‘He didn’t trust anybody.’ How Jaxson Robinson found his path to Kentucky basketball.

For Jaxson Robinson, the dream of college basketball had nightmarish beginnings.

Now, the 21-year-old guard from Ada, Oklahoma, is entering his fifth season of college, the biggest name on Mark Pope’s first Kentucky roster and — according to the expert predictions — the most likely Wildcat to be selected in the 2025 NBA draft.

But getting to this point wasn’t the smoothest process. And even those coaches that have come to appreciate Robinson the most weren’t sure if he’d ever get anywhere close to the position he’s in now.

A high school graduate at age 17, Robinson was more than ready to move on from his hometown, and he put in the academic work to make it happen as quickly as possible. That left the No. 82 recruit in the class of 2020 with a choice: spend a year in prep school or head to college a year early.

He chose the latter, enrolling at Texas A&M in the summer of 2020, which, as it turned out, wasn’t the best time to be a 17-year-old kid trying to get acclimated to high-level college basketball.

That was the summer of COVID-19 and the pandemic restrictions that kept teams from operating in a normal fashion. Getting up to speed was tough. Getting on the court was difficult. And, toward the end of the season, the Aggies rarely even made it to the gym.

A flurry of positive COVID-19 tests within the team limited practices and led to several canceled games. From Jan. 30 to March 3 of that season, Texas A&M didn’t play at all, every game postponed as a result of positive tests.

The Aggies finished the season with an 8-10 record and 2-8 mark in the SEC, playing the fewest conference games of any team, by far. Robinson averaged just 2.1 points in 9.7 minutes per game.

“People just kept getting sick,” Robinson said. “We never could find a rhythm. So it was a tough time for me, just because going into your first year, it’s COVID. I mean, you’re the last team in the SEC. It’s tough.”

Looking for a fresh start, he hopped across the conference to Arkansas.

From a team perspective, things went better. The Razorbacks finished 13-5 in the league and advanced to the Elite Eight, but Robinson’s overall numbers (3.4 points in 10.2 minutes per game) weren’t much different. After the season, he was one of six players who departed Eric Musselman’s program with eligibility remaining.

He didn’t go into the details of what didn’t work out in Fayetteville, but year two of — to that point — a disappointing NCAA career had an effect on Robinson, who was still a teenager when he began searching for his third college team.

That next stop turned out to be BYU, where Pope was the head coach and Cody Fueger was a lead assistant. The Cougars’ staff saw plenty of promise in Robinson, but there was work to do.

“The first year, I was a little nervous. Like, ‘Is this guy going to make it?’ Because it’s hard. Being in college basketball is hard,” Fueger said. “And he just kept on coming in, coming in, coming in. And he started buying into team more and getting to know his teammates. And I think as soon as he started to develop a little more trust in everybody, that’s when he started to blossom.”

Earning that trust was the most difficult step.

“He’d already had two head coaches,” Fueger said. “So he didn’t trust anyone. He didn’t trust assistants. He didn’t trust anybody. And it took a little while to crack that shell. He was 17 (when he started). It was during COVID. And he kind of is a homebody already. But as soon as he started to really trust his teammates and the coaches — we’re all seeing the fruits of that.

“He’s such a great kid, and we’re so happy he’s here.”

Finding a home at BYU

These days, Pope, Fueger and Robinson have all moved to Kentucky, every one of them excited for a new era of UK basketball and their respective places within the storied program.

When Fueger’s quote — “He didn’t trust anybody” — was read back to Robinson, the new Wildcat didn’t dispute it. He actually nodded along to those words.

“My first two years were rough,” he said. “I was going through a tough time. During 2020, 2021 — just trying to figure out my way in college basketball. … I feel like a lot of trust was lost on my end with other people. My year at Arkansas was tough. So just going into BYU, having some coaches that really cared about me and wanted to see me get better. And helped me get better — Coach Fueger and Coach Pope, they brought me in, they gave me an opportunity. And I’m forever grateful for that.”

Robinson, who played relatively sparingly at both A&M and Arkansas, was an immediate starter at BYU. He played more minutes than anyone on the roster, averaging 8.5 points and shooting a team-high 178 3-pointers.

Life on the court was better, but finding that trust remained a gradual process. Six of BYU’s scholarship players that season were newcomers, and three of those were freshmen. Others had little college experience. For Robinson, of course, everything about Provo, Utah, was new.

“It was a brand new group of guys, just like here now, but we were just all trying to figure out the ropes,” he said. “It was a whole bunch of guys that hadn’t really played.”

Feeling he’d been burned in the past, Robinson was slow to warm up. But, eventually, he did.

Robinson mostly relied on his parents during those first two-plus years in college — “I talk to my mom every day,” he said — and, once he let those around the BYU program in, Robinson found a second family in Provo.

“I think at first it just took time just to, like, learn each other a little bit,” he said of the BYU staff. “We were new to the whole situation. And they were really open and honest with me, and that was something I hadn’t had in the past. So it was something that I had to learn to accept.

“You can’t ask for anything else out of a coach, except for him to be honest with you. And that’s what Coach Pope and Coach Fueger and all the guys here have done. So I think that’s where my game started to rise — once I figured out I could get better and be open and honest with my coaches.”

Fueger, who helps Pope run his innovative offense, has said that his favorite thing about coaching is getting players in his office. Those sessions usually begin with film study on ways to improve a player’s game, but they often spin off in other directions. They went a long way in breaking the ice with Robinson.

“We might start out talking about basketball, but I might end up in that office for an hour and a half. And the last hour talking about something completely different,” Robinson said. “And I can’t tell you how many times at BYU, Coach Pope would just call me into his office and just ask me how I’m doing. And that was it.”

Robinson hadn’t received that kind of personal interaction in the past, and it laid the foundation of trust for him to take off in year two at BYU.

Last season, he accepted a role off the bench after spending the previous year as a starter, but he still led the Cougars with 14.2 points, topping the team in both overall shots (11.7 per game) and 3-point attempts (229 total). He earned Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year honors in BYU’s first season in the high-major conference, leading them to a 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Looking back now on those first two years in college, Robinson highlighted the positives. He said that while there were plenty of frustrations, his confidence never wavered, and he used that time to “pick the brains of every person that I met” — continuing to improve as he waited for the opportunity he ultimately found in Provo.

“I was just eager to get onto the court and to show what I had done over the course of those two years to better myself as a player and a human being,” he said. “I mean, I never lost belief. It was just a matter of having somebody that would give me a chance. And Coach Pope took that chance. And, like I said, I can’t thank him enough.”

Following Pope to UK

After last season ended, Robinson entered his name in the 2024 NBA draft, where he was projected as a possible second-round pick. While he was going through the pre-draft process — a return to BYU very much still on the table — things back home changed in a hurry.

John Calipari unexpectedly left Kentucky for the Arkansas job, and Pope was the surprise choice as his replacement. As soon as Pope was confirmed to be the new UK coach, speculation turned to his 2024-25 roster and whether Robinson might be willing to follow.

The hype intensified when Robinson — still pursuing a spot in the draft — entered the NCAA transfer portal. If he ultimately pulled out of the draft, he would instantly become one of the best available players in the country. Experts assumed that — while UK might be in a solid position to land him — other major programs would go all-out in pursuit.

Nothing went public, but Robinson had already made up his mind on what would be next if he decided to remove his name from the draft.

“I mean, I knew what I wanted to do,” he said. “But my main focus was just the NBA. I declared for the draft, so I was going to put forth all my effort into being able to get drafted before I worried about anything else.”

More than a few UK basketball fans would have liked to have known that information at the time.

When the May 29 deadline for players to remove their names from the draft and retain college eligibility rolled around, Robinson was still one of the top prospects on the fence. And Kentucky’s roster, while impressively constructed, was still in search of a go-to guy.

As that day unfolded, players made their decisions public. Midnight neared, UK fans waited, and there was still no word on Robinson’s status. The wait stretched into the wee hours of May 30, and still nothing. Die-hard Kentucky fans took to social media, wondering what was up. They went to bed with no answer and woke up to nothing new.

Robinson had made his decision the afternoon of May 29. He just kept it to himself.

“It’s funny because I had worked out the day of the deadline in Milwaukee,” he said. “And I got to the airport and called my mom. And it had taken me a couple hours before I figured out exactly what I wanted to do. But once I decided, I knew it was Kentucky. And we figured it out pretty quickly.”

His flight was at 5 p.m. that day, and he finalized his decision before getting on the plane. Robinson flew home, went about his business and went to bed.

Meanwhile, BBN waited.

“I was focused on myself in the moment. Just trying to figure out everything on my end,” he said, noting that he stayed away from social media during that time, then chuckling at the realization of just how big a deal it became. “It’s just crazy how it worked out. Just seeing everything afterward, it was wild. I tried to stay off my phone during that period.”

A little after noon on May 30, the report came that Robinson had not only pulled his name out of the NBA draft but committed to Kentucky. A double-shot of good news for UK, and Robinson’s first real glimpse at just how passionate his new fan base was going to be.

“Yeah, it was an eye-opener, for sure,” he said, sitting in an office in the Joe Craft Center nearly two months later. “Just seeing the love that BBN showed. Like, from the beginning. Even when I just hopped in the portal. It was amazing.

“It meant a lot. You know, just knowing a prestigious place like Kentucky — all the fans were calling my name. It’s kind of crazy just to think about, because I looked up to this place when I was a little kid. … So it’s surreal just to be here. Even just today, I’m just blessed to be sitting in this chair.”

What’s next for Jaxson Robinson?

Now that he’s here, Robinson is “locked in” — a phrase he used several times over the course of a 30-minute interview with the Herald-Leader — on his one season as a Kentucky Wildcat.

He said the NBA draft process cemented the confidence that he can play at that level — “I think it just opened my eyes to realize that I belong” — while also showing him what he can do better to improve his stock over the next several months.

Robinson, who measured at 6-foot-4.75 with a 6-11.25 wingspan at the NBA combine, said defense will need to be his biggest area of improvement. He wants to become a better rebounder and play a more aggressive style, in general.

“I know what I came here to do,” he said. “So just make sure that I’m setting myself up for good shots, also getting my teammates involved and just making sure everybody’s on the same page. It starts with leadership, and that’s what I’m here to do.”

Leading a team will be something new. Asked if he’d been a vocal leader in the past, Robinson smiled and shook his head immediately.

“No. I’m very introverted, actually,” he said. “It’s a new area for me, but I took on the role a little bit last year. I think the leadership role was a little spread out throughout the team. But here, I mean, I came in knowing I got to lead these guys. Just knowing that I’m the only person that came with Coach Pope that’s been on the floor. So it’s my duty to step up and help teach my teammates. And not even just my teammates, my coaches.”

None of UK’s 12 scholarship players has played for the Wildcats. Like Robinson said, he’s the only one who was at BYU last season. And of Pope’s five assistants, Fueger is the only one who has served on one of his coaching staffs.

“A lot of my coaches still come up to me and ask for advice — just trying to learn the ropes of how Coach Pope thinks and what he wants to see out of not only the players, but the coaches also,” Robinson said.

He might be a quiet guy, but his voice is resonating. From the freshmen to the fifth-year players, pretty much all of the Wildcats say they’ve been looking to Robinson for advice.

“He’ll get us in the huddle,” said Collin Chandler, a highly touted freshman who’s getting reacquainted with the game after spending two years overseas on a Mormon mission. “He’s been playing this style of basketball for two years. And so these things are things that have been implemented, things that are in his nature. And so learning from him has been great.”

“I’ll go to the side, ask him questions,” added Lamont Butler, a fifth-year senior who has emerged as a vocal leader this summer. “Because he knows — he’s been in this offense and knows how Coach Pope runs things. So he’s been great, just helping me and helping other guys, as well. He’s been a good voice for us.”

That’s what Pope and Fueger will like to hear. Such comments would have seemed unlikely just two short years ago, but getting Robinson out in front of this group could be a key ingredient to success once the real games begin.

Fueger has been at Pope’s side for all nine of his previous seasons as a head coach. He said that when the duo made the transition from Utah Valley to BYU five years ago, they brought a veteran player along with them. That was Jake Toolson, who had been the WAC’s player of the year at Utah Valley and ended up being a first-team all-league selection on Pope’s first BYU team.

“Jake came in, and it was the very same situation as Jaxson Robinson,” Fueger said. “This dude came in and he’s like, ‘I know this. I know that.’ It became a player-led team that first year at BYU, and that’s our goal this year with Jaxson Robinson. He’s going to come here and lead. And Kerr Kriisa. And Lamont. And all seven of these seniors — all those guys. We want them all to lead. And that’s what made that first year at BYU so special. That’s our goal here.”

There’s a certain freshness to everything about UK basketball at the moment. New faces everywhere you look in the Craft Center, even if the ultimate team goals remain the same as they’ve always been in Lexington.

Robinson is still adjusting. The Wildcats’ summer practice sessions are ongoing. The UK basketball fishbowl takes some getting used to. But after spending the first two years of his college basketball career searching for a sense of belonging, Robinson doesn’t need to look for that anymore.

And even though everyone around him is new to UK basketball, too, he’s already feeling a sense of shared responsibilities and special possibilities.

“I think everybody here knows what we’re here for, which is to win a championship,” he said. “And I think Coach Pope already expects that of us. So there hasn’t been much — there’s been discussion about, like, obviously we want to win, what we need to do to do it. But Coach Pope knows that we already know that, so there’s not a lot of motivation needed in that area.

“I think that’s something that’s really new for me, that’s really exciting for this team — just because I haven’t had that. But I just feel like everybody has the same common goal, and we’re all locked in, ready to get out and play.”

This college basketball journey got off to a bumpy start. But looking back at a high school reclassification, two tough years and three transfers, Robinson said he wouldn’t change a thing.

“I mean, here we are,” he said, gesturing around a room filled with reminders that he’s now a Kentucky Wildcat. “No regrets. Everything that I’ve been through, I went through it for a reason. God put me here for a reason.”

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