Could Barack Obama Out-Recruit Frank Sinatra? We May Find Out

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.

Robinson was on ESPN 710 in Los Angeles and he admitted to hosts John Ireland and Steve Mason that he wouldn't be above having his brother-in-law, President Barack Obama, make some recruiting pitches for Oregon State.

From SportsRadioInterviews.com, (via Deadspin):

"I think the President has the right to call any citizen that he feels like calling any time he wants. I haven't had to use him yet, but I think I ought to petition the NCAA to see what the ruling will be on that before I do it."

But don't think that having the President doing your recruiting is going to help that much. That's a lesson Jerry Tarkanian learned when he was coach at UNLV. When Tarkanian was on the trail of some East Coast recruits, he sent the Chairman of the Board Frank Sinatra in to close the deal. The first was a tall kid from from Long Island that ended up going to South Carolina. The other was Mike O'Koren from New Jersey.

Tarkanian recants how well Sinatra was as a recruiter in his book, Runnin' Rebel:

Well, I thought there was something (Sinatra) could do. I had gotten to think that Sinatra could be real helpful in recruiting, especially if we hooked him up with some Italian-American kids back East. I thought that if we could ever send Sinatra into a recruit's home, have him meet the Italian mother, well, it would be over. They'd do whatever Sinata told tehm to do. I figured it would be a lock. How could they turn down Frank Sinatra? So I told Sinatra my plan, and he loved the idea. He said to set it up. ...

I just couldn't believe my plan had backfired. We went 0-for-2 on Sinatra's recruits. Dean Smith might be the greatest recruiter in the history of college basketball. Forget about signing Michael Jordan, James Worthy and the rest. Dean Smith beat Frank Sinatra on a kid from Jersey City. Impossible.

And it got worse for Tarkanian,when O'Koren scored 31 points as North Carolina beat UNLV in a 1977 Final Four matchup.

That Frank Sinatara, he really could sing, but he sure couldn't recruit.

Maybe President Obama can do a better job.