The day before their first NCAA Tournament game last week, the Kentucky Wildcats were getting used to the Fiserv Forum court. They dribbled around.
They put up some shots. A smattering of UK fans watched the team’s open practice from the stands. Coach Mark Pope was watching, too, patrolling the floor, offering encouragement and soaking it in.
At one point, Pope stood near midcourt, and his eyes gravitated toward one of his players. His gaze lingered there for a little while.
Jaxson Robinson — a brace covering his right forearm, there to protect his surgically repaired shooting wrist — was awkwardly putting up free throws with his left hand. Some went in. Some didn’t. But there was a smile on Robinson’s face. And that was something.
Two weeks earlier, Pope had been sitting in his office at the UK basketball practice facility, talking excitedly about some of the other veterans on his first Wildcats’ team. He reflected on how far some of them had come over the past several months. He looked forward to the bright futures ahead for them all, in basketball and in life.
When Robinson’s name was mentioned, Pope’s smile briefly transformed into a wince. His natural positivity faded for just a moment. Eight days after it had happened, actually thinking about it was still almost too much for the coach to bear.
Robinson is the only player on this Kentucky team that played for Pope before this season. He had been the leading scorer at BYU last season. He’d been a hard case to figure out the season before that. When Pope left Provo for Lexington — and Robinson decided not to keep his name in the NBA draft — there were no deliberations. No drawn-out recruitment. Robinson followed.
And now — as Pope sat in his office with that brief look of despair on his face — a little more than nine months after Robinson had committed to Kentucky, a week before the Wildcats’ postseason was set to begin, the player’s own college basketball career was finished. But the shared journey of Pope and Robinson wasn’t over yet.
Even from the bench, the 22-year-old guard could make a difference in what was left of Kentucky’s season. The coach was sure of that. When asked how far Robinson had come over their three years together, that pained look on Pope’s face turned back into a smile of positivity. This was a look of pride.
“It’s like … there’s no words,” Pope said. “Jax would probably be the first one to tell you that we had some disastrous moments in our first year at BYU — him and me functioning in the context of a team. Like, it was not good. And we were working together, we were trying together. But, man, it was hard. It was hard. And I remember it so clearly.
“And so watching his progress — how he sees the world, understands the world, interacts with his teammates, leads his teammates, leads the moment, leans into adversity, rises over troubles — it just is incredible. It’s just awesome.”
And then Pope was speaking excitedly once again, looking back at the 19-year-old kid who joined his program — Robinson’s third school in three seasons — and looking ahead to what was in store for the player on this team that he knows the best. Even if it was so hard at first.
“He’s going to be a voice for the team,” Pope said. “The guys respect him and trust him and care about him and care for him. And I think they want to play for him. …
“You can’t spend one second with Jax and not be like, ‘I’m so lucky that I actually get to put on these shoes to practice today.’ Right? And he’s also got wisdom and translator skills and all those things. He’ll be really important to any success we have.”
Jaxson Robinson’s new outlook Robinson’s college basketball career ended Feb. 26, in his home state of Oklahoma, in his first game after a two-and-half-week layoff that resulted from a wrist injury sustained in one of UK’s practices.
During the first half of that game against the Sooners, the 6-foot-6 guard landed awkwardly on his shooting wrist. He knew going into that game that the wrist would require surgery after the season, but he wanted to give it a go anyway. By halftime, he knew it wasn’t going to work.
His college career was finished. He didn’t return to the game, but he kept that realization to himself. Pope said Robinson stayed “100% dialed in” from the bench in the second half. He cheered on his teammates. Otega Oweh led Kentucky to a comeback win over the Sooners. The postgame locker room was the scene of a wild celebration. Once it settled down, Robinson finally let the emotion pour out of him.
“Jax just burst into tears,” Pope said. “Like, inconsolable tears.” Obviously, at that point, everyone in the room knew what Robinson had realized an hour or so earlier.
Away from the cameras of the postgame press conference that night, Pope had been more reserved than was typical after a victory. A few days later, the reason for that became clear. Pope announced that Robinson would have surgery on his wrist. His season was finished.
His college basketball career was over. But his contributions to Pope’s first UK team weren’t done. Robinson, who has described himself as “very introverted,” had come to Lexington looking to be a leader, and — as the only player that had played for Pope — he’d been an invaluable source of information for his teammates early on.
He gave them pointers in and out of practice. He answered their questions. He started speaking up in the locker room, rallying the Cats behind the scenes. Pope watched.
And, even when Robinson could no longer play, the coach knew he could still contribute to the team in that way. Over the past couple of weeks, Robinson’s teammates have talked about how much he’s meant to them, in that regard. Robinson himself, unsurprisingly, had little to say about that.
Over the past couple of weeks, Robinson’s teammates have talked about how much he’s meant to them, in that regard. Robinson himself, unsurprisingly, had little to say about that. “I mean, I’ve been trying my best,” he said. “I’m not going to speak too highly of myself.”
His teammates will speak for him. “He’s been great, man,” said fellow fifth-year player Koby Brea, who took Robinson’s spot in the starting lineup after his injury.
“When we’re coming out of timeouts, he’s grabbing one of us and talking to us and just telling us everything that he sees from off the court. He’s kind of got a different point of view now — watching the games — and so he’s able to help us out a lot, and I think he’s been doing a great job, and he’s going to continue to do that.”
Sneak a peek over at the UK bench during games, and you’ll likely see Robinson sitting next to one of the young guards. He talks, they listen.
“Jax is always engaged over there,” said freshman guard Travis Perry. “And it’s great to have him down there with us, so that whenever we’re getting (rest), we can just learn from him. He’s played the game a long time at the college level. So just being able to pick his brain — he knows Coach Pope’s system, he knows what he needs out there, and he knows how to tell us what to do.”
Another freshman guard, Collin Chandler, has been relying on Robinson since he joined the team. Chandler came to Kentucky off a two-year Mormon mission. Robinson watched several of his former BYU teammates go through the same transition back to basketball, and he’s been a great resource for Chandler from the beginning.
“I think it was very apparent in the summer,” Chandler said of Robinson stepping into a leadership role. “When he was able to kind of relate to us differently than a coach would be able to — as someone that’s in the mix with us, that’s able to kind of guide us through what we were trying to grasp as a team. So that was extremely helpful and a key piece to our team coming together and learning the offense and defense that we’re running right now. He did a great job in that way.”
At one point during UK’s win over Illinois on Sunday night, Chandler was walking off the court with his teammates, headed to the timeout huddle. Robinson walked out onto the court, dapping up the older Wildcats as he passed by them. He then grabbed Chandler, pulling the freshman aside. Robinson gestured out to a spot on the court and started telling his teammate what he had just seen and how Chandler could do it better the next time around. The freshman listened intently and nodded along.
This process hasn’t been easy for Robinson, and his teammates know it. That’s endearing, too. “He’s definitely grown a lot,” Brea said. “I think, by nature, he’s just a quiet guy. But you can see him trying.
And he really has continued to get better at using his voice and understanding that he has a lot of people on this team that know what kind of player he is and need his voice. We need his voice. And he has come through a lot.”
Robinson’s final days at Kentucky The Wildcats’ season continues with a Sweet 16 matchup against Tennessee on Friday night in Indianapolis.
Having a player like Robinson for that one would certainly be nice. He helped the Cats beat the Vols in their first matchup this season — a 78-73 victory in Knoxville, with Lamont Butler sidelined with injury, backup Kerr Kriisa also on the mend, and Robinson thrust into the role of starting point guard as a result.
That first Tennessee game — the Cats also beat the Vols in Rupp Arena two weeks later — came at a point in the season when Robinson was torching the nets. Over the seven games leading up to his initial injury in practice — his final seven games as a healthy college basketball player — Robinson shot 31-for-60 from 3-point range. He was heating up at just the right time.
He and Pope were looking forward to a magical March Madness run together, with Robinson canning 3s, the Cats winning games, and maybe even a new banner for Rupp Arena at the end of it all. Robinson has a different role now, but he’s quickly learned to embrace it.
“Just being a leader. Obviously, I can’t be on the court. But just taking the time to pull my guys to the side if there’s something I do see. I was the one that came with Coach Pope, so I’m just dropping the gems that I have, and just trying to help as best I can. …
“I used to be a really quiet kid, so just trying to get out of my shell and let my voice be heard. Coach Pope always tells me that when I speak, a lot of people listen. So I’m just trying to take the time and effort to help out my teammates anytime I can. And just let them see what I see.”
The coaches who know him best sure see it. And they can’t help but smile. UK assistant coach Cody Fueger, who was in that same role with Pope at BYU, knows Robinson about as well as anyone in college basketball. He’s talked about the struggles the BYU coaching staff initially had in trying to connect with him.
At times this season, when the Cats have been down at halftime, it’s been Robinson speaking up in the locker room, telling his teammates what they need to do to get things turned around. Fueger laughed loudly when those times — some of them ultimately turning into comeback wins — were mentioned. Could he have ever imagined, three years ago, that Robinson would be that kind of voice for his team?
“No!” Fueger answered. “No. He would have been the first one that would’ve been sideways. That would have been like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if we should do this or do that.’ Just kind of questioning stuff. … I’ve just seen him grow so much. He’s a great kid. And he brings a lot to this team.”
