Coach K on Justin Robinson: "What a Good Story of Persistence.”

Coach K says former walk-on has earned expanded role

Senior captain Justin Robinson came to Duke as a walk-on and hasn’t gotten a great deal of playing time in games. As his Blue Devil career winds down, however, he’s becoming a factor.

Robinson played significant first-half minutes against Wake Forest and NC State, scoring 16 points in the two games. That was more than he’d had all season up until that point (13).

Coach Mike Krzyzewski said Robinson has earned his playing time.

“In the last month, he’s just really played well in practice,” Krzyzewski said. “We were backing up Vern (Carey Jr.) with Jav (DeLaurier).”

Robinson has helped to prepare the starters for most of his time at Duke, a role that has helped him develop his basketball knowledge to the point that Coach K said earlier in the season he sees coaching in Robinson’s future.

“J. Rob, even for this (NC State) game, is on the scout team,” Krzyzewski said, “because he knows everything. Jon [Scheyer], Chris [Carrawell], Nate [James]... whoever has the scout, when they get them all together, J. Rob is telling everybody what to do. He has a voice that everyone listens to. Chris Carrawell had the game for tonight. When I go out (in pregame) he talks to the team first, at about 36 minutes (before tip), and then I talk to them, and they go out. What Chris did today was put words on the board, not a game plan, and then he had J. Rob speak. Stuff like that, to try to get everyone to have ownership – he’s owned it the longest. What a good story he is of persistence.”