can be competitive and tough. So any coach would be foolish to turn down any recruiting help. Especially recruiting help from family. Especially family that just happens to be the President of the United States.

Late Tuesday night in Chicago, President-elect Barack Obama addressed a huge crowd of supporters in Grant Park. When he had finished his speech, he was joined on stage by his family, including his brother-in-law, Oregon State basketball coach Craig Robinson.

Robinson, the brother of Michelle Obama, hugged President-elect Obama and waved to the crowd, and he was obviously enormously proud to be there, surrounded by history. But Robinson is a basketball coach, not a politician, so it's no surprise that he was at Oregon State practice this morning before flying to Chicago, and he'll fly back to Oregon in time for tomorrow's afternoon practice.

Although Robinson is in his first year as Oregon State's coach and previously coached in relative obscurity at Brown, he is, as a member of America's first family, one of the highest-profile college basketball coaches in the country.

Here's a look at Craig Robinson, the basketball coach at Brown, who's also the brother-in-law of presidential candidate Barack Obama:

The interview is interesting, but there's one brief moment that bothers me a little bit, when Robinson is asked who would win if he played Obama in one-on-one.

Let's just think about this for a minute. Robinson was a two-time Ivy League player of the year, and he's around the game every single day. Obama is a former high school player who occasionally plays pickup games. Does it really need to be asked who would win? (Robinson answered the question concisely and honestly: "I'd kill him. I mean, it's just a fact.")

Anyway, Robinson seems like a good guy, and he currently has Brown in second place in the Ivy League, which means that if Brown can get on a bit of a roll, or if first-place Cornell drops a few, we could see Robinson in March.