Nick Robinson plays his best basketball heading into playoffs

Sophomore guard Nick Robinson has stepped into a starting role for St. Joe’s in the last seven games, creating a spark and helping propel the Hawks to the fourth seed in the upcoming Atlantic 10 Championships.

In the last seven games that Robinson has started, the Hawks have won six, including an incredible 30 point upset of nationally ranked Rhode Island University. Their only loss in these games came on a heartbreaking buzzer beater loss to George Mason University.

“We’ve flipped the script here by winning,” head coach Phil Martelli said. “They all deserve credit. Nick’s in the lineup, so he has a different role and he’s accepted it and played it very well.”

Robinson has averaged 13.8 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game over the last five games, while shooting 59.5 percent from the field. He has scored in double figures each of the last five games. The sophomore has also set career highs in both points and rebounds, as well as recording his first double-double in the span of his last seven starts.

In terms of his starting role impacting his individual performance, Robinson recognizes that “statistically it has made a big impact.”

He elaborated on the physical difference between starting and coming off the bench, as he had previously done throughout the season.

“It’s a bit different,” Robinson said. “When you get going in warmups and then you go to the bench, you get a little stiff. You come off the bench and then it’s like you have to get warm again. So it is a difference and it’s shown in my play that starting has helped my numbers.”

Whether he starts or not, Robinson says his mindset is always on doing whatever he can to help his team win. Martelli further emphasized this philosophy, saying “you have to be able to make plays for other people the way we run our offense.”

After getting through his freshman season, his maturity in the offense has grown. He is becoming more acclimated to taking control as a point guard in his sophomore year and even more so over the last two weeks.

“I’ve gotten more comfortable with pushing the ball and playing the one,” Robinson said. “It’s getting easier for me to know my queues and when to do certain things as a point guard.”

Martelli sees only potential for improvement for the sophomore moving forward.

“We want to make great use of these experiences and building a gameplan for Nick in the spring and the summer so that he is a better player next September,” Martelli said.

While Robinson started the majority of the season his freshman year, he was relied on more as a defensive presence, often assigned to shutting down the other team’s best player. While his defense has continued to be formidable this year, his offense has simultaneously seen increased numbers.

“You can’t have offense without defense,” Robinson said. “When I’m out there and I see one of their best players and get a stop, it gets the crowd going. The crowd is one of the biggest assets, because once they get going, it helps everybody on the offensive end get going.”

Although the Hawks played their final game in front of their home crowd at Hagan Arena on March 3, they showed their gratitude with a win against cross town rival La Salle, setting them up with a double bye in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

Robinson pointed out the importance of staying level headed, especially through the emotional ups and downs that conference tournament play can bring.

“You just can’t get too high off of any win,” Robinson said. “With that being said, we’re playing really well right now, and we just have to keep it up.”

The way the A-10 bracket is situated, in their first game the fourth seeded Hawks will rematch against one of three opponents they have faced in the previous two weeks in University of Massachussetts, La Salle University, or George Mason. The last two times St. Joe’s won the conference tournament, they were the fourth seed.

“It’s basketball, anything is possible,” Robinson said. “If you would’ve told anybody in the country that we would upset a team by 30 points that’s ranked nationally, they’d have laughed. Our team believes that our record has nothing to do with our talent, so we have a lot to prove in this tournament and hopefully we can get that done.”