Coming into the season, it was expected that we would see more of a scoring role from Pitt’s junior point guard James Robinson.
That hasn’t exactly happened.
With the Panthers in the middle of a brutal part of their schedule for the next month or so, it goes without saying that if Pitt is to have a chance at reaching the NCAA Tournament, they need a lot more from Robinson.
The DeMatha Catholic High School product has long been one of the more underappreciated point guards in the nation. He’s coming off a sophomore campaign that saw Robinson rank among national leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio.
Coming into this season, Robinson owns a 3.43 career assist-to-turnover ratio, which currently ranks No. 1 in school history. He also has started 68 of 69 career games and in only five of those games coming into this has Robinson registered more turnovers than assists.
That part of his game is still there as Robinson is averaging a career-high 4.7 assists per game this season and is a true leader on the floor for the Panthers.
But he hasn’t developed as a scorer in the fashion that many would have hoped for and given Pitt’s problems scoring the ball as a team, they need more offensively from Robinson.
On the season Pitt is shooting just 44 percent from the floor, good for 150th in the nation. They are also struggling from behind the arc, shooting just 32.9 percent from three-point range, good for only 217th in the nation.
The loss of Durand Johnson certainly hurts in that department, as does Cameron Wright not being completely healthy.
That also makes the importance of Robinson stepping up as a scorer even greater.
He showed signs last season of being able to do so.
As a sophomore Robinson shot a career-high 40.1 percent from the floor and 34.3 percent from behind the arc.
Those numbers have taken a major hit this season.
While on the surface it may look like Robinson is having a solid season, averaging career highs in points (9.7), rebounds (3.7) and assists, he needs to be much better in terms of shooting the ball.
Robinson has the ability to both keep his teammates involved and look for his own shot, but that shot simply hasn’t been falling and it is adding to the Panthers offensive woes.
He’s coming off a brutal 1-of-8 performance from the floor in Monday’s loss to Duke. That just adds to a poor three-game stretch in which Robinson has made only 3-of-20 (15 percent) shots from the floor.
Take that back even further and in the past five games, all ACC contests, Robinson has made only 8-of-36 (22.2 percent) field goal attempts.
On the season Robinson is shooting career-lows of 36.5 percent from the floor and a mere 24 percent from behind the arc.
Simply put, that isn’t going to cut it the rest of the way.
Being such a young team, Jamie Dixon and the Panthers need more from their junior leader.
After every game, when Dixon talks about the Panthers shooting struggles, he notes that the team is taking good shots, they just aren’t making them.
That’s especially true in the case of Robinson, who for the most part is taking open jumpers.
He has to start knocking them down and start doing so rather quickly.
If he doesn’t, Pitt will likely be on the outside looking in when March rolls around.
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
