Torrance High Guard Proves a Top Gun on Varsity, Too : Prep Basketball: Critics said Rick Robison would have a tough time scoring when he graduated to the varsity ranks. Well, as a junior he averaged 28.6 points a game and is averaging 34 as a senior.

When Rick Robison was on the freshman basketball team at Torrance High, he averaged 24 points a game.

Big deal, observers said, he’s just playing against freshmen.

As a sophomore on the junior varsity squad, Robison averaged 26 points, but once again he heard the critics: The skinny guard would wilt against varsity competition.

Robison didn’t wilt, he blossomed. The sharpshooter averaged 28.6 points, 10th highest in the state, and was named to the All-CIF Southern Section Division II first team. Touted Ed O’Bannon of Artesia was the only other junior on that team, which included the state’s all-time leading scorer, Tracy Murray of Glendora, now at UCLA, and Harold Miner of Inglewood, now at USC.

Despite his heroics as a junior, the 6-foot-2 Robison is hearing the criticism again. He’s too small, he’s too slow, and he won’t be able to score now that everyone is prepared to stop him.

“Every year people say he won’t score, but every year he keeps on doing it,” Torrance point guard Mike Sebaugh said.

Robison is doing it again. The wiry 17-year-old averaged 34 points in the first nine games, tops in the South Bay and ranking him among the leaders in the Southern Section.

“I worked real hard during the summer,” Robison said when asked to explain the scoring increase.

“There is no doubt in my mind that his life revolves around basketball,” Torrance Coach Bob Little said.

Little said Robison scores in an offense that is not designed for him, unlike last season. “He gets everything off our regular offense,” Little said “He has the same opportunity to score as the other players do. We have no set plays for him.”

This is difficult to believe watching Torrance play. In the semifinals of the Torrance Holiday Classic against Narbonne last week, Robison sparked a third-quarter comeback by scoring 10 points in the period.

Every time he touched the ball, it seemed, it was fired toward the basket. And it usually went in. He took a pass off a fast break from Frank Tamashiro, pulled up four feet beyond the three-point line and buried a 23-footer. The next time he touched the ball he broke away after a steal, drove the length of the court and slam-dunked to the amazement of the crowd.

Granted, the dunk wasn’t of the gravity-defying, backboard-breaking variety, but it was a slam. “He’s real competitive,” Sebaugh said. “When he gets into it, he fires everybody up.”

Ironically, Robison’s lowest point total of the year, 22, came in the same Narbonne game when he was held scoreless in the fourth quarter. Torrance lost, 77-66.

Robison said the offense doesn’t have to focus on him, but he’s not shy about shooting: “If I feel I can make it, I take the shot.”

Most teams play Torrance man-to-man and frequently double-team Robison. “I like when they play man-to-man because if they double team, there will always be a man open.”

That unselfish attitude makes Robison, who averages five assists a game, a favorite among teammates. “There is a very good climate on the team with Ricky and the other guys,” Little said. “They enjoy watching him play.”

Opposing coaches aren’t so fond of Robison, but they admire his ability. North Torrance Coach Jim Nielsen watched Robison riddle his team for 37 points in Torrance’s victory over the Saxons in the third-place game of the Torrance Holiday Classic.

“He’s a tremendous talent,” Nielsen said. “He can shoot the ball. He is a pure scorer and a great foul shooter.”

Foul shooting is one of the keys to Robison’s scoring. Anybody who takes a lot of shots is fouled a great deal, and Robison has capitalized. He is shooting 90% from the line, averaging 12 points a game just in that category.

The next step in Robison’s development would be an offense that is designed to get him shots. “I’ve been thinking about it,” Little said. “We’ll probably have something installed by the second round of the league season.”

Who knows what Robison could score in an offense designed for him, considering what he has done so far. He opened the season by scoring 23, 28, 39, 41 and 52 points. The 52-point game came against Huntington Beach in an Orange County tournament. “After he kept going up like that, I thought, ‘Geez, what will happen next?’ ” Little said.

Robison has cooled off to his torrid 34-point average, but his thoughts at this time are with the team: “I hope to go at least as far as we did last year.”

As a junior, he led the Tartars to a third-place Bay League finish and a quarterfinal appearance in the Southern Section 4-AA playoffs.

Robison hopes to earn an athletic scholarship to play college basketball. He has a college-qualifying score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Oregon State and UC Irvine have shown interest, but some believe that Robison’s game is not complete for college play.

“I think he’s as good a scorer that has been around (the South Bay) in a long time,” said Nielsen, a standout at North High and Washington State. “But college is tough. He’s a little small. I don’t know if he’s physically strong enough. But he’s proven people wrong before. If I was a college recruiter, I’d look at him. And if I needed a shooter, I’d recruit him.”

Robison acknowledges that his defense needs to improve as well as his size. He packs only 165 pounds on his 6-2 frame, but he’s working on it. “I’m lifting weights and working out,” he said. “I also eat anything I can.”

Presently, Robison is eating up defenses and ignoring the critics.

Teammate Sebaugh has known Robison since the eighth grade and knows not to listen to the naysayers.

“I’ve heard what Rick can’t do,” Sebaugh said. “But I have learned not to put any limits on him.”