Duke Basketball: Takeaways from Senior Night victory over North Carolina
1. Justin Robinson steps up big-time on Senior Night
Justin Robinson was named a captain before the season and it can obviously be tough for a player with leadership responsibilities to not be seeing the floor. Despite that, Robinson came in and by all accounts, practiced hard and generally stayed ready for when in his number was called. He played a career-high 6.8 minutes per game this season but over the last three contests (including Saturday’s game), Robinson has played 18.0 minutes per game and contributed to a stretch in which Duke has gone 2-1. But Saturday was unequivocally his best performance of the season.
https://twitter.com/cassius_stanley/status/1236674289564336129
Justin Robinson a former walk on has more points than lottery pick cole Anthony 6) lmaoo pic.twitter.com/p1JdNGhmUT
— John (@iam_johnw) March 8, 2020
On Senior Night, with his NBA Hall of Fame father in attendance, “Baby Admiral” played a career-high 25 minutes in his first-ever start. He helped set the tone on defense, collecting 4 blocks and a steal, helping the Blue Devils turn defense into offense.
https://twitter.com/theACCDN/status/1236458134153068545
Robinson—who is shooting 42.9% from 3-point range this season—made a massive impact on Saturday night. The North Carolina bigs are not the most fleet of foot, so Robinson’s pick-and-pop ability was excellent in stretching out the Tar Heeld defense. On the season, Robbinson is averaging 1.4 attempts per game from 3-point range.
But on Saturday he was efficient on decently high volume, knocking down 4-of-6 from 3-point range, finishing with13 points. Robinson didn’t just contribute with the points and blocks. He also chipped in 6 rebounds and 3 assists. The Duke Blue Devils wouldn’t have been able to pick up their season sweep of North Carolina without the contributions of Mr. Robinson.