Rob Flaska is in his seventh year as an assistant coach at Texas State.
During Flaska’s time at Texas State, the Bobcats have been ranked among the top 25 scoring teams in the nation three times, including a No. 15 ranking at the end of the 2009-10 season. Last year, he helped guide the Bobcats to one of the top turnarounds in program history when the Bobcats improved from eight wins in 2013-14 to 14 victories in 2014-15.
Flaska also was on Texas State’s staff when the Bobcats advanced to the semifinals of the 2013 WAC tournament after upsetting top-seeded Denver in the quarterfinals.
In 2010-11, Flaska helped guide the Bobcats to their second straight Southland Conference Tournament appearance after winning a share of the Southland’s West Division title and improve its overall win total for the fifth straight season with a 16-16 record. Texas State also advanced to the semifinals of the SLC Tournament for the first time since 2003. The Bobcats also won 10 straight home games that year.
The home-game winning streak continued into the next season and improved to nation’s 10th-longest winning streak with 16 consecutive wins in 2011-12.
Prior to joining Texas State’s staff, Flaska served 11 years as a collegiate head coach and 15 seasons as a collegiate assistant coach, including 12 years as a NCAA Division I assistant coach.
Flaska came to Texas State after serving as an assistant coach at Texas Southern for one season and serving the three previous years as the head coach at Centenary.
As the head coach at Centenary, Flaska inherited a team that had won only three games the year before his arrival, and led the nation’s smallest Division I school to a pair of double-digit win totals.
His first squad was the youngest team in the country in Division I game experience and his last team was the youngest in the country for most underclassman and combined personnel. During those three seasons, he brought excitement back into the school’s Gold Dome when Gents beat SMU, who was coached by 2007 National Coach of the Year Matt Doherty, and Texas Tech, who was coached by Bobby Knight.
Centenary also beat other prominent programs such as UALR (2006), Louisiana Tech (2007 and 2008) and Northwestern State (2007). Flaska also showed a great scheduling prowess, as he was able to play home games in the Golden Dome against the likes of Georgia Tech, Houston, SMU, and had contracts to play future home games against LSU and Baylor prior to Centenary dropping to Division III.
He went to Centenary after spending three years as an assistant coach at Arkansas, where he was named the school’s recruiting coordinator and helped sign two classes that were ranked No. 4 nationally in 2003 and No. 11 in 2004 by CSTV. Those classes included NBA lottery picks Al Jefferson and Ronnie Brewer. Basketball Times and Hoop Scoop listed him as one of the nation’s top assistant coaches.
He also served four seasons as an assistant coach at TCU and helped lead the Horned Frogs to a pair of 20-win seasons. TCU also was one of the top two scoring teams in the nation during each of his four seasons there. He recruited and helped sign Corey Santee, the school’s all-time assist leader and second leading scorer, and NBA Draft pick Corey Hightower. TCU’s recruiting classes were listed as the best in the WAC by most major recruiting rating services and magazines, including Basketball Times, Basketball News, Street and Smith’s, The Sporting News and Dick Vitale’s magazine for three straight years. The 1998 and 2001 classes were rated as the 17th and 29th-best nationally by Hoop Scoop.
Flaska also had prior stints as a head coach at Florida Community College and Mott Community College. Flaska had more than 50 players earn scholarships to four-year schools from the junior college ranks.
He also was an assistant coach at Trinity Valley Community College and Texas-Pan American.
He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at Indiana State followed by a two-year stint as an assistant coach at Detroit.
Before he began his coaching career, Flaska played at Glen Lake High School in Maple City, Mich., under Hall of Fame Coach Don Miller and led his team to the state championship while earning All-State honors. He also played collegiately at Michigan Tech, where he guided the team to four straight winning seasons and set school records in both assists and steals. He ended his career with 856 points, 316 assists and 116 steals. Flaska remains among Michigan Tech’s current careeer leaders as he ranks sixth in assists and seventh in steals.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in business administriation at Michigan Tech, Flaska received a master’s degree in business administration at Indiana State.
He and his wife, Joni, have a daughter, Riley Nicole. He also has a son, Charlie.
