Photo by: Jivan West
Robinson On The Mend, Hopes To Return Soon From Knee Injury
July 13, 2017 | Women's Basketball
The junior-to-be tore her ACL in March in the second round of the Women's NIT
BOULDER – She was chasing a defender around a screen, a simple, non-contact routine that she's done thousands of times in her life. When she planted, she felt a pop.
"My immediate reaction was there was definitely something wrong when it popped, but I didn't know what it was. And I didn't want to believe it, but I knew something was wrong."
Alexis Robinson had torn her anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee the day before the Buffs were set to face South Dakota State in the second round of the Women's NIT in March.
It is an injury that has become increasingly common, especially in women's sports, but nonetheless, was a new experience for Robinson.
"I've never been injured before, besides sprained ankles, but everyone gets those," she said. "I just thought if something's wrong with it, I'm going to put a brace on it and see if I can go still."
While she refused to believe the initial diagnosis, playing at SDSU was not an option. When the team returned to Boulder from Brookings, South Dakota, after their overtime road win against the Jackrabbits, the MRI confirmed that she had a torn ACL.
Despite the setback this spring and summer, Robinson has remained upbeat and rehabbed as hard as she can with a goal of returning for the 2017-18 season. There are no guarantees, however, and it is not yet possible to speculate on when she will be able to practice 100 percent again.
On The Road To Recovery
So far her rehab is ahead of schedule, according to the coaching staff. She has been limited to upper-body weight lifting outside of her knee rehab, but expects to be able to start shooting soon.
"Everything [so far with knee rehab] is stationary," Robinson said. "I'm just doing a lot strengthening stuff because I've got most my range of motion back now."
Head coach JR Payne has seen the recovery process from players before in her career and knows that Robinson is on track for a full recovery if she continues to stick to the rehab plan. She also thinks that Robinson can become an even better shooter in the process.
"It's all step-by-step," Payne said. "There's a time when she can't do anything so that's a time when all she can do is sit in a chair and do ball-handling drills. And then when you can do form shooting, you can shoot, but you can't jump. So it's all technique and things like that. Once you can jump a little bit, you can shoot, but you can't cut. It's all a step-by-step process. She desperately wants to be on the floor, so for us as a coaching staff, it's important to make sure she's doing what she's supposed to do and not jumping ahead too quickly. She's already a great shooter, but for the next couple months, she's going to be doing a lot of shooting because she won't be allowed to cut and defend. I think we're going to see even a raised level of shooting percentages. A lot of times when we see people tear their knee, they become a better shooter because that's all they can do for a long time."
Mental Practice
Another area Robinson has been able to work on is the mental aspect of the game. She's watched film over the summer and plans to watch even more now that she's back on campus with her coaches and teammates for summer school. Earlier this summer, Payne sent her clips of NBA Most Valuable Player Russell Westbrook, seeing similarities in their games and athleticism.
"Obviously he's an extreme example," Payne said, "but I said to her, 'you're the only player that has this level of athleticism and explosiveness. You need to watch how he utilizes that type of athleticism." He's also a very good shooter [like Robinson], but he's not a jump shooter; he's a scorer. He utilizes that athleticism and aggressiveness to make things out of nothing because he has the athleticism to do it. Not everybody has that."
A Sophomore Surge
While players often endure sophomore slumps in their second year of college, that was not the case for Robinson in 2016-17. She raised her scoring average four points to 11.4 and also improved her rebounds and assists. Most impressively, she more than doubled her total in steals from her freshman year, up to 63 as a sophomore from 25 in 2015-16. She also led the team in 3-point field goals and hit at a 35 percent rate from the outside.
Payne has seen glimpses of an elite defender in Robinson, but says she still needs more consistency in that area.
"I think some of it is instinct, some of it is athleticism," Payne said of Robinson's potential on defense. "If she really is in a stance and wants to defend somebody, I don't know anybody that could get by her because she is that athletic. And she's also relatively long so she can defend a variety of positions. And she's quick enough to get to spaces quickly and to defend without fouling."
Her breakout performance on the defensive end actually came her freshman year when she matched up with the NCAA's all-time leading scorer Kelsey Plum and "limited" her to 18 points on 6-of-16 shooting with five turnovers. Plum averaged 26 points that season.
Robinson prepares herself in a unique way to guard opposing players. She tells herself they are trash-talking her.
"If I know I'm getting ready to guard a really good player, I just kind of take it personally," Robinson said. "I talk to myself in my mind, like they're talking smack to me. I enjoy guarding the other team's best player. I'd rather guard the best player than any other player on their team."
But the consistency to guard at that level every night has been a challenge for a young player like Robinson, who was not asked of much on the defensive end before college.
"[Giving great effort on defense] is definitely one pretty big difference, especially from high school," Robinson said. "In high school, you can just get away with not playing defense and standing straight-legged. AAU, it might be a little harder. We had a coach that really preached defense as well so it was quite a transition, but not too much of a transition."
Payne says if Robinson can continue to have the drive that she had the night against Plum and the University of Washington from her freshman year, she can be great.
A Fall 2017 Return Is Possible
For now as she is rehabbing her knee, all she can do to work on defense is to take mental reps and watch film. The goal is to have Robinson back for the 2017-18 season when practice starts in October, but while she is ahead of schedule with her recovery, it is too early to say if she will be ready to go at that time.
Payne hopes to have her back because she knows a lineup without Robinson is not as strong as a lineup with Robinson.
"She's one of our best players, a great leader," Payne said. "She brought good emotion and played a ton of minutes. She was just such an important player on the floor for us that in the moment [when she went down with the injury], you don't know how you're going to be able to replace that."
There is no question Robinson is a big part of CU's near future. The goal for her, the coaching staff and the support staff is to get her back on the floor for this season as the Buffs continue to build on the success from Payne's first season as head coach in Boulder.
"My immediate reaction was there was definitely something wrong when it popped, but I didn't know what it was. And I didn't want to believe it, but I knew something was wrong."
Alexis Robinson had torn her anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee the day before the Buffs were set to face South Dakota State in the second round of the Women's NIT in March.
It is an injury that has become increasingly common, especially in women's sports, but nonetheless, was a new experience for Robinson.
"I've never been injured before, besides sprained ankles, but everyone gets those," she said. "I just thought if something's wrong with it, I'm going to put a brace on it and see if I can go still."
While she refused to believe the initial diagnosis, playing at SDSU was not an option. When the team returned to Boulder from Brookings, South Dakota, after their overtime road win against the Jackrabbits, the MRI confirmed that she had a torn ACL.
Despite the setback this spring and summer, Robinson has remained upbeat and rehabbed as hard as she can with a goal of returning for the 2017-18 season. There are no guarantees, however, and it is not yet possible to speculate on when she will be able to practice 100 percent again.
On The Road To Recovery
So far her rehab is ahead of schedule, according to the coaching staff. She has been limited to upper-body weight lifting outside of her knee rehab, but expects to be able to start shooting soon.
"Everything [so far with knee rehab] is stationary," Robinson said. "I'm just doing a lot strengthening stuff because I've got most my range of motion back now."
Head coach JR Payne has seen the recovery process from players before in her career and knows that Robinson is on track for a full recovery if she continues to stick to the rehab plan. She also thinks that Robinson can become an even better shooter in the process.
"It's all step-by-step," Payne said. "There's a time when she can't do anything so that's a time when all she can do is sit in a chair and do ball-handling drills. And then when you can do form shooting, you can shoot, but you can't jump. So it's all technique and things like that. Once you can jump a little bit, you can shoot, but you can't cut. It's all a step-by-step process. She desperately wants to be on the floor, so for us as a coaching staff, it's important to make sure she's doing what she's supposed to do and not jumping ahead too quickly. She's already a great shooter, but for the next couple months, she's going to be doing a lot of shooting because she won't be allowed to cut and defend. I think we're going to see even a raised level of shooting percentages. A lot of times when we see people tear their knee, they become a better shooter because that's all they can do for a long time."
Mental Practice
Another area Robinson has been able to work on is the mental aspect of the game. She's watched film over the summer and plans to watch even more now that she's back on campus with her coaches and teammates for summer school. Earlier this summer, Payne sent her clips of NBA Most Valuable Player Russell Westbrook, seeing similarities in their games and athleticism.
"Obviously he's an extreme example," Payne said, "but I said to her, 'you're the only player that has this level of athleticism and explosiveness. You need to watch how he utilizes that type of athleticism." He's also a very good shooter [like Robinson], but he's not a jump shooter; he's a scorer. He utilizes that athleticism and aggressiveness to make things out of nothing because he has the athleticism to do it. Not everybody has that."
A Sophomore Surge
While players often endure sophomore slumps in their second year of college, that was not the case for Robinson in 2016-17. She raised her scoring average four points to 11.4 and also improved her rebounds and assists. Most impressively, she more than doubled her total in steals from her freshman year, up to 63 as a sophomore from 25 in 2015-16. She also led the team in 3-point field goals and hit at a 35 percent rate from the outside.
Payne has seen glimpses of an elite defender in Robinson, but says she still needs more consistency in that area.
"I think some of it is instinct, some of it is athleticism," Payne said of Robinson's potential on defense. "If she really is in a stance and wants to defend somebody, I don't know anybody that could get by her because she is that athletic. And she's also relatively long so she can defend a variety of positions. And she's quick enough to get to spaces quickly and to defend without fouling."
Her breakout performance on the defensive end actually came her freshman year when she matched up with the NCAA's all-time leading scorer Kelsey Plum and "limited" her to 18 points on 6-of-16 shooting with five turnovers. Plum averaged 26 points that season.
Robinson prepares herself in a unique way to guard opposing players. She tells herself they are trash-talking her.
"If I know I'm getting ready to guard a really good player, I just kind of take it personally," Robinson said. "I talk to myself in my mind, like they're talking smack to me. I enjoy guarding the other team's best player. I'd rather guard the best player than any other player on their team."
But the consistency to guard at that level every night has been a challenge for a young player like Robinson, who was not asked of much on the defensive end before college.
"[Giving great effort on defense] is definitely one pretty big difference, especially from high school," Robinson said. "In high school, you can just get away with not playing defense and standing straight-legged. AAU, it might be a little harder. We had a coach that really preached defense as well so it was quite a transition, but not too much of a transition."
Payne says if Robinson can continue to have the drive that she had the night against Plum and the University of Washington from her freshman year, she can be great.
A Fall 2017 Return Is Possible
For now as she is rehabbing her knee, all she can do to work on defense is to take mental reps and watch film. The goal is to have Robinson back for the 2017-18 season when practice starts in October, but while she is ahead of schedule with her recovery, it is too early to say if she will be ready to go at that time.
Payne hopes to have her back because she knows a lineup without Robinson is not as strong as a lineup with Robinson.
"She's one of our best players, a great leader," Payne said. "She brought good emotion and played a ton of minutes. She was just such an important player on the floor for us that in the moment [when she went down with the injury], you don't know how you're going to be able to replace that."
There is no question Robinson is a big part of CU's near future. The goal for her, the coaching staff and the support staff is to get her back on the floor for this season as the Buffs continue to build on the success from Payne's first season as head coach in Boulder.
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