Russell Robinson, who tied a season-high with 12 points, could have had plenty more in Kansas University’s 97-74 victory over Colorado on Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.
“The biggest thing with Russell is he made shots,” KU coach Bill Self said after Robinson, a 6-foot-1 junior, cashed five of nine shots, including two of three three-pointers. “Gosh dang, he had two layups the first half. If he could finish those layups, he had a chance to have a really big night.
“Since league started, Russell has really shot well. He doesn’t take a lot of shots and has worked hard. He is back to being where he was when he was confident.”
Robinson’s other 12-point outing was in the Jayhawks’ thrilling overtime victory over Florida on Nov. 25 in Las Vegas.
Robinson, who entered Saturday’s game averaging 6.4 points per game, has averaged 9.7 points over the last three contests.
His resurgence has gone hand-in-hand with the scoring punch Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins have added out of the backcourt all season.
“That’s tough, just because you can’t overhelp on one specific person,” Robinson said. “Then you’ve got guys inside who can do work, too. It makes it hard for a team to pick who they want to attack. We’ve just got to keep it up, and it’s going to win us some games if we continue to do that.”
Robinson attributed “not thinking about it” to his noticeably different offensive game lately.
The offensive output made the entire body of Robinson’s work Saturday look that much more glamorous. Despite missing those acrobatic layups inside in the first half, Robinson was productive with seven assists, three steals and just two turnovers.
“We did a good job offensively. Still, we let them score too many points,” Robinson said.
Saturday marked the first time each member of KU’s guard trio – Robinson, sophomore Chalmers and freshman Collins – scored in double figures in the same game.
While Collins had a day much like Robinson’s, Chalmers rediscovered the offensive form that made him so dangerous down the stretch run of nonconference play, tying Brandon Rush for a team-high with 21 points. He, too, was a beneficiary of Robinson’s offensive swagger, which saw him kick the ball to Chalmers for open looks on a couple of occasions.
“My confidence has come back, and I stayed out of foul trouble,” Chalmers said. “I think that was the biggest thing. I think everyone came ready to play today.”
Including Robinson.
“It changes everybody’s defense,” Chalmers said of Robinson’s offense. “You can’t just focus on stopping one player if everybody’s hitting like that.”