Jaxson Robinson is a Leader and Motivator for Cats

Jaxson Robinson has the length and elite shooting ability that Kentucky coach Mark Pope says will be attractive to NBA teams. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Jaxson Robinson gave up a chance to see if he could start a professional career to follow coach Mark Pope from BYU to Kentucky. He figured to be Kentucky’s best offensive player and leading scorer while honing his skills to enhance his professional future.

Instead, he played in just 24 games this season and finally had to call it quits because of a painful wrist injury. He averaged 13 points per game and shot 43 percent overall from the field and 37.6 percent from 3-point range. He had a 2-to-1 assist/turnover ratio.

“Jaxson Robinson is an unbelievable leader and unbelievable translator for our team. He’s a great motivator. He’s a guy with quiet confidence. He adds those things to our team even today when he can’t step on the floor,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said before UK started NCAA Tournament play.

Pope believes there is an NBA career in Robinson’s future.

“What NBA teams will get is an elite, elite, elite shooter who is growing in his game, has tremendous length. With the right match-up, he can be an unbelievable defensive player, have a huge impact on the game with his length,” Pope said. “A guy who’s been through it, who has dealt with misfortune, who has dealt with weeks and months where he’s had to sit on the bench when he’s young and kind of worked his way through that.

“He’s a really incredibly resilient guy, a guy that will blend in beautifully in a locker room. He’s a guy any NBA team would want to have in their locker room as a rookie because he’s got an unbelievable upside. He’s going to grow into a great player. Those games as a young player where he was spending most of his time watching, he’s going to be an incredible asset to a team. He’s a winner’s winner. He’s a special guy.”

Pope said Robinson took on a “leadership/coaching role” and even pointed out something Pope was missing to the coach during a late-season game.

“He’s so different than the person he was three years ago (when he came to BYU). He’s different as a human being. He’s different in how he sees the world. He’s different in how he takes in all this information and how he’s able to respond to it. It’s like the best thing ever,” Pope said.