Robinson Has Winning Numbers

It is somewhat appropriate that the last grade Wendell Robinson had to sweat out before he was eligible came from a class in probability and statistics.

As of last summer, Robinson appeared headed into academic oblivion instead of his senior season on the UC Irvine men’s basketball team. As of last week, the Anteaters’ statistics from the inside players have improved.

Robinson’s return from academic purgatory may have been the team’s biggest victory this season. How bad off was he?

Two summer school sessions failed to make him eligible. It took another quarter, costing him six games. Robinson accepts full blame, refusing to use last year’s turmoil--the firing of Coach Rod Baker, etc.--as an excuse.

“Basically, I was being lazy,” Robinson said. “That’s the only way I can put it. I was lazy in the classroom.”

No one is allowed to be lazy in the Anteater program these days.

Robinson learned it first hand. Coach Pat Douglass banned him from practice this fall until his grades were improved. He was allowed back a month ago.

He didn’t receive final clearance to play until Dec. 18, the day of the Portland game.

The way Douglass and his staff were acting, you would have thought they were awaiting David, not Wendell, Robinson. That says plenty about the state of the Anteaters’ inside game.

It has improved some since the return of Robinson and forward Matt Willard.

Robinson had 17 points and nine rebounds in a 67-61 victory over Portland. He followed that with adequate games against Northern Arizona and Nevada Las Vegas.

Robinson had four points, a rebound and a steal in the first two minutes against Northern Arizona. He finished with six points and five rebounds. He also started quickly against Las Vegas, blocking a shot by 6-foot-9, 250-pound Kaspars Kambala on the Rebels’ first possession. Robinson finished with six points and three rebounds.

He is averaging 9.7 points and 5.7 rebounds. Not the type of numbers that will get palm fronds tossed in his path, but the Anteaters had been receiving virtually nothing before his and Willard’s return.

“It seemed like I sat out the whole season,” Robinson said. “This was my last season that I’m ever going to play college basketball. I let my teammates down because I could have been out there contributing. We could have four or five wins right now.”

But a bigger victory, Robinson said, is still to come.

“Right now, I’m on track to graduate in another year,” he said. “I took this opportunity for granted, now I have to take advantage of it. I realize that now.”

*

With the World Cup this summer, it is a good time to go to Anteater soccer coach--and former professional goalkeeper--Marine Cano for a story.

Said Cano: “My first year as a soccer player, I was 9 years old, and I made the all-star team. We played this other team that was supposed to be unbelievable at the Coliseum, right before a match between Santos [Brazil] and Chivas [Mexico]. There must have been 300 people in the stands when our game started and 60,000 when it was over.

“I was under a lot of pressure and making a lot of saves. Meanwhile, Santos was warming up behind our goal. I made a save near the post and I remember looking up and seeing these huge thighs. It was Pele. In broken English, I heard, ‘Good save goalkeeper.’ I got so excited, that I punted the ball straight in the air and made the save again, just so he would talk to me again.

“When the game ended, Pele and Edu, another big-time player, both gave me hug and said, ‘great game’ because we had won, 1-0. I sprinted to the locker room, didn’t take a shower, grabbed my bag, blew off the coach, and ran straight up to the stands to ask my mom and family if they saw Pele hug me. The game started and, in the first 10 seconds, Pele dribbled through everybody and scored. I remember the crowd cheering, and I was yelling, ‘He hugged me, he hugged me, he hugged me.’ That was the start of my passion for the game.”

Finally, everyone knows who to blame. Pele.