Notebook: Robinson hopes to build off season-best performance

The 2015-16 season has seen plenty of ups and downs for sophomore forward Devin Robinson. Once a mainstay in the lineup starting eight consecutive games during the non-conference slate, by SEC play Robinson saw himself relegated to a bench role.

After scoring in double figures in 11 of his first 14 appearances this year – that’s including double-doubles on three occasions – Robinson achieved double-digit scoring on just one occasion over his next nine appearances coming off the bench. Averaging 22.8 minutes during the non-conference schedule, the 6-foot-8, 195-pound forward saw himself playing just 17.2 minutes per contest over his next 11 games.

But on Tuesday during Florida’s 77-72 victory over Ole Miss in the O’Connell Center, Robinson showed that he may be ready to break through for the Gators. In 28 minutes on the court – the most he’s played since Dec. 12, 2015, at Michigan State – he matched a season high in scoring with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting to go along with five rebounds.

One of the most impressive aspects of Robinson’s performance was that he took three charges – none more important than the offensive foul called on Stefan Moody late in the contest as the Ole Miss guard fouled out of the game. Robinson admitted that he never had taken three charges in a game before prior to Tuesday.

“Coach Donovan would be real proud of me right now. That was rare,” Robinson quipped. “It’s a building block for that game, bring my intensity every day. I know what I can do, everybody else knows what I can do, I just gotta do it. Plays like that help our team on the defensive end and bringing the energy, so if that’s gonna help the rest of the team, putting my body out there for the team, then I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Following the win, Florida head coach Mike White called Robinson’s performance the “best day that Devin's had since I've coached him."

White reiterated that statement Friday, while previewing Florida’s upcoming matchup with Alabama on Saturday (5:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network) in the O’Connell Center. He also hinted at the possibility that Robinson could start for the Gators this weekend.

“I’ve given it thought,” White said. “I feel comfortable with him starting or coming off the bench. I’m open to it every game. We’ll take it game by game those decisions, play it by ear depending on practice, production, more than anything else. He had a really good one yesterday, I thought, and if he has equally as good a one today he’s got a pretty good argument. You never know. He’s going to play regardless. And what should be important to those guys is the better they play the more they are going to play, whether they start of not.

“I thought he was the best player on the floor the other night. He flew around, had less regard for his body, played really hard and took three charges. When you complement that with his ability, his touch, his ability to face up and make a couple of big shots for us. He showed what he’s capable of for us.”

For Robinson, what’s held him back this season has been consistently playing with intensity and physicality – something White has been actively searching for out of the former five-star recruit.

“With Devin, he’s always had a nice stroke and a nice feel for the game, you can’t teach his length and athleticism, his bounce off the floor,” explained White. “He’s had a physical weakness issue that Preston Greene has done a good job with him. He’s gotten stronger over time. But his glaring need for improvement has just been his motor, just simply how hard he’s playing. How much he’s flying around, or not flying around. How often he’s really in a defensive stance doing the best he can, crashing the glass, throwing his body around, just simply playing hard. He’s come a long way with that.

“I think it starts with Devin, just accepting,” White continued. “If you ask Devin last summer, right when I got the job, ‘Devin, what do you need to improve on?’ He’d be the first one to tell you that. Devin’s as smart a guy as we have. He understands the game. He’s locked in with scouting reports as much as anyone. He’s often the guy that answers the questions that one of my scouting coaches may ask. Devin’s the first one to answer. He understands Alabama right now, as much as any of our other guys. But Devin, again, going back to last summer. He’d be the first one to tell you, he’s got to get out of his comfort zone, he’s got to play harder. You’d see spurts of it, but now you’re seeing it consistently.

“That’s the first time I think you saw it the entire time he was out without a couple minute lapse here or there. I think it’s carried over from practice. The more that he’s been consistent in practice, the more practices that he’s played really, really hard lately the better off he’s been, the more carryover he’s had in games. I think he’s had about two weeks now where he’s been really good. Again he’s been really good yesterday. Hopefully he’s really good today.”

A lot of it for the lanky Robinson is fighting through fatigue during practices and games, he admits.

“It’s all mental," Robinson said. "If you tell yourself you’re tired, you’re gonna be tired. If you tell yourself ‘I still got 10 more sprints, I still got a little bit of juice in me,’ then you’re gonna keep going. I feel like it’s all mental. If you’re worrying about the wrong things then you’re not going to perform the way you need to perform. You just gotta fight through it, just think ‘you’re good, you’re all gonna be good, put it all on the floor for your brothers.’

"I look back on games like, ‘Dang, I should have did this, I should have did that.’ A lot of games people played a lot harder than I did and I couldn’t even tell myself why I wasn’t playing hard. I try to stay away from those games and just try to think about I’m playing for more than just myself. I’m playing for my team, playing for the seniors in their last go around. I try to think about that and it makes me keep going.”

For White, the key has been trying to get Robinson to leave his comfort zone when it comes to conditioning and the rigors of the game. Lately, he’s shown signs of progress in that area - and if Robinson continues to progress, it would mean a lot for this Gators basketball team as it heads into the home stretch.

“It probably just starts with his personality. He's a really laid-back guy,” White said. “And it's funny. He and Chris Chiozza are like twin brothers - fraternal, of course. But they're both very similar in that characteristic that they're very even-keeled. Sometimes, that's a positive and sometimes that's a detriment. Devin has just forced himself to get out of that comfort zone. If we're running a 22 wind sprint, Devin's learned not to finish at a 21.9. Sometimes he's OK with finishing at 20 and go a little harder. In his defense, for a guy that talented, everything comes easy for you in high school.

"It's been a process and I know it started last year but as you get older, you get a little bit sicker of the limited role. That's what happens to a lot of guys, and when you're not thrown out there and forced to play through a lot of mistakes, it makes it a little bit more difficult for you. But he's been really good lately and we certainly hope it continues."

WHITE PREVIEWS ALABAMA

Under first-year Crimson Tide head coach Avery Johnson, a former head coach in the NBA ranks for the Dallas Mavericks (2005-08) and Brooklyn Nets (2010-12), Alabama (14-9, 5-6 SEC) has played some good basketball as of late.

The Crimson Tide are on a three-game winning streak, after coming up victorious at Mississippi State (82-80) and at home against Missouri (80-71) and No. 15 Texas A&M (63-62).

Speaking about Alabama on Friday, White said he believes that "they and Kentucky are playing better than any team in our league right now.”

"I can tell you in scouting them I think they play really hard," White said. "They’re one of the best defensive teams in our league. They do a really good job of putting (Retin) Obasohan in positions to be successful, of course, whether it be off the ball, on the ball, coming off ball screens. They’re really good in transition offense. They have good role identification, with three or four guys who can really shoot it. They’re difficult to defend. They spread the floor. Really good spacing. They’re just really good. They’re as capable as any team right now."

As far as Obasohan, the senior guard is leading the way for the Tide with 16 points per game on 46.4% shooting to go along with 3.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists against 2.5 turnovers and 1.5 steals per contest.

"They are really big at every position, even Obasohan is 6-2, but he’s built like a linebacker," White said. "They’ve got a lot of height and length and girth and very solid defensively in their man and in their zone. And then offensively it starts with Obosahan, he’s just terrific. He’s very, very difficult to keep out of the paint, off of the foul line, he’s probably as explosive of a driver as there is in the Southeastern Conference."

THIS AND THAT

* Over his past five games, Hill has gone 60% from the free throw line after shooting 56% from the charity stripe in Florida's first 22 games. He went 5-of-7 from the foul line in the Ole Miss win. “He spends a lot of time shooting with Coach (Dusty) May," White said. "He’s kind of dinked with different routines. That’s on him. I want our guys to choose their own routines. I preach to our guys to have a routine, to clear you rmind, take a breath and don’t over-think it. Until you said that, I didn’t even know about his routine. I tend to think about other things when those guys are shooting free throws; not counting on everyone of them going in, obviously, but they’re going in at a higher level than they were a couple months ago, thankfully."

* White on the energy level UF played with against Ole Miss on Tuesday: "Yeah, I’d like to see a little more energy. Our press wasn’t as effective as I wanted it to be. Going back and looking at it today, heading into practice today, looking at things we can focus on going in against Alabama, what we can do to focus on ourselves, they’re some energy stuff, some intensity stuff, awareness, communication, ownership type stuff that we need to continue to improve upon. We’re not the hardest-playing team, but we need to be. Whether we hit that strive or not, it’s got to be really important to us to be that blue-collar team. To overachieve. I thought, obviously, we were much better in those areas against Ole Miss than we were on the road and hope to be much better. It’ll take a great effort to beat Alabama. "

* White on the impact John Egbunu makes when he's successfully crashing the boards and staying out of foul trouble: “When he’s throwing his body around, first of all, it gives him more opportunities on the offensive glass, as opposed to trying to get him a post touch. He just goes and gets himself one. That simplifies things for us offensively, but to finish stops with him getting big, strong rebounds at times, is what it takes to finish those stops. I think that the more, sometimes it speaks to his energy level, the more he rebounds. And sometimes you can see added defensive effort plays, loose ball plays, 50-50 balls, more shots being altered in the paint, him being a presence defensively, too. I think it shows when he’s rebounding the ball at that level as well, we just gotta keep his energy level, up and some of it just had to do with the fact that he got more minutes the other day. ... It was the only game I can remember where we never got into foul trouble, usually, we talk about this postgame, in the first half, he’s avoided getting two or three a few teams but it seems like in the second half he’s getting his third or fourth where we need to yank him. I don’t remember another game where he didn’t get his third or fourth and we didn’t need to make those decisions, so he’s come along, he’s learning how to play without fouling.”