Scott McClurg/Journal-World PhotoKansas University freshman Russell Robinson admitted he was nervous as he toed the free-throw line with 13.9 seconds left in Saturday night’s nailbiter against South Carolina at Allen Fieldhouse.
He was knock-kneed, that is, until he peeked at his senior teammates.
“They showed that confidence in me. When you’ve got Wayne (Simien) and Keith (Langford) looking at you like, ‘Hey, you are gonna make these,’ that takes a lot of pressure off. It can’t help but give you confidence,” Robinson said.
Robinson hit two free throws 25 seconds after he hit a driving layup, the key shots in the No. 2-ranked Jayhawks’ 64-60 victory over the unranked Gamecocks.
The backup point guard’s free throws — the first bounced up before going in — extended a 61-60 lead to three points.
“It was tough, because I was 3-of-6 (from line). I couldn’t knock two straight down the whole game,” Robinson said. “I felt I had to make it a two-possession game. We were up one. I calmly went up there, went through my regular routine and sunk both of them.”
The freshman from New York was just as clutch on his spectacular driving layup at :38, which followed a Wayne Simien dunk at 1:41. That slam that gave KU a 59-58 lead.
Simien dunked with his right hand, having hurt his left thumb with 13:45 left. He’s ticketed for X-rays and MRI with KU hoping to learn by today whether the senior All-America candidate has a broken thumb or just a bruise or sprain.
“I saw a gap and shot it. Coach is like, ‘Drive it, you’ve got to make something happen,”’ said Robinson, who played five minutes the first half and 15 the second as KU coach Bill Self went to a small lineup during crunch time because of foul problems and to combat an athletic USC team.
“I was going on Wayne’s side. Wayne draws a lot of attention. I saw an opening, an opportunity to get an easy layup.”
In Robinson’s eyes, there was no question the layup would fall.
“Coach had me in that long, (so) I knew he had confidence in me. I am a freshman, so I felt my way of paying him back was to make a couple of plays down the stretch at the end,” Robinson said.
Self wanted no credit for the Robinson drive and bucket.
He laughed when asked if he set up the play.
“I told him to drive in there and shoot an off-balance, left-handed shot, spin it in off the glass,” Self said. “It wasn’t set up. They trapped the first pass. We threw the ball back to Aaron (Miles), Aaron reversed the ball to Russell, and Russell had the guts to make a play. They dared him to drive, and he certainly made the play.”
KU’s play down the stretch made up for a lot of errors on a night the Jayhawks trailed, 11-0, early after failing to break the Gamecocks’ fullcourt press.
KU had 16 turnovers the first half, just four the second.
“Their defense was excellent, and I think we stunk,” Self said. “After they knocked us back on our heels, we didn’t attack them once. We have to be a team that gets out and runs. A lot of our turnovers happened because we threw it right at them. When things don’t go well, guys tighten up, and that happened tonight.”
KU trailed 33-25 at halftime, thanks in part to freshman C.J. Giles depositing the ball in the wrong basket after he grabbed a defensive rebound with 1:06 left in the half.
“We were not focused. We made points for them,” Self said, indicating he said nothing to Giles after the mental lapse. “I didn’t ask (why he did it). I didn’t ask because what’s he going to say? He played decent while in there and then he does that.”
The Jayhawks improved to 7-0, but nobody was thrilled with 41.7 percent shooting (4 of 18 threes) and 20 turnovers, USC nabbing 10 steals.
“I couldn’t explain it,” Langford said of KU’s struggles early against the USC press. “I was thinking coming in the game we handled it well last year, especially against UAB in the tournament. Those guys are fast, quick. They did a good job disguising defenses. The worst thing you can do against a quick, athletic team is be tentative and give them confidence.”
Yet KU did win, its next test coming at 7 p.m. Wednesday against Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Kemper Arena.
“We made enough plays and came back and did some good things late,” Self said. “Our defense was pretty good late. I am proud of our guys we won, but that was not a real good performance.”
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