More praise for freshman point guard James Robinson

Monday, 21 January 2013 09:52

Written by Ray Fittipaldo

Point guards have to be a lot like quarterbacks. When things don’t go right and interceptions become more frequent than touchdown passes the best ones still have that gunslinger mentality. The same holds true for point guards. They have to have a short memory as well.

Pitt freshman James Robinson was going through an extended slump to open Big East play, but as the team’s point guard, he’s going to have the opportunity to make plays. On Saturday against Connecticut, Robinson had the ball at the most crucial time and was not afraid to take the shot and put his team ahead for good with 3:42 remaining.

“We know if we put him in better positions to score he’ll definitely take advantage of it,” senior guard Tray Woodall said. “He’s getting adjusted to all these Big East games. He’s doing a great job. He works hard every day. He brings it every day. He’s one of our floor generals and the best is yet to come for him.”

Despite his shooting and scoring slump, Robinson remains No. 1 in the Big East in assist to turnover ratio. He has 79 assists and 20 turnovers for the season. For a freshman to lead one of the best conferences in that category halfway through the season is impressive.

“He’s very steady,” junior guard Trey Zeigler said. “For his age, for him to have his knowledge of the game is incredible.”

Zeigler grew up watching the Pitt teams of the Ben Howland era when his father was an assistant coach at Pitt. I asked Zeigler if Robinson reminded him of any former Pitt players. He said no, but he drew the comparison to Andre Miller, the former Utah star who has played many years in the NBA.

“I always tell him he reminds me of Andre Miller,” Zeigler said. “He really doesn’t like that because he thinks he’s more athletic than that.”