Robert Thurman joined the Pioneers as an Assistant Coach in 2016-17. A former student-athlete at Cal, he comes to Cal State East Bay after a stint playing professional basketball in Europe.
A Southern California native, Thurman attended Desert High School, where he led the basketball team to the 2007 CIF Southern Section Division V Championships. He was also named Southern Section Division 5A Player of the Year, and earned Los Angeles Times and Ventura Star Player of the Week awards.
Thurman played Division I college hoops for the Cal Bears from 2009-13. During his career, Cal won a Pac-10 Championship in 2009-10 and finished as Pac-12 runner-up twice (2011-12 and 2012-13). Thurman finished his career ranked No. 2 in school history with a .602 field goal percentage. In Thurman's senior season, Cal made it to the third round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament, during which he averaged 10.5 points per game.
Following his collegiate career, Thurman played professionally in Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom, China, France and Lithuania. He decided to end his professional career overseas after sustaining a knee injury.
