Devin Robinson dishes a pass in Tuesday's defeat of Mississippi.
Gators Best When Robinson's Motor is Humming
Friday, February 12, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
Share:
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Against Ole Miss Tuesday night, he stepped up at key moments to lead his Florida team in scoring and to a big Southeastern Conference victory. He played with intensity throughout the course of the game, a trait that hasn't always applied to this gifted Gators forward and something that more than one coaching staff has told him was impeding his development.
"It took some time for me to learn that it has to start at practice," this UF player said. "If you do it consistently in practice, it starts to get easier in the game. Because I've done it a lot more in practice, it's carried over."
So who is he?
If you watched UF's 77-73 win, you saw sophomore forward Devin Robinson score 15 points, grab five rebounds, including four on the offensive end, and take a trio of charges, which was more than he'd taken in the previous 23 games combined. Afterward, Coach Mike White said it was easily the best game Robinson, the 6-foot-9, 195-pounder, had played in a Florida uniform. Just as importantly, the hardest he'd played all season, too.
Yet the above quote came from fifth-year senior Dorian Finney-Smith, who tallied a team-high 16 points, grabbed six rebounds and was on the court for 37 minutes.
Finney-Smith has been terrific in what is shaping up as an All-Southeastern Conference season. He's not only produced at career-best levels, but taken on the added responsibility of leading a mostly inexperienced team. His talent has never been questioned. His motor has.
The same can be said about Robinson, who like Finney-Smith was a top-30 prospect out of Virginia who in two seasons with the Gators has sometimes flashed and other times flickered.
"I've just got to be more consistent. That's what Coach has been on me about," said Robinson, who is averaging 9.0 points and 5.7 rebounds and is coming off just his second double-figure scoring output over the previous 10 games. "So I'm trying to keep a high level of intensity every day, trying to get better every day. Prior to the game on Tuesday, I had pretty good practices as well, so I guess I'm just trying to put it all together so that if I have good practices the outcome will turn out better."
Devin Robinson (3) had a lot to clap about Tuesday against Ole Miss and UF's senior leader, Dorian Finney-Smith (10), liked what he saw on the effort front from his sophomore teammate.
For Robinson, that's where it begins. Since Coach Mike White arrived last May and first met individually with his players, the Robinson conversations have been about consistency and playing harder. It sounds so simple, but it's not.
"Coming out of high school, you just don't understand what playing hard is because everything came so easy for you before," said Finney-Smith, who got similar lectures from Seth Greenberg, his coach at Virginia Tech, and former UF coach Billy Donovan when it came to a willingness to find his fastest gear. "They always talked about it. Thing is, I always thought I was playing hard, but it's about not taking plays off and trying to affect the game when you don't have the ball."
Finney-Smith got tired of being shown tape of him making "winning" plays and having them countered with cut-ups of him basically disappearing in the halfcourt. This year, in assuming the mantle of the elder statesmen, Finney-Smith has taken it upon himself to make sure some of his teammates don't fall into the same trap. Knowing how much Robinson means to the Gators, he's often target.
So if he sees Robinson coasting, he provides a verbal nudge.
"Hey D-Rob! You feel like maybe playing today?"
"I look back on games like 'Dang, I should have done this, I should have done that.' A lot of games people played a lot harder than I did and I couldn't even tell myself why," Robinson said. "I try to stay away from those games and just try to think that 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."
The Gators know Robinson will have the game plan down. He's always one of the most prepared players on the team, relative to the pregame scout. When coaches toss out questions during film sessions or practice, Robinson is always one of the first to shout out the answer.
But when the ball is tossed on game day, the onus is totally on him. Robinson may be the most gifted all-around UF player -- and it's best NBA prospect -- but how hard he plays will determine how much he plays.
"With Devin, he's always had a nice stroke and feel for the game. You can't teach his length athleticism, his bounce off the floor," White said. "But his glaring need for improvement has just been his motor; just simply how hard he's playing. How much he's flying around. How often he's in a defensive stance doing his best and crashing the glass, throwing his body around. Just simply playing hard."
It's hard to play hard.
"It's all mental. People don't have the right frame of mind," Robinson said. "Fatigue plays a great part in not wanting to go hard because you know you're body's breaking down, you're tired, you just don't want to do it. It's always hard to work hard. You've got to be a dog, you've got to want it."
For the Gators to be their best, Robinson has to want it.
