'We're a family.' Kentucky players crushed over Jaxson Robinson's season-ending injury

Jaxson Robinson‘s final college season came to an end before he even had the chance to say goodbye. Following Saturday’s tough loss to Auburn, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope announced Robinson’s injured wrist will require surgery next week. His short stint as a Wildcat has come to an abrupt ending.

On the floor, losing Robinson is a tough blow for the Wildcats. He’s the second-leading scorer this season at 13 points per outing. But he was playing even better basketball once the SEC schedule picked up: 14.4 points per game on shooting splits of 46.2/45.7/72.2. That’s a ton of lost production on a roster already fighting through various injuries. Kentucky went 2-3 in the five games he missed.

“He’s an amazing human being, so I hate to see him go down like that,” Koby Brea said of Robinson. “Had to play his last (college) game without even knowing it.”

But off the floor, Kentucky is losing a valued locker room presence. He was the lone player on this season’s squad with experience playing for Pope after they spent the last two seasons at BYU. This might be an entirely new team with no returning pieces from 2023-24, but they all came together quickly. For his teammates, losing Robinson to injury was like seeing a family member go through the same situation.

“It’s super unfortunate,” Brea added. “Nobody wants to see somebody go down like that, especially somebody like him. He’s obviously one of our brothers. We’re a family, so it hurts seeing that and understanding what he has to go through. I kind of had to go through something similar too so I know what it feels like. The best thing we can do is be there for those tough times.”

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With Robinson spending the rest of the season on the sideline, it means someone else has to (once again) step up in his place. We’ve already seen freshmen Travis Perry, Trent Noah, and Collin Chandler all show some flashes the last couple of months because of the depleted roster. Ansley Almonor has done the same.

But Kentucky needs more consistency to successfully fill Robinson’s production. More big games from the likes of Brea, Otega Oweh, and Lamont Butler in the backcourt will be necessary. Someone has to take on that assignment if the ‘Cats want to make a serious postseason run. They’ve already adopted the next man up mentality.

“Everybody has a mindset of trying to be able to step up and help out however they possibly can. And they’ve been able to consistently get better and get better throughout the season.” Andrew Carr said. “As tough as it is for Jaxson, we all try to be there for him, we know he would kill and die to be out there with us. Everybody knows to go out there and do it for him too. If not for anything else, people are going to come in and step up, we’re gonna be able to go there and do it for Jaxson, too.”

“Jaxson is definitely an important piece to what we do,” Butler added. “He’s been great all year for us. Definitely praying for him, praying for his mental, praying for his speedy recovery. It’s just a next man up mentality. We have to have everybody’s full engagement. We need everybody to step up their game because we’re losing such a big piece.”

Unfortunately, there isn’t much time left in the season to play with. Only two more regular season games remain on the schedule before the SEC Tournament begins in less than two weeks. If someone is going to step up in Robinson’s place, it has to happen fast.

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