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Jaxson Robinson decided to skip homecoming, prom, skip-day and all the other usual rites of passage granted a senior in high school. The Ada, Oklahoma, native left Ada High School a year early to attend Texas A&M, ready to play college basketball.
Now, a year-and-a-half later, he’s no longer in College Station, but instead in Fayetteville – about the same distance from his hometown – and stating his case as a future star for Arkansas basketball.
Robinson scored a career-high 14 points in 20 minutes in the Razorbacks’ last win against Elon on December 21. He was perfect from the free-throw line, grabbed three rebounds and was 3 of 6 from beyond the arc. The performance was the memorable kind that can cement a player’s status.
But it’s easy to forget he’s the youngest player on the Hogs’ roster.
“I think his best basketball is way ahead of him,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said. “He’s a guy that kept working, kept getting better in practice. His development’s been awesome.”
Robinson played in 14 games as a freshman at A&M last year, starting once. Musselman had recruited him out of high school, so when Robinson hit the transfer portal, it was an easy call. He played in just one game in November, but he’s only missed one game in December: Arkansas’ 20-point loss to Robinson’s home state Oklahoma Sooners.
The Razorbacks open SEC play at Mississippi State on Wednesday and Robinson is expected to continue what he’s accomplished during most of the month. So much so, in fact, he’s establishing himself not just as a rotation piece, but a potentially game-changing one.
Musselman thinks his youngest player is ready.
“You go into conference play, doesn’t matter what conference you are, Mountain West or SEC, conference play is different,” he said. “Talent level becomes much more even across the board on a nightly basis.”