Jaxson Robinson ‘carried a lot of water’ Against Duke

Jaxson Robinson gave up only two points against Duke. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Jaxson Robinson only scored one point in Tuesday’s 77-72 win over Duke but Kentucky coach Mark Pope felt he was still one of the reasons the Cats won.

Robinson averaged 14.2 points per game last season playing for Pope at BYU when he was the Big 12 Sixth-Man of the Year. Against Duke, he was 0-for-4 from the field.

“On the offensive side, there’s more ways he can grow, for sure, and he’s really hungry to do that,” Pope said Thursday. “He’s an extraordinary offensive player and when you are, you garner a lot of attention.

“He certainly is the headliner on every single scout, and sometimes, just the sheer gravity that you afford your teammates on the floor actually makes the biggest contribution, and it certainly was in the game.” 

Numerous NBA scouts were in Atlanta. Robinson had put his name into the NBA Draft after last season but withdrew based on his draft projections and transferred to Kentucky to continue playing for Pope.

The Kentucky coach did not have any postgame conversation with Robinson about only scoring one point in the win. Pope knows what Robinson can do and is not worried about his long-term offense because he knows what he means to the team.

Robinson is averaging 7.7 points per game, shooting 37.5 percent from the field and 25 percent from 3 after three games.

“We didn’t win without Jax because Jax is such an impact guy. Talk about a gravity guy. You just throw Jax on the court, and four guys are leaning toward him,” Pope said. “His numbers may not be huge, but he has an impact when he walks in the gym, he has an impact on the scout, he has an impact on all those things.”

Pope certainly emphasized the impact Robinson had on defense. Lamont Butler and Otego Oweh are considered UK’s best perimeter defenders but Robinson blocked two shots and made one steal going against Duke’s highly rated guards.

“He played great. He made huge defensive plays down the stretch,” Pope said Thursday.  “It’s a pretty raw reporting deal, but we do points given up and Jaxson was responsible, given up two points in the entire game.

“You think about the matchups that he had, he was actually elite. He had some massive toughness plays down the stretch. I was incredibly proud of him. He was really important to us.

“He carried a lot of water in this game.”