 |
|
Pretty good and insightful article on Robertson
Posted on: November 13, 2017 at 14:06:07 CT
FIJItiger MU
Posts:
143834
Member For:
21.73 yrs
Level:
Moderator
M.O.B. Votes:
0
http://www.frontiersman.com/national/sports/robertson-serves-as-a-point-guard-with-perspective/article_dfd98972-64c2-588c-bf28-71f7c1d2c92f.html
Midway through last summer, Missouri senior Jordan Barnett offered graduate transfer Kassius Robertson a wild proposition.
Barnett noticed Robertson’s ballhandling skills, his shooting accuracy, his ability to crash the paint and create offensive chances.
“You could be a point guard,” Barnett told him. “If you were a point guard, that would give us a whole new dynamic.”
Robertson thought it was a joke. He’d never played point guard. He considered himself a pure shooting guard. Forty percent 3-point converter, off-the-ball threat, playmaker — that’s how Robertson saw himself.
On second thought ...
“I could always handle the ball,” Robertson said Wednesday. “Maybe in pickup when we played, I was bringing the ball up sometimes. I don’t know.”
It’s a timely story to recall this week. Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said Robertson would likely start at point guard for Friday’s season opener against Iowa State, a shock to many considering the Tigers already have four pure point guards on the roster — Blake Harris, Terrence Phillips, Jordan Geist and CJ Roberts.
Knowing that, Robertson had no intention of playing point guard for Missouri. His expectations were “not even close” to serving in that role, and when asked about Barnett’s summer statement, Robertson shook his head.
“He’s psychic,” he said.
In Martin’s eyes, the move makes sense. Robertson can catch and shoot off the ball, and his threat from behind the 3-point line also creates a “pick your poison” situation, as Robertson says. Coming off a ball screen, Robertson — who will still get time at shooting guard — can shoot, penetrate or dish to Michael Porter Jr. or other teammates down low.
Although Robertson didn’t foresee himself running Missouri’s offense, he’s used to adjustment. Standing in Mizzou Arena on Wednesday, the 23-year-old recalled his basketball career, which, upon announcing his transfer to Missouri, he called a “novel.” Robertson doesn’t know where he is in that book.
“It seems like there’s another chapter added every year,” he said.
A skinny kid from Toronto
The reasons for Robertson joining Missouri were plentiful — coaches, big-time college basketball atmosphere — but one stood out: exposure.
When the graduate transfer from Canisius was looking for his next stop, Missouri already had one the nation’s top recruiting classes. Porter Jr. and Blake Harris had announced their commitments, and Jeremiah Tilmon was on his way to signing. Robertson wanted to go somewhere he would win — an opportunity he saw in the revamped Tigers program.
“He told me part of the reason he came here was because I was here,” Porter Jr. said last month. “A lot of eyes will be on the program. He just wants a shot to be a pro someday.”
For a skinny kid from Toronto, pro basketball long felt like a lofty goal. As a high school junior, Robertson transferred to Vaughan Secondary School, where, after an hour bus ride from his house, Robertson found a basketball powerhouse that featured the country’s top young talent in Andrew Wiggins.
In Robertson’s two years at Vaughan, the team won back-to-back Ontario provincial titles, including a 45-1 run in 2011. There was only one issue.
“I actually was a benchwarmer,” Robertson said. “I swear on everything, I was a benchwarmer that year.”
Talent and work ethic weren’t the issues, Vaughan coach Gus Gymnopoulos said. There were just too many talented seniors and guards.
“You could tell he was good,” Gymnopoulos said. “But it was one of those things where he didn’t crack the lineup.”
Robertson came back senior year and started more, though he didn’t serve as one of Vaughan’s primary guards. Gymnopoulos said he started to see frustration come through. Too much time on the bench. Too little time on the floor.
But that frustration, the “****ed off” attitude Gymnopoulos described, served Robertson well.
“Indifference is a poison,” Gymnopoulos said.
So when Robertson’s senior year ended with a newfound drive, he hugged his coach at Vaughan’s celebratory pep rally and left for an opportunity to further develop.
His next stop was Thornlea Secondary School, in Thornhill, Ontario, across the street from a strip-mall dollar store. Architects originally built the school with no outside-facing windows. They wanted students to focus on studies, not the sun or the sky.
Robertson just wanted to focus on basketball. He was still skinny, around 170 pounds, and looked like the same fresh-faced high schooler who posed alongside Wiggins in championship photo-ops. At Thornlea, though, Robertson finally had his chance to lead.
“He always knew he had the ability to lead a team and score a lot of points,” Thornlea coach Shane James said. “He just wasn’t given that opportunity (at Vaughan).”
He learned to be “that guy” at Thornlea, Robertson said. He ended the season averaging 22 points per game and earned all-league honors. He’d take an offer to play for Canisius, in Buffalo, New York, but he endured another delay: a Canisius team glutted with guards, namely Billy Baron, the team’s leading scorer and son of then-Golden Griffins coach Jim Baron.
“When I got there and started practicing, I realized there was probably no chance of me playing,” Robertson recalled.
So he went to his coaches and asked, “’Will you guys redshirt me so I don’t waste a year sitting on the bench?’”
They did, and along with three other freshmen, Robertson spent the season riding the pine once again. Jermaine Crumpton — affectionately known as “Crump” — joined Robertson as a redshirt that year, and they became roommates and good friends.
“That year was everything,” Robertson said. “I improved my game so much. It was crazy.”
The next year he averaged 6.8 points per game and was named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Rookie team. By their junior years, Robertson and Crumpton were leading Canisius, and Robertson led the team with 16.1 points per game and 41 percent shooting from 3-point range.
Last spring, Robertson and Crumpton started talking about the possibility of him transferring. Two schools stood out — Missouri and Georgia Tech — and by May, Robertson felt the need to make a decision so he could start with summer practices.
“I knew, without him telling me, that he wouldn’t come back,” said Crumpton, who will begin his senior season at Canisius on Saturday. “He wanted to play on the next stage. He saw that opportunity and ran with it.”
A fresh start
Benchwarmer to transfer. Redshirt to leading scorer. Another transfer and, now, starting point guard. If the journey has given Robertson anything, it’s perspective.
Martin said he’s one of the senior leaders the team will rely on once the season slogs further. Robertson has a calming presence, and his experience at Canisius — where, on a good night, 1,000 fans would show up to games — allows him to impart wisdom on a team brimming with young talent.
“The facilities, the privileges they have here at Mizzou — they should never take these things for granted,” Robertson said. “I come from a school where … we don’t have much money, we didn’t get much gear, didn’t get much shoes. Nobody really talked about us.”
Just more than 18,000 fans total showed up to Canisius home games throughout all of last season, according to NCAA attendance reports. Friday night’s game against Iowa State is expected to fill all of Mizzou Arena — 15,061 seats, or around 80 percent of the entirety of Canisius home games last season.
On Friday, he’ll play in front of the biggest home crowd of his career, with a new logo on his chest, in a position he says he’s never started at — not in college, high school or even middle school.
He said he’s excited, a little nervous. It’s a new challenge, a new opportunity — not like that’s ever scared him before.
Midway through last summer, Missouri senior Jordan Barnett offered graduate transfer Kassius Robertson a wild proposition.
Barnett noticed Robertson’s ballhandling skills, his shooting accuracy, his ability to crash the paint and create offensive chances.
“You could be a point guard,” Barnett told him. “If you were a point guard, that would give us a whole new dynamic.”
Robertson thought it was a joke. He’d never played point guard. He considered himself a pure shooting guard. Forty percent 3-point converter, off-the-ball threat, playmaker — that’s how Robertson saw himself.
On second thought ...
“I could always handle the ball,” Robertson said Wednesday. “Maybe in pickup when we played, I was bringing the ball up sometimes. I don’t know.”
It’s a timely story to recall this week. Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said Robertson would likely start at point guard for Friday’s season opener against Iowa State, a shock to many considering the Tigers already have four pure point guards on the roster — Blake Harris, Terrence Phillips, Jordan Geist and CJ Roberts.
Knowing that, Robertson had no intention of playing point guard for Missouri. His expectations were “not even close” to serving in that role, and when asked about Barnett’s summer statement, Robertson shook his head.
“He’s psychic,” he said.
In Martin’s eyes, the move makes sense. Robertson can catch and shoot off the ball, and his threat from behind the 3-point line also creates a “pick your poison” situation, as Robertson says. Coming off a ball screen, Robertson — who will still get time at shooting guard — can shoot, penetrate or dish to Michael Porter Jr. or other teammates down low.
Although Robertson didn’t foresee himself running Missouri’s offense, he’s used to adjustment. Standing in Mizzou Arena on Wednesday, the 23-year-old recalled his basketball career, which, upon announcing his transfer to Missouri, he called a “novel.” Robertson doesn’t know where he is in that book.
“It seems like there’s another chapter added every year,” he said.
A skinny kid from Toronto
The reasons for Robertson joining Missouri were plentiful — coaches, big-time college basketball atmosphere — but one stood out: exposure.
When the graduate transfer from Canisius was looking for his next stop, Missouri already had one the nation’s top recruiting classes. Porter Jr. and Blake Harris had announced their commitments, and Jeremiah Tilmon was on his way to signing. Robertson wanted to go somewhere he would win — an opportunity he saw in the revamped Tigers program.
“He told me part of the reason he came here was because I was here,” Porter Jr. said last month. “A lot of eyes will be on the program. He just wants a shot to be a pro someday.”
For a skinny kid from Toronto, pro basketball long felt like a lofty goal. As a high school junior, Robertson transferred to Vaughan Secondary School, where, after an hour bus ride from his house, Robertson found a basketball powerhouse that featured the country’s top young talent in Andrew Wiggins.
In Robertson’s two years at Vaughan, the team won back-to-back Ontario provincial titles, including a 45-1 run in 2011. There was only one issue.
“I actually was a benchwarmer,” Robertson said. “I swear on everything, I was a benchwarmer that year.”
Talent and work ethic weren’t the issues, Vaughan coach Gus Gymnopoulos said. There were just too many talented seniors and guards.
“You could tell he was good,” Gymnopoulos said. “But it was one of those things where he didn’t crack the lineup.”
Robertson came back senior year and started more, though he didn’t serve as one of Vaughan’s primary guards. Gymnopoulos said he started to see frustration come through. Too much time on the bench. Too little time on the floor.
But that frustration, the “****ed off” attitude Gymnopoulos described, served Robertson well.
“Indifference is a poison,” Gymnopoulos said.
So when Robertson’s senior year ended with a newfound drive, he hugged his coach at Vaughan’s celebratory pep rally and left for an opportunity to further develop.
His next stop was Thornlea Secondary School, in Thornhill, Ontario, across the street from a strip-mall dollar store. Architects originally built the school with no outside-facing windows. They wanted students to focus on studies, not the sun or the sky.
Robertson just wanted to focus on basketball. He was still skinny, around 170 pounds, and looked like the same fresh-faced high schooler who posed alongside Wiggins in championship photo-ops. At Thornlea, though, Robertson finally had his chance to lead.
“He always knew he had the ability to lead a team and score a lot of points,” Thornlea coach Shane James said. “He just wasn’t given that opportunity (at Vaughan).”
He learned to be “that guy” at Thornlea, Robertson said. He ended the season averaging 22 points per game and earned all-league honors. He’d take an offer to play for Canisius, in Buffalo, New York, but he endured another delay: a Canisius team glutted with guards, namely Billy Baron, the team’s leading scorer and son of then-Golden Griffins coach Jim Baron.
“When I got there and started practicing, I realized there was probably no chance of me playing,” Robertson recalled.
So he went to his coaches and asked, “’Will you guys redshirt me so I don’t waste a year sitting on the bench?’”
They did, and along with three other freshmen, Robertson spent the season riding the pine once again. Jermaine Crumpton — affectionately known as “Crump” — joined Robertson as a redshirt that year, and they became roommates and good friends.
“That year was everything,” Robertson said. “I improved my game so much. It was crazy.”
The next year he averaged 6.8 points per game and was named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Rookie team. By their junior years, Robertson and Crumpton were leading Canisius, and Robertson led the team with 16.1 points per game and 41 percent shooting from 3-point range.
Last spring, Robertson and Crumpton started talking about the possibility of him transferring. Two schools stood out — Missouri and Georgia Tech — and by May, Robertson felt the need to make a decision so he could start with summer practices.
“I knew, without him telling me, that he wouldn’t come back,” said Crumpton, who will begin his senior season at Canisius on Saturday. “He wanted to play on the next stage. He saw that opportunity and ran with it.”
A fresh start
Benchwarmer to transfer. Redshirt to leading scorer. Another transfer and, now, starting point guard. If the journey has given Robertson anything, it’s perspective.
Martin said he’s one of the senior leaders the team will rely on once the season slogs further. Robertson has a calming presence, and his experience at Canisius — where, on a good night, 1,000 fans would show up to games — allows him to impart wisdom on a team brimming with young talent.
“The facilities, the privileges they have here at Mizzou — they should never take these things for granted,” Robertson said. “I come from a school where … we don’t have much money, we didn’t get much gear, didn’t get much shoes. Nobody really talked about us.”
Just more than 18,000 fans total showed up to Canisius home games throughout all of last season, according to NCAA attendance reports. Friday night’s game against Iowa State is expected to fill all of Mizzou Arena — 15,061 seats, or around 80 percent of the entirety of Canisius home games last season.
On Friday, he’ll play in front of the biggest home crowd of his career, with a new logo on his chest, in a position he says he’s never started at — not in college, high school or even middle school.
He said he’s excited, a little nervous. It’s a new challenge, a new opportunity — not like that’s ever scared him before.
Please explain why this message is being reported.
MESSAGE THREAD
Pretty good and insightful article on Robertson - FIJItiger MU - 11/13 14:06:07