Here\u2019s to you, Mr. Robinson<\/header>\nA few of No. 12\u2019s many accolades:<\/p>\n
2x<\/p>\n
MAAC Player of the Year (2016\u201317)<\/p>\n
\n3x<\/p>\n
First Team All-MAAC (2015\u201317)<\/p>\n
\n2017<\/p>\n
Lou Henson Award (top men\u2019s mid-major player in the country)<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n
Still, he\u2019s in no hurry to forget his time at Monmouth. He came here from Kingston, New York, his small stature\u2014he proudly tells you he\u2019s 5-foot-8, a number he says he\u2019s \u201cnever embellished\u201d\u2014scaring off most recruiters. But not Coach King Rice, who saw a talented kid with a point to prove. Robinson wasted little time making Rice\u2014\u201cthe one man who gave me the opportunity to further my career\u201d\u2014look prescient. He averaged 7.1 points and 3.0 assists per game as a freshman. As a sophomore, he started every game and led a team that had won just 11 games a year earlier to an 18-15 mark.<\/p>\n
Then came the magical 2015\u201316 season, so much of it created by Robinson. Sixteen points in a season-opening win at UCLA. Two clutch free throws in the closing seconds to upset Notre Dame, the program\u2019s first win over a ranked team. A season of scoring sprees\u201428 points apiece against USC, Drexel, and Dayton; 29 at Iona; and a career-best 36 against Siena\u2014that powered the Hawks to the MAAC title game. A heartbreaking loss there cost them a chance at the NCAA tournament, but that could hardly diminish what Robinson accomplished: a new single-season scoring record, the MAAC Player of the Year Award, and more important to him, a program record 28 wins.<\/p>\n
In his senior year, a year in which the Hawks \u201csettled\u201d for 27 wins, Robinson became just the second Monmouth player to crack the 2,000-point mark for his career. He admits to disappointment at never reaching the NCAA tournament, then remembers how far the program came in such a short time:<\/p>\n
\u201cMy freshman year, warming up before the game, nobody in the stands, whole sections of the bleachers not even pulled out yet\u2014you remember that,\u201d he says. \u201cThe past two seasons, the gym [was] full before we were even done with warm-ups. To be part of that transition, it\u2019s a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That blessing went both ways. Near season\u2019s end, 11-year-old Erica Schaeffer, a Hawks season-ticket holder along with her parents, wrote letters to the front offices of all 30 NBA teams urging them to draft her favorite player (this after her father told her Robinson might end up playing overseas). Erica\u2019s letter was on Robinson\u2019s mind a few weeks later when he wrote one of his own\u2014longhand, on three pages of college-ruled paper\u2014and tweeted it out to fans. \u201cI would see [the Schaeffers] at games my first two years, always in the same spot,\u201d he says. \u201cJust seeing their loyalty and dedication, I almost felt obligated to reciprocate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erica and every other fan would likely tell Robinson that there\u2019s no need. Over the last four years, he gave them plenty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Justin Robinson reflects on an amazing Hawks career. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":50,\"y\":21}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[94,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-play"],"thumbnail":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/06\/cardoni-200x300.jpg\")
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