The wait is over, all of that late-night panicking for nothing: Jaxson Robinson is a Kentucky Wildcat.
The BYU star blew through the midnight withdrawal deadline without making a peep, leaving folks on the NBA and NCAA sides in the dark regarding his intentions. He didn’t technically have to announce anything if he were keeping his name in the draft, leading to some speculation he was giving the old Irish Goodbye to college basketball. Others thought he was deep in negotiations with schools involved and planned to align his withdrawal announcement with a college commitment, cutting out an extended recruiting process with visits and endless phone calls shortly before arriving to campus permanently for summer workouts.
Or maybe he just slept through his alarm while the basketball world anxiously awaited his decision?
Fortunately for Big Blue Nation, it was option No. 2, the Wildcats fighting off BYU and Kansas to land his signature, arguably the biggest of Mark Pope’s first offseason in Lexington.
What does it mean for Kentucky? That part is pretty easy.
Experience and continuity
The new staff had brought in 11 scholarship players up to this point, all talented and unique with a balance of young and old. The issue? Not a single one of them played for Pope or Cody Fueger at BYU, or even Alvin Brooks III at Baylor or Jason Hart in the G League, for that matter. You loved the individual pieces, but it was all theoretical, comparing systems and playing styles to understand the respective fits.
Robinson changes that, giving you a reigning Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year with two years of experience under Pope and Fueger. You get BYU’s leading scorer from a season ago, the guy the Cougars leaned on to make big shots and put points on the board. There is a familiarity there that just didn’t exist up to this point — not necessary, but wildly helpful, especially to get the ball rolling early.
He’s someone the rest of the roster can lean on as an extension of the coaching staff. He knows what makes Pope and Fueger tick, able to explain things from an on-court perspective they can’t from the bench.
Another top-tier shooting threat
As things stood, Dayton’s Koby Brea and Wake Forest’s Andrew Carr were the players set to take (and hopefully make) the big shots in crunch time, West Virginia’s Kerr Kriisa also firmly in that conversation. There are other shooters on the roster — Travis Perry and Trent Noah are local snipers while Collin Chandler hit 135 3-pointers in high school, Ansley Almonor setting a Fairleigh Dickinson single-season record with 93 made threes as a junior and 180 for his career. And while the efficiency may not be there as a career 32.1% shooter from deep, Lamont Butler Jr. has hit some pretty big shots in his own right, namely a game-winning jumper in the Final Four to send San Diego State to the championship game in 2023.
Robinson brings that group to a different planet, a guy who graded out in the 77th percentile in catch-and-shoot threes with a 56 effective field goal percentage, 83rd percentile in spot-up attempts at 1.14 points per possession and 87th percentile in off-ball screen attempts at 1.3 points per possession.
Remember how Reed Sheppard, Rob Dillingham, Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell opened things up and created clean looks possession after possession on the floor together? That’s the vision bringing another go-to shooting specialist into the mix, another threat to hit the big one. Take his NCAA Tournament production for example, going for 25 on 8-15 shooting and 5-11 from three in the Cougars’ opening-round loss to Duquesne. As the rest of the team shot 14-42 overall for 33.3% from the field, he was BYU’s only chance at survival before ultimately coming up short.
No glaring flaws on the roster
Pope hasn’t been shy about his love for the roster up to this point, raving about the 11-man group every time a microphone was put in his face. He talked about adding another crucial piece to round things out, but made it clear he was thrilled with how things had unfolded going into the deadline, a competitive group as is. It was a roster with shooting, playmaking, defense, rebounding, depth and experience, about as well-rounded as imaginable considering it was put together in six weeks.
If it was missing anything, though, it was a veteran safety-net scoring threat on the wing to sprinkle in a bit more star talent. Great system fits as is, but could use a certified bucket-getter you can lean on when things don’t go as perfectly as hoped — it happens, no matter how much of the heavy lifting Pope’s offense does on a nightly basis.
Insert Robinson, the missing piece who brings you efficient three-level scoring on high volume.
Again, you can’t ever be certain with 12 new moving parts, but this addition gives the Wildcats no glaring flaws going into the season. They’ve checked all of the boxes, plus one more scholarship to work with, however they want to use it.
Considering the circumstances with John Calipari’s late departure dissolving the entire roster and recruiting class — Perry the lone exception — it’s hard to call Pope’s first offseason anything short of a home run. Though it’s too early to say what the ceiling is for this group without seeing them play together, there is no doubt Kentucky will field a roster capable of winning games at a high rate with legitimate upside. After all, it’s more talented than the BYU roster that won 23 games and made the NCAA Tournament as a No. 6 seed in the program’s first year in the Big 12.
If the Cougars could do that, what can the Wildcats do this season in the SEC?
