Michigan fifth-year senior forward Duncan Robinson isn’t just a shooter.
The 2017-18 Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year is a vocal leader of this year’s squad and has also improved dramatically on defense this year, becoming a player the Wolverines can count on to hold off forwards that typically are bigger than him down low.
“You never want to be the guy in a film session [that the coaches are asking] ‘why aren’t you doing this? Why are you getting killed?’ or whatever,” Robinson said. “[Defense] was a pride thing for me, I’m starting to sure it up a little bit more.”
The veteran claims he has no preference to whether he comes off the bench, showing his willingness to do whatever the team needs most. He has continued to come off the bench behind freshman forward Isaiah Livers despite out-producing him statistically, and that’s just fine for Robinson.
Michigan is 19-0 this season when Robinson scores six or more points, which shows his value on the court.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that when he goes in the game, teams have to change their mentality about how they play a particular position and allows us to play four-on-four,” Michigan coach John Beilein said.
Beilein loves being able to bring Robinson and freshman guard Jordan Poole off the bench, and both have had huge games recently. Poole has scored in double-figures three games in a row, while Robinson has done so in three of the last five.
U-M hopes that carries over into the Big Ten Tournament, which begins tomorrow in New York City. The Wolverines won last year’s tournament following a fluke plane crash, providing momentum for an NCAA Tournament run.
“We feel pretty confident in this team, this year. Last year is last year,” Robinson said. “The run was incredible, but we understand that just because we’re Michigan and it’s a year later it’s not just going to happen again, we have to lock in on what made us successful this year and in year’s past.”
Robinson says the team will watch the Illinois-Iowa game together at the hotel after they arrive in the Big Apple. Michigan will face the winner on Thursday afternoon.
“We’re going to be prepared either way, it’s two really good teams that we could be playing,” Robinson said. “It’s going to be a challenge no matter what. Each poses different challenges, but we’ll be ready to embrace them.”
Keying in on game prep will be crucial, Robinson added, due to the extremely quick turnaround.
U-M will go over game plans in the team hotel Wednesday night. Beilein said the team is focusing more on Illinois since it just played Iowa recently.
“We really want to win this tournament because we’re competitors and this is a goal we set out to accomplish at the beginning of the season,” Robinson said. “Obviously, momentum is huge moving forward, but right now we’re not focused on the NCAA Tournament.”
The team isn’t worried about any potential NCAA Tournament seeding implications. The week off between the tournaments will be a change as well, one Robinson isn’t sure of how it’ll impact the team.
“Hopefully we’ve learned how to handle success, because we’ve had some moments this year where we’ve had a big win and come out flat,” Robinson said. “I think we’ve learned that importance of having urgency every single day. It’s postseason time, it’s win or go home.”
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