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15 more days to official Indiana basketball and we move on down the line to discuss our next freshman in Stan(ford) Robinson. Stan is a 6'4" shooting guard with some point guard tendencies. Out of Landover, Maryland and alumni of Paul VI and Team Takeover on the AAU circuit, Kenny Johnson was key in landing Robinson for the Hoosiers. Kenny Johnson was hired to open up the east coast recruiting market and Stan was his first example of how good of a move that was.
Class: Freshman
Hometown: Landover, Md.
High School: Findlay (Nev.) Prep
Height / Weight: 6-4 / 193
Position: Guard
Twitter: @ShowMeLoveStan
Stan committed to Indiana University in May of 2012 and never looked back. A 247 Composite top 70 player he's been ranked a bit all over the place by the recruiting services. Nowhere have I seen him outside of the top 75 and in some places I have seen him ranked in the lower 50s. So that alone should tell you there is a bit of some uncertainty about exactly what we're getting with Stan.
At 6-4 and nearly 200 lbs, we're getting a guy with at least very good physical traits. Strength and Conditioning Coach Je'Ney Jackson joked during some off-season interviews that Stan has been walking around with his shirt off a lot more now that he has some muscles, but then he mentioned there is still some work for him to do. So we know Stan is putting in the work.
On the injury front there was a small speed bump in the road. In the final 4 seconds of Hoosier Hysteria's scrimmage Robinson collided with Hanner Perea going for a loose ball and went down with what looked to be a pretty bad knee injury. In the ensuing days we learned it was just a bruise. Fortunately he only missed little more than a week of practice and is back in action.
On the court, Robinson offers his best attributes in his ability to make plays and create his own shots, which is what has garnered him the shooting guard qualification. However, Stan is also a willing distributor that gives him some ability to play point guard in limited situations. I expect through his time here at Indiana he'll continue to work on his ball skills to convert to a more able point.
For this season, I'm not completely certain what to expect from Stan. With the presence of 5th year senior Evan Gordon on the squad his play could be much more limited than was expected when he initially committed. Still, the guard spot is quite thin for the Hoosiers and behind Yogi Ferrell there really isn't any true point guard option. I think this is where Stan will most likely make his living this year. We know Tom Crean likes to do wholesale first team/second team subbing and we could see a lot of Stan leading the second line at PG. His job will be mainly managing the squad to maintain and hold the lead while the starters are grabbing some air on the bench. Thus I think his box score will be somewhat limited than if he were playing alongside Yogi and Sheehey.
Expectations for the season should be as follows. A bad year for Stan would be one where he struggles to find the court while Gordon and Ferrell are putting up 30 minutes a game. A good year for Robinson is 15 minutes, 5 points and 2 assists. A ZOMG TOM CREAN IS THE BEST TALENT EVALUATOR EVER year would be 20+ minutes between the 1 and 2 spot with 8 points and 3 assists a game.