Vicky Graff Photo
Former UK All-American Jack Givens believes Jaxson Robinson and Koby Brea need to be taking more shots.
“Those two guys need double figure shot attempts every game because of the accuracy they shoot it. They have to get more attempts,” Givens said on the UK Radio Network. “For this team to be at its beset, you have to get that kind of leadership from those two.”
Robinson scored 11 points in 31 minutes of play and went 4-for-8 from the field, including 3-for-5 from 3-point range. Brea played 22 minutes but was only 1-for-5, including 1-for-4 from 3.
Robinson has been superb in SEC play. He’s averaged just under 11 shots per game but is averaging 15 points per game. He is hitting 48.4 percent overall from the field and 45.7 percent (21 of 46) from 3. His one off game was a five-point performance in the loss at Georgia.
In losses to Alabama and Vanderbilt, Robinson was 8-for-18 from the field and 6-for-12 from 3.
Givens interviewed Robinson on air after the Vanderbilt loss and told him “I’m a shooter from back in the day” on UK’s 1978 national championship team and said he felt Robinson was”good enough that 12 to 16 shots a game is where I would like to see you.”
Givens’ reasoning was that Robinson would make 60 percent of those shots and score 20 or more points per game.
Givens asked Robinson what it would take for him to get more shots. Robinson admitted he probably needed to be more assertive at times but he’s never been one to demand the ball during his collegiate career.
“Just cutting harder, being more aggressive. I think I get caught up sometimes just trying to let the game come to me. But as a leader, I’m still figuring out ways to be more effective and assertive as far as calling for the ball and things like that,” Robinson said.
2 Responses
We need more passing to get better open shots. We have proved that hero ball doesn’t work. We have also proved that Pope ball does work. Why do we insist on playing hero ball?
This team gets down on themselves more than I think I’ve ever seen a team get down. We will be up 9 points miss a layup and then lose touch of the game for a couple of minutes. I said if we finish in the top 5 in the SEC in Popes first year and its historically great this year ill be happy. You certainly can’t win them all in the SEC this year. Our schedule also gets a little softer after next week. I think we play 3 opponents who aren’t ranked. If we lose to Arkansas that’s going to be like losing 3 games. We should easily beat Arkansas I think Tennessee beats us tho. We are short Carr and Butler. Unless Robinson and Oweh both have incredible games I don’t see us beating Tennessee. We should easily beat Arkansas. I think realistically if we go 12-6 or maybe even 11-7 gets you in the top 4. Its going to be slug fest and top 10 teams will lose every week. The polls are hard to keep up with this year because the ACC and other conferences who are usually very good are very weak this year. This is the best year ever in the SEC but it might be the worst year ever in the ACC. Look at what Louisville is doing to the ACC. In the SEC they would be a bottom of the barrel team. Probably not even as good as say Vanderbilt or Georgia. Look at Missouri if they were in the ACC they would probably be a top 10-15 team. But there is so kuch parity in the SEC that you can be a great team like Kentucky and still be 3-3 in the conference. If we could find a way to win 3 out of 4 or 3 out of even 5 games we will finish about where I think we will finish. without Butler and Carr healthy we might be a top 25 team. That’s what is scary when the sec is this great this year. The good ting we have going for us is 6-0 vs top 15 teams. Bad thing the end of December and most of January is just a visual of how good your team is. At this point I still don’t know how good we are. We have Kriisa hurt who at the time I thought no big deal but I seen after 3 games it was a very big deal. Then Carr hurts his back and you can tell he’s playing stiff through it but I would play Almonor more minutes because If his back gets worse there goes the season. Carr is the glue that holds everything together when he’s healthy. Now Butler is out so we are out our starting PG our backup PG and are starting 4. We are hurting right now. Unless Perry hits about 4-5 three pointers we are done for. Perry will get even better with this experience but it comes at a bad time when the team is struggling more. I don’t know what happened to Brea but I see why hes a lifetime 9ppg guy even at a small college he wasn’t a scorer and he wasn’t relied on for his 3 point shooting he just took 3s when he was open here we are trying to force him to shoot every time he touches the ball. Robinson if anybody needs to shoot more. Almonor needs to shoot more and we need to feed Williams the ball more in the paint and keep the ball out of is hands he’s not a Point guard. I think Perry has a great game as long as he doesn’t try to do to much. If we can just get stale point guard play and Perry can knock down a couple of 3s we will still lose by 8 points to Tennessee!