Jaxson Robinson is Doing More Than Just Scoring for UK

Jaxson Robinson scored 49 points in UK's last two wins but his defense has impressed coach Mark Pope even more. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Jaxson Robinson was sensational when he poured in 27 points to lead Kentucky to a win at Mississippi State in what easily had been his best overall performance since transferring from BYU.

While he didn’t score as many points in Tuesday’s 81-69 win over Texas A&M, his 22-point effort might have been part of an even better game. He also had a career-high tying eight rebounds, including seven on defense, and two assists.

He was the first UK player to have back-to-back 20-point games this season and his 49 points in the last two games were his most in a two-game stretch during his college career.

Robinson downplayed that he did anything special.

“We come in with the same mentality, regardless of who we’re playing, and we have bigger goals, trying to win championships. So, as far as just my confidence, I think my teammates and my coaches are doing a great job of just instilling it in me. And it showed tonight,” he said after the game.

On the effort it took to out rebound Texas A&M  …
“It was huge. That was the big emphasis before the game. We knew that they were the best offensive rebounding team in the country, so just staying focused on making sure we got a hit every single time. And we did a great job with that tonight.”

On mindset when you’re not hitting your shots…
“Just keep shooting. That is all my teammates and my coaches are telling me. I missed the first four, but I knew eventually one was going to fall. Once it went in, I just stayed confident.”

Robinson started his career at Texas A&M before transferring to Arkansas and then BY where he played two years for coach Mark Pope before they both came to UK this season. Pope called it the “most well-rounded game” he had seen Robinson play and loved what he did in consecutive wins over top 15 teams. But Pope said his scoring was not the big story.

“It’s his contribution on the defensive end. He had a huge defensive play in the guts of the game where he had to pick up the point and Phelps is devastating off the bounce.  He caused Alabama, like I mean, when you watch the film he is causing so much frustration because he was getting downhill every time and Jaxson immediately jumped in and met him with the championship chest, took away the reject and was like this is fine,” Pope said after the game. “He’s making plays like that consistently on the defensive end.  

“His blind cut from the corner late in the game four minutes, maybe five minutes late for the dunk was a huge play that was an IQ play for a space guy to actually be able to internalize the game and see when defenders are going blind and make that time up.  It’s those plays I think that is setting him apart. It’s the eight rebounds, right?”

Pope liked that Robinson didn’t let missing early 3-point shots impact his overall game.

“It’s the resilience of missing his first three or four shots and you think man, was the other night just an anomaly and I’m going back to it.  He didn’t.  He’s like, ‘Nope, I’m here to play.  I’m going to keep making plays,’” Pope said.

“So it is all of those pieces of his game that are pretty exciting, man.  Like I said, it’s awesome to watch guys growing up and a great honor and privilege to watch them grow up for three years.”

Pope felt this was another game where Robinson’s toughness improved.

“For him to be in this game, like this particular game, the way this thing rolls and do what he did on the glass, one offensive and seven defensive (rebounds), is massive.  One of the things we’ve been talking about is our guards making a bigger impact,” Pope said.  “Otega (Oweh) had eight last game. Jax had seven this game. That is a massive difference maker for us on the glass. It’s pretty great.”