Duncan Robinson (basketball)

Early life

Born April 22, 1994 in York, Maine, Robinson is the son of the Elisabeth and Jeffrey Robinson and the youngest of their three children (after sister Marta and brother Eli). Jeffrey, who is 6 feet (1.83 m), had played one season for the Maine Black Bears men's basketball team. Robinson grew up on the remote New Hampshire island of New Castle where his Maude H. Trefethen Elementary School 6th grade graduating class was composed of four students and he had to leave the island to continue his education. He attended Rye Junior High School and elected to attend The Governor's Academy rather than Portsmouth High School, which was the public high school for students in New Castle. Without Robinson, Portsmouth still reached four consecutive New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association final fours and won the 2012 state championship.

Robinson began his freshman season as a 5-foot-7-inch (1.70 m) point guard for The Governor's Academy in 2008, but did not play much until he became "serviceable" as a junior. In his early years, he shot for hours, attempting to make 1600 shots per week. Robinson started working with trainer Noah LaRoche during his junior season. After Christmas of his junior year, he began to see a future in basketball although he was still coming off the bench. After averaging 18.5 points as a senior at The Governor's Academy, he was selected to the 2012 All-NEPSAC Class B first team and the 2012 All-Independent School League (ISL) team. He graduated with a 3.55 G.P.A. Following his senior season, he still had visions of an NCAA Division I scholarship offer and opted for the spring and summer Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) circuit and a postgraduate year. Robinson played for Michael Crotty Jr.'s Middlesex Magic AAU team, who helped win the Basketbull National HOF Championship. Crotty had been a two-time All-American at Williams College, having served as point guard for the 2003 NCAA Division III Tournament champions (and 2004 Tournament runners up). Following his senior season, Robinson measured 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) and 175 pounds (79.4 kg). By the end of the summer, he had become 6 feet 8 inches (2.03 m) and 195 pounds (88.5 kg).

During the last weekend of September 2012 while on a campus visit, Division III Williams made Robinson an offer that he accepted immediately. At the time, Williams was ranked the number one liberal arts college in the country according to U.S. News & World Report, and the school was a Division III basketball powerhouse. They had gone 93–22 over the prior four seasons under head coach Mike Maker. In 2013, Robinson led Phillips Exeter Academy to its first NEPSAC Class A championship victory on March 10 against Choate Rosemary Hall with a 24-point, 10-rebound MVP performance. Exeter finished the season at 28–1. Nonetheless, his only scholarship offer was from NCAA Division II Merrimack College. He also had interest from Division I Brown Bears men's basketball and Columbia Lions men's basketball as well as Division III Bates and Amherst.

Williams College

Prior to the November 15, 2013 season opener against Southern Vermont College, Williams was the number one ranked Division III basketball program in the nation according to the preseason The Sporting News poll, but Williams lost in the shadow of a home court scheduling conflict despite 5–6 shooting by Robinson. Robinson became the only freshman starter in Maker's six-year tenure as head coach at Williams. In his 2013–14 freshman season at Williams, Robinson was twice named New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Player of the Week during the regular season. Williams reached the 2014 NCAA Men's Division III Basketball Tournament championship game, but fell 75–73 to University of Wisconsin–Whitewater as Robinson scored 17 points. After Williams took a one-point lead with 4.9 seconds left, Wisconsin pushed the ball upcourt without calling time-out to score the winning basket in what Chris Strauss of USA Today described as the best NCAA basketball tournament game of the weekend. Robinson had posted 30 points in the tournament semifinal against bitter rival Amherst College who had defeated Williams in the season's three previous meetings. Williams finished the season with a 28–5 record. That season, he led Williams in minutes played (a school record 1,110), points scored (548), three-point shots made (81–179), three-point % (45.3), free throw percentage (87.8%), blocks (36) and steals (36). He averaged 17.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 34.7 minutes per game. Following the season, he was the NESCAC Rookie of the Year and a Second Team All-NESCAC selection. Robinson became Williams' first freshman to be named All-American (4th team, D3Hoops.com), first D3Hoops.com National Rookie of the Year, first freshman NCAA All-Tournament Team selection and first freshman 500-point scorer. His season was described as "one of the best freshman seasons in Division III men's basketball history" by Jeremy Leveille of WGAM in a story for NHNotebook.com.

Following the 2013–14 season, Maker left Williams to become the head coach for Marist Red Foxes men's basketball. Robinson was immediately contacted by schools from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, Atlantic 10, Ivy League, Patriot League and American East conferences. Among the schools that were interested were Creighton, Boston College and Providence. After his freshman success, he had decided that he would only leave Williams to play for a winning program that was an elite academic institution and that used a system and style that he had become use to. Robinson had played against Nik Stauskas in NEPSAC play and was impressed with how Michigan's John Beilein had developed "under-recruited players" such as Stauskas who was a 1st round selection in the 2014 NBA Draft. Maker had been an assistant coach for Beilein at West Virginia from 2005–07. At both Exeter and Williams, Robinson had played in systems that were similar to the one that Beilein runs at Michigan. Robinson asked Maker to contact Beilein who on faith replied that Michigan may have interest at the preferred walk-on level. Robinson was not interested in walk-on consideration given competing scholarship offers. A week later, after seeing video, Beilein said Michigan was considering a scholarship offer. Robinson scheduled visits to Michigan and new Atlantic 10 member Davidson. After the visit to Michigan, Robinson committed to the school. He announced his decision via Twitter on August 6, 2014.

Sophomore season

Robinson is the first player to transfer from Division III to Division I with a full scholarship according to some sources. During the 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, Robinson redshirted for the 2014–15 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team, meaning that he could not participate in games, but could practice with the team. In December 2014 with assistant coach Jeff Meyer as his rebounder, Robinson broke Stauskas' Michigan Wolverines men's basketball practice record for three-pointers in a drill (five minutes, one ball, one rebounder) by posting 78, surpassing Stauskas by 3.

In Robinson's second game for the 2015–16 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team, he posted 19 points on 6–6 shooting (5–5 3-point shots) from the floor against Elon. On December 12, Michigan defeated Delaware State 80–33, as Robinson made his first career start for Michigan by posting 11 points on 3–5 three-point shooting. At the time Robinson ranked third in the nation in three-point shooting percentage. Note that various sources have various eligibility thresholds. E.g., while BigTen.org only requires a minimum of 1.0 made per game, NCAA.org requires a minimum of 2.5 made per game. On December 23, Robinson tied his career high (set twice at Williams) with six assists against Bryant. The game marked the ninth consecutive game in which he made at least 3 3-point shots. Robinson entered conference play as the Big Ten leader in three-point field goal percentage and led the Big Ten Conference in both three-point field goals (52) and three-point field goal percentage (.565) through the first week of the Big Ten Conference schedule. On January 12, with leading scorer Caris LeVert sidelined, Michigan defeated (#3/#3) Maryland 70–67 as Robinson contributed 17 points on 5–9 three-point shooting. On January 23, Michigan defeated Nebraska 81–68, behind a game-high and season-high 21 points by Robinson. With the Cornhusker defense challenging his three-point shot, he scored more points inside the three-point line than outside it for the first time as a Wolverine. The January 27 game against Rutgers marked the 17th consecutive game in which Robinson made at least two three-point shots. Robinson made only one three-point shot in each the subsequent two games against Penn State and (#22/21) Indiana. Nonetheless, Robinson entered the February 6 Michigan–Michigan State men's basketball rivalry game against the #10-ranked 2015–16 Spartans as the Big Ten Conference leader in three-point shots made and three-point field goal percentage, but he was held to 0–3 three-point shooting in the game. The game marked the first time since the season opener, that Robinson did not make a single three point shot, ending a 22-game streak. On February 10, Michigan defeated Minnesota as Robinson posted a game- and season-high nine rebounds to go along with 14 points on 4-for-7 three-point shooting.

On March 10, in Michigan's first game of the 2016 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament against Northwestern, Robinson scored 21 points including a three-point shot that tied the score with 46.5 seconds remaining in overtime. The following day, in the quarterfinals against No. 1-seeded (#10/#10) Indiana, Robinson again put Michigan in position to win by tieing the score with a three-point shot with 46 seconds remaining (this time in regulation). The following day, in the semifinals against (#13/#13) Purdue, Robinson recorded his 90th three-pointer of the season, becoming just the fifth Wolverine in history to reach the milestone. On March 16, in the First Four round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, Michigan defeated Tulsa, 67–62, with support from Robinson who recorded his first double-double as a Wolverine with 13 points and a season-high 11 rebounds. Robinson finished the season second to Bryn Forbes (48.1%) among Big Ten players in three-point field goal percentage with a 45.0% mark.

Following the season, several other wing players left the team. Caris LeVert graduated. Aubrey Dawkins transferred to play for the UCF Knights, Kameron Chatman announced his intention to transfer.

Junior season

He came off the bench , but started due to a bookkeeping error on December 17 against Maryland Eastern Shore.