Alumnus goes on to play
professionally
By Seth Schwartz
Senior
Writer
After four years of Purdue basketball, Mike Robinson
is playing professionally … in the American Basketball Association.
The ABA has started over, beginning with this,
the 2000-01 season. One of the league’s eight franchises is the
Indiana Legends, coached by former Boilermaker Billy Keller.
"This is going to be a league that, if they
don’t jump right into the NBA, will probably take that next level
of player and help that player, hopefully, make it to the NBA,"
Keller said.
Robinson said Keller contacted him for a tryout
about a week before he left to play in Europe. Keller, who played at
Purdue from the 1966-67 season to the 1968-69 season and is a friend
of Purdue coach Gene Keady, is a follower of basketball and, for the
last four years, Robinson’s collegiate career.
"This past summer, I asked Mike and his wife
Michelle to come out and speak at a couple of my camps that I ran,"
said Keller. "So I was quite familiar with who Mike was."
Michelle is former Purdue women’s basketball
player Michelle Duhart, who also used up her eligibility last season.
The two got married on July 4, 2000.
The Legends are 3-5 — a game and a half behind
the East Division-leading Detroit Dogs. Each team plays 56 games in
the regular season. Keller says that there is so much disparity in the
league that any team can beat another on any given night.
Robinson said that the biggest difference between
the ABA and the Big Ten is that the players are bigger and stronger
and quicker in the ABA. The Big Ten has helped him to prepare for that
type of play.
"Right now, there’s really no comparison
(between the Big Ten and the ABA)," Robinson said. "In college
you have 35 seconds on the shot clock so the team is on defense a little
bit longer. Here you’re on defense for 24 seconds, sometimes only
16 because you’ve got to get the ball across court in 8 seconds
so you only have 16 seconds left.
"So this is a faster pace than in college.
You have to be in better shape to get up and down the court at all times.
The Big Ten has prepared me to do this because there’s a lot of
guys from the Big Ten here. So we’ve been through the wars against
each other; now we’re going to war again against each other."
Although Robinson is not a starter, he comes off
of the bench as a small forward and is averaging 10.3 points and 4.8
rebounds per game in 21.1minutes. His best game so far was Dec. 29,
2000, against the San Diego Wildfire, when he recorded his first, and
so far only, double-double of the season, collecting 23 points and 10
rebounds.
Keller, who played on the 1969 team with Rick Mount
that won the Big Ten and then lost in the national championship game
against Lew Alcindor’s UCLA Bruins, said Robinson gives the team
a spark off the bench. It is for that reason that he feels reluctant
to put him in as a starter.
"I think he’s capable of being a starter,
but he’s been doing such a good job for us coming off the bench
that he gives us a real lift when he comes in," Keller said. "So
consequently, at this point, I don’t want to take that away from
us as a team, but I consider Mike to be the type of guy that can start
just as easily as he comes off the bench."
Keller really enjoys Robinson’s work ethic,
which he says is a direct result of Robinson’s time spent learning
under Keady.
"I’ve been real pleased with Mike,"
he said. "I think he’s really done an excellent job. He’s
scored for us, he’s rebounded for us, he’s playing good defense.
I think all of this is contributed to the fact that he has played in
a quality college program at Purdue with Gene Keady. When I look at
Mike’s games and see how fundamentally sound he is, I know that
he has gotten that from Gene Keady’s program. I’m real pleased
with Mike. I think he’s doing an excellent job and not only is
he an excellent basketball player, but he’s turned out to be a
good person too."
Robinson enjoys playing for Keller because of his
understanding that the players know how to play the game.
"He’s a great coach — real laid
back," Robsinson said. "He treats you like an adult. He lets
you work out situations as they come. That’s the maturity that
you have to have at this level. They treat you as a professional here.
My relationship with Coach Keller is great because I really believe
that he understands that I really know how to play the game and that’s
a result from my upbringing at Purdue." Robinson said that the
league is wonderful for players like himself, giving them a chance to
display their skills against a high level of competition, possibly leading
them to the NBA.
"I think it’s a great league," he
said. "We’ve got great talent here. I tell people that the
only big difference between the NBA and the ABA is that the NBA has
big bodies. There’s no Shaquille O’Neals, Alonzo Mournings
or Dikembe Mutombos in this league. There’s a ton of really talented
2- or 3-guards and point guards that could make it if they get a real
good looking at by the NBA."
Robinson is glad to be playing basketball for a
living, but he misses being at Purdue.
"I miss the camaraderie, the togetherness
that we had on the team last year," he said. "It may sound
crazy, but I kind of miss Coach hollering at us, making a big fuss over
something sometimes. I used to sit back and laugh at that sometimes."
Keller said he likes the type of player that Keady
has turned Robinson into and the example that the former McDonald’s
All-American sets for the rest of the team.
"I think Mike is a quality college player
and the thing that I like so much about him is that he comes every day
to practice to work," Keller said. "When it comes time for
games, he comes prepared to play. He’s just really a warrior when
it comes time to play the game and that’s what I like about him.
He’s got a good attitude. He’s a winner; he wants to win.
He comes from a great program of Gene Keady’s and I’m just
really happy to have him."
|
