Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Kansas University has landed a big-time basketball recruit from the Big Apple. Russell Robinson, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior guard from New York's Rice High, Monday orally committed to KU over Georgia Tech, Connecticut, St. John's and Kentucky.
Robinson, who averaged 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals last season for the private school, will become the first KU signee from New York since Terry Brown of Clyde, who played at KU from 1990 to '91. Adonis Jordan grew up in New York but attended high school in Reseda, Calif., when he signed with Kansas in 1989.
"This is the first time Kansas has gotten a New York recruit in a long time," an enthusiastic Robinson told the Journal-World. "I'm excited. My goal is to come there to win a championship." Robinson, who also has lived in Texas and North Carolina, never had been to Kansas prior to last weekend, when he made his official visit on KU-Missouri football weekend.
"It was not what I expected at all," Robinson said. "I thought Kansas was in the middle of nowhere. It was beautiful. The football game was exciting. The excitement was great." Robinson -- about to become a four-year starter at tradition-rich Rice High, which boasts the NBA's Felipe Lopez as an alumnus -- primarily is a point guard with the ability to move to shooting guard when needed.
"Coach (Bill) Self says I will be a ‘scoring point guard,'" said Robinson, who said he was closer to 6-2 than his listed 6-1. "I would say I am a player who can get out and defend, score, run the point and play two-guard. I've got range. Defense is big for me. I am an intense player who can guard smaller players." Tenth-year Rice High coach Maurice Hicks, who said KU never before had recruited one of his players, said Robinson's future was at point guard.
"He is a combo, but plays point for us and did last summer," Hicks said of Robinson, who has won two state titles in three years at Rice and plays for New York Gauchos AAU. "You can play him at both positions. He shoots well enough. He is athletic and can get up and down the floor. There's a lot of versatility there, but his natural position is point guard if he wants to go on in basketball (to NBA)."
Asked to reveal Robinson's strengths, Hicks said, "I'd have to say his shooting and defense. I think last summer one of KU's players saw him play at (Nike) camp and told coach Self, ‘He (Robinson) is one guy I want to be my teammate because he plays defense."
He also has an intangible asset. "He is a player you put on the floor, and he finds a way to win," Hicks said. "Russell is like a lot of guys on our team in that he has a refuse-to-lose attitude. He's a tough guy who leaves everything on the floor. It's one of the main reasons schools like Kansas and UConn would fall in love with a kid like that."
Robinson, whom KU recruited hard since Self took over, said it was tough to say no to his other schools. He made his final decision Monday morning. "I had a great visit to Georgia Tech, too, and Connecticut. They are all good schools," Robinson said. "I just felt this was the right place for me."
Hicks noted: "I tell our players, ‘Yes, look at the schools. The university is important, but more importantly look at the players there. That's who you will be living with.' He felt so comfortable with those players and coaches, the atmosphere at Kansas. All schools did a good job. He's just more comfortable at Kansas, and I am very excited for him."