Jaxson Robinson believes every shot he takes is going in -- but he's still going to impact winning when they don't

It wasn’t until his fourth game as a Wildcat, but Jaxson Robinson finally broke through as the dynamite scorer he was brought in to be, leading Kentucky with 20 points on 6-10 shooting and 3-6 from three in a 97-68 win over Lipscomb. That came on the heels of his one-point effort against Duke, an outing where he said his body language was poor — “everybody felt my frustration after the game,” he said.

Mark Pope wouldn’t let Robinson get down in the dumps, calling him a ‘gravity guy’ who ‘has an impact right when he walks in the gym’ even if his shots aren’t falling.

“It’s not just about Jax. Jax made a huge contribution tonight in all of the ways he does,” Pope said after the Duke win. “Come on, that’s a dangerous man. That’s a really dangerous man.”

He returned to his dangerous ways, knocking down all of the shots he expects to hit every time he launches from deep. Nothing changed in terms of his approach against Lipscomb — he’s put in too much work up to this point to start now.

“I think every shots going in, so it’s the same (approach) always. Doesn’t matter what it is or where it’s at,” Robinson said after his bounce-back performance. “… It would (feel good to get shots to fall again) for any player, I guess. But I know that one game doesn’t define me as a player or a person, so just coming out and starting out fresh, I know my teammates and my coaches got my back. They got confidence in me. So I was just coming out and hooping.”

Pope singled out Robinson defensively against Duke, saying ‘he came up with massive stops down the stretch that were game determining stops that we really needed.’

“It wasn’t the payoff of the scorebook and all of the things,” he added. “He refused to let that drain his defensive intensity and energy and energy toward his team.”

That was a key point of emphasis for Robinson going into the season, one things NBA teams hoped to see from his game after emerging as a go-to scoring threat at BYU. They’ve seen the offense, but what about the defense? If there’s one positive takeaway for him individually against Duke — he already said it was the “biggest win of my career personally” — it’s that he was able to step up on that end of the floor.

“That’s how I’m gonna get paid, so just making sure I go out and produce on the defensive end. It’s as simple as that,” Robinson added.

Still, though, the hope is to minimize those highs and lows. He’s way too gifted offensively to be held without a bucket an entire game, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. That’s where the trust kicks in, going back to the reps and what made him the Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year to begin with.

“Just trying to get my buckets out of the flow of the offense, not trying to force nothing. I think it starts on the defensive end,” he said. “… I don’t know if there is anything different (from Duke to Lipscomb). I just try to come out every game with the same mindset. Obviously, I feel like Duke was a little more honed in on me offensively, so just trying to get what I can, and then come out aggressive. Same thing this game.”

Pope has been able to watch the transformation from the beginning at BYU, well into year three with Robinson by his side. Not many get opportunities like this, but the Kentucky head coach is glad he does.

No matter what the box score says game by game, Pope will always believe in No. 2. Those shots will fall, and if they don’t, he trusts in Robinson to step up elsewhere and contribute to winning, just as he did against Duke.

“The ability he has as a veteran player to stay in the moment, in the game and care about his teammates and still perform at a great level defensively even when he’s not putting up 20 or 30 is a massive – it’s what you dream about coaching, right?” Pope said. “It’s going to serve him well this year and is going to serve him great in the NBA. It’s been really inspiring to be able to witness his growth.

“I don’t know how many times we are going to get to coach players for three years anymore. It’s been unbelievable to coach him for two years and four games and I love it, I’m really proud of him.”