Just before tipoff of the second and final scrimmage at the NBA Combine on Tuesday afternoon, Mark Pope and Alvin Brooks III — sporting their brand-new Kentucky basketball gear — settled into their seats at Wintrust Arena.
UK’s new head coach and his top assistant have already put together the bulk of their first Wildcats’ roster — adding 10 players in less than a month on the job — but there are still some open scholarships, and one name, in particular, has been on the Wildcats’ recruiting radar from pretty much the moment Pope accepted the position.
As Kentucky’s coaches looked on, BYU’s Jaxson Robinson — with one season of NCAA eligibility remaining — went through his final pregame warmups. While the 6-foot-7 guard was on the court, they watched intently. About two hours later, when Robinson’s coach took him out of the game for what was clearly the final time, Pope headed up to the concourse area.
There might ultimately be some other players at this Combine that land on UK’s recruiting radar if they pull out of the NBA draft, but Robinson is obviously the one at the top of that list for now.
And after playing the past two seasons under Pope, the coach’s presence at Robinson’s first Combine scrimmage did not go unnoticed or unappreciated.
“Just him showing up alone — that says a lot. He didn’t have to do that,” Robinson told the Herald-Leader afterward. “I mean, he’s at Kentucky now. He coached me at BYU. But, technically, he isn’t my coach anymore. As of right now, at least.
“Our relationship is super close. I talk to him a lot. He tries to help me out when he can. So I’m making sure that I appreciate him for everything that he’s done for me, especially leading up to this point. He helped me get here. I couldn’t thank anybody else but Coach Pope.”
In addition to placing his name in the NBA draft pool, Robinson is also in the NCAA’s transfer portal, and the conventional wisdom around college basketball for weeks has been that, if Robinson backs out of the draft, he’ll be moving to Lexington.
The 21-year-old standout from Oklahoma didn’t divulge too much about his current plans with two weeks to go until the May 29 deadline for college players to remove their names from the draft and retain their eligibility, but Robinson made it clear that he appreciates Pope for helping him get into the NBA discussion in the first place. And if he does pull out of the draft, it sure sounds like Kentucky will indeed be in the best position to land his commitment.
JAXSON ROBINSON AND MARK POPE
He started 30 of 33 games in his first year under Pope at BYU, but it was this past season — when Robinson primarily came off the bench, earning Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year honors — that he really took off.
“It was tough for me my first two years, just because I didn’t really get a lot of opportunity,” Robinson said. “I was young. I graduated high school a year early. So coming into college at 17 — playing against older dudes — it’s obviously going to be an adjustment. But I thought it was something that could really benefit me in the future.
Robinson was just 17 years old when he arrived as a college freshman at Texas A&M, playing 9.7 minutes per game before transferring to Arkansas for year two. That wasn’t the best fit either, and — after averaging 3.4 points in 10.2 minutes over 16 games for the Razorbacks as a sophomore — Robinson changed schools again.
“And I think the last two years — with a guy like Coach Pope — he only helped it, just giving me the opportunity to explore my game and figure out who I am as a player. That’s all him. Like I said, I don’t know who else I could thank but him.”
Robinson became a key piece of Pope’s offense — the team’s leading scorer, in fact — averaging 14.2 points per game and shooting 35.4% on 229 long-range attempts in BYU’s 3-pointer-happy offense.
He started 30 of 33 games in his first year under Pope at BYU, but it was this past season — when Robinson primarily came off the bench, earning Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year honors — that he really took off.
“It was tough for me my first two years, just because I didn’t really get a lot of opportunity,” Robinson said. “I was young. I graduated high school a year early. So coming into college at 17 — playing against older dudes — it’s obviously going to be an adjustment. But I thought it was something that could really benefit me in the future.
“I think it helped a lot,” he said. “Just being here at the Combine, some of the plays that we ran today, I’ve just known from being at BYU. Coach Pope and Coach Fueger taught us those plays, and it was similar to what we ran. It really helps just knowing that I have some knowledge coming from college, moving forward and transitioning into the NBA and this Combine.”