For some reason there’s this stigma around Division 3 basketball and that the players are nothing special since it’s not D1 and essentially is just glorified high school basketball. Now I don’t know about y’all but I’m forsure getting 11-0 by 95% of D3 players, but I also am considerably worse than your average hooper so take it with a grain of salt. Unlike the NBA or Division 1, Division 3 isn’t built around freaks of nature built in science labs but rather hours of hard work and practice. And I’m not saying higher levels don’t work as hard because that’s absurd but players like Zion and Lebron you can’t exactly teach or train being 6’9 250 or having a 45 inch vertical at 6’6 280 at 18. The Division 3 scene is filled with white boys who know how to shoot a la the most famous one Jack Taylor who had two separate 100 point games, a 109 game and a 138 game, however, today I want to talk about one who has been a little bit more successful in his basketball journey, Duncan Robinson.
Although players like Steph Curry and Russell Westbrook were 3 stars and Damian Lillard or Paul George were 2 stars coming out of high school they still all had 5+ offers from various D1 schools. On the other hand, Duncan Robinson’s offers list isn’t exactly a hard one to read. Coming into high school Robinson stood at a mighty 5’6 and attended The Governor’s Academy just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. At first Duncan Robinson may not have had the insane shooting skill coming into high school but the dude had a straight up bag on him as the average tuition price for Governor’s Academy is $65,800 before any financial aid. By the time Robinson was set to graduate he had grown all the way to 6’7 and worked from the bench to 18.5 ppg his senior season but it still wasn’t good enough. Robinson may have no longer been a straight scrub but it wasn’t enough to land him an offer from any school, let alone a D1 program. Rather than opt to attempt to walk on at the D1 level he chose a Postgraduate Year at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire.
In his one year at Phillips Exteter he led the team to a 28-1 record as well as a Class A League Title and a All-League first team appearance. After his successful season he had grown his scholarship offers from a lowly 0 to a staggering and enormous 1 offer, from Williams College, a Division III Liberal Arts school located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In 5 years of high school basketball he had amassed 1 scholarship and it seemed his D1 dreams were over, at least until he stepped onto the court for Williams. In 32 GP that year Robinson averaged 17.1 PPG and 6.5 RPG on 56-45-88 Splits while leading Williams to a 28-5 record and a National Championship Appearance. Still chasing that D1 Dream, former assistant to John Beilen at West Virginia and now Williams Head Coach Mike Maker sent Beilen Robinson’s tape and offered Robinson a full-ride scholarship at Michigan. As far as I could find as well as most websites agreeing, he is likely the first D3 player ever to transfer to D1 and receive a full scholarship.
At Michigan Robinson didn’t exactly set the world on fire but he did prove one thing; he could shoot that mfer like nobody else. In only 3 years at Michigan Robinson finished 4th All-Time in Michigan 3PT Leaders and 39th in the Big Ten despite only playing 25 minutes per game. Besides for the 3PT barrages Robinson had a pretty uneventful Michigan Career and only only scored 42 points in the 7 game national championship run. Unsurprisingly enough his career averages of 9.1 points and 2.6 rebounds weren’t enough to earn the radar of NBA scouts and he went undrafted. If Robinson’s career had ended there it would’ve been successful enough going D3 to the full-ride National Championship game, but the Miami Heat had other ideas.
After signing a summer league contract with the team Duncan Robinson went berserk during that run. In his 7 summer league appearances he shot unconsciously shooting 55% from 3, higher than his 52% overall from the field on 12.1 ppg. Robinson played well-enough to earn himself a two-way contract with the team and he has never looked back since. Although he played sparingly with the main roster he proved himself with the Sioux Falls Skyforce last season. In 33 games he averaged 21.4 PPG, 4.3 RPG and 3APG on 48% from three and holds the record 69.4 TS% all-time for the G-League as well as being named All-Rookie First Team and All-NBDL 3rd team. In the 15 games he played with the Miami Heat he showcased what type of player he is and attempted 46 shots total, 35 of them from being behind the arc.
In this past shortened season it’s been the same story, different season. Out of the 639 shots Robinson has taken a mind-boggling 565, or in other words 88% of them have been from behind the arc. How does that Bruce Lee quote go something like not to fear the dude who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the dude who has practiced one kick 10,000 times, it describes Robinson in a nutshell. It’s a testament to how lethal his shooting has been as people know someone like Giannis is gonna drive to the rim but his strength is overpowering but they know Robinson is pulling from three but no matter the coverage or lack of balance it still goes in. Pull up dictionary.com and type in Catch and Shoot and a picture of Duncan Robinson has to pop up this season he has taken 76% of shots from Catch and Shoot, 82% off 0 dribbles, and 88% of shots less than 2 seconds. It took him just 63 games played to break the Heat Single Season Record in 3’s this year and has averaged 13.3 PPG and 3.2 RPG on 47-45-92 splits. Even if Robinson never transforms any other facets of his game he will always have a spot in the NBA due to his elite shooting.
The Closeout 