Duncan Robinson
Duncan McBryde Robinson is an American professional basketball player for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for the NCAA Division III Williams College Ephs and then the NCAA Division I Michigan Wolverines. He transferred to Michigan after leading Williams College to the 2014 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament championship game. At Michigan, he was part of the 2017–18 team that lost to Villanova in the championship game of the 2018 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
Robinson led the Big Ten Conference in three-point shooting percentage from the beginning of conference play in December 2015 until early February 2016. In his three-year career at Michigan, he was a member of conference tournament champions in 2017 and 2018. Robinson was the 2018 Big Ten Conference Sixth Man of the Year. After going undrafted in the 2018 NBA draft, Robinson signed with the Miami Heat. Robinson set numerous three-point shot records during his tenure with the Heat and helped Miami reach the NBA Finals in 2020 and 2023. He is the only player from Williams College to ever play in the NBA.
Early life
Born April 22, 1994, in York, Maine, Robinson is the son of Elisabeth and Jeffrey Robinson and the youngest of their three children. He is part Hawaiian on his mother's side. Robinson grew up in the town of New Castle, New Hampshire, where his Maude H. Trefethen Elementary School 6th grade graduating class was composed of just four students.High school career
Robinson attended Rye Junior High School and elected to attend The Governor's Academy in Massachusetts rather than Portsmouth High School, which is the public high school for students in New Castle.Robinson began his freshman season as a point guard for The Governor's Academy in 2008, but did not play much until he became "serviceable" as a junior. In his early years, he practiced shooting for hours, attempting to make 1,600 shots per week. Robinson started working with trainer Noah LaRoche during his junior season. After averaging 18.5 points as a senior at The Governor's Academy, he was selected to the 2012 All-NEPSAC Class B first team and the 2012 All-Independent School League team. He graduated with a 3.55 G.P.A.
Following his senior season, Robinson played on the spring and summer Amateur Athletic Union circuit and did a postgraduate year at Phillips Exeter Academy in order to increase his college prospects. He led Exeter to a 28-1 record, ending on an 18-game win streak that included the NEPSAC Class A title. Robinson posted 24 points and 10 rebounds in the championship game, earning the Tournament MVP in addition to 2013 New England Preparatory School Athletic Council Class A All-League first team honors. Robinson played for Michael Crotty Jr.'s Middlesex Magic AAU team. Crotty had been a two-time All-American at Williams College, having served as point guard for the 2003 NCAA Division III Tournament champions. Following his senior season, Robinson measured and. By the end of the summer, he had grown to and.
During the last weekend of September 2012 while on a campus visit, Division III Williams made Robinson an offer that he accepted immediately. At the time, Williams was ranked the number one liberal arts college in the country according to U.S. News & World Report, and the school was a Division III basketball powerhouse. They had gone 93–22 over the prior four seasons under head coach Mike Maker. In 2013, Robinson led Phillips Exeter Academy to its first NEPSAC Class A championship victory on March 10 against Choate Rosemary Hall with a 24-point, 10-rebound MVP performance. Exeter finished the season at 28–1. Nonetheless, his only scholarship offer was from NCAA Division II's Merrimack College. He also had interest from Division I Brown Bears and Columbia Lions as well as Division III Bates College and Amherst College.
College career
Williams College
Prior to the November 15, 2013, season opener against Southern Vermont College, Williams was ranked third among Division III teams according to the preseason poll. Williams lost in the shadow of a home court scheduling conflict despite 5–6 shooting by Robinson. Robinson became the only freshman starter in Maker's six-year tenure as head coach at Williams. In his 2013–14 freshman season at Williams, Robinson was twice named New England Small College Athletic Conference Player of the Week during the regular season. Williams reached the 2014 NCAA Men's Division III basketball tournament championship game, but fell 75–73 to University of Wisconsin–Whitewater as Robinson scored 17 points. After Williams took a one-point lead with 4.9 seconds left, Wisconsin pushed the ball upcourt without calling time-out to score the winning basket in what Chris Strauss of USA Today described as the best NCAA basketball tournament game of the weekend. Robinson had posted 30 points in the tournament semifinals against bitter rival Amherst College who had defeated Williams in the season's three previous meetings. Williams finished the season with a 28–5 record. That season, he set school records for single-season minutes played 1,110 minutes and freshman-season points scored. As a freshman, he led the NECSAC in 3-point field goal percentage and minutes played, while ranking 2nd in minute per game. In conference games, Robinson led the conference in 3-point field goal percentage and 3-point shots made per game. Following the season, he was the NESCAC Rookie of the Year and a Second Team All-NESCAC selection. Robinson became Williams' first freshman to be named All-American, first D3Hoops.com National Rookie of the Year, first freshman NCAA All-Tournament Team selection and first freshman 500-point scorer.Following the 2013–14 season, Maker left Williams to become the head coach for the Marist Red Foxes. Robinson was immediately contacted by schools from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, Atlantic 10, Ivy League, Patriot League and America East conferences. Among the schools that were interested were Creighton, Boston College and Providence. After his freshman success, he had decided that he would only leave Williams to play for a winning program that was an elite academic institution and that used a system and style that he had become used to. Robinson had played against Nik Stauskas in NEPSAC play and was impressed with how Michigan's John Beilein had developed "under-recruited players" such as Stauskas who was a 1st round selection in the 2014 NBA draft. Maker had been an assistant coach for Beilein at West Virginia from 2005 to 2007. At both Exeter and Williams, Robinson had played in systems that were similar to the one that Beilein runs at Michigan. Robinson asked Maker to contact Beilein who on faith replied that Michigan may have interest at the preferred walk-on level. Robinson was not interested in walk-on consideration given competing scholarship offers. A week later, after seeing video, Beilein said Michigan was considering a scholarship offer. Robinson scheduled visits to Michigan and new Atlantic 10 member Davidson. After the visit to Michigan, Robinson committed to the school. He announced his decision via Twitter on August 6, 2014.
University of Michigan
Sophomore season
Besides Bob McCann, who transferred from Division III Upsala College to Morehead State University after his freshman season, Robinson is the only other player to transfer from Division III to Division I with a full scholarship, according to some sources. During the 2014–15 NCAA Division I season, Robinson redshirted for the Michigan Wolverines, meaning that he could not participate in games, but could practice with the team. In December 2014 with assistant coach Jeff Meyer as his rebounder, Robinson broke Stauskas' Michigan Wolverines practice record for three-pointers in a drill by posting 78, surpassing Stauskas by three.In Robinson's second game for the 2015–16 Michigan Wolverines, he posted 19 points on 6–6 shooting from the floor against Elon on November 16, 2015. On December 1, in the ACC–Big Ten Challenge against NC State, he posted 17 points on 5-7 three-point shooting, which established a Michigan record for single ACC-B1G game 3-point shooting percentage. On December 12, Michigan defeated Delaware State 80–33, as Robinson made his first career start for Michigan by posting 11 points on 3–5 three-point shooting. At the time, Robinson ranked third in the nation in three-point shooting percentage. Note that various sources have various eligibility thresholds. E.g., while BigTen.org only requires a minimum of 1.0 made per game, NCAA.org requires a minimum of 2.5 made per game. On December 23, Robinson tied his career high with six assists against Bryant. The game marked the ninth consecutive game in which he made at least three three-point shots. Robinson entered conference play as the Big Ten leader in three-point field goal percentage and led the Big Ten Conference in both three-point field goals and three-point field goal percentage through the first week of the Big Ten Conference schedule. On January 12, with leading scorer Caris LeVert sidelined, Michigan defeated Maryland 70–67 as Robinson contributed 17 points on 5–9 three-point shooting. On January 23, Michigan defeated Nebraska 81–68, behind a game-high and season-high 21 points by Robinson. With the Cornhusker defense challenging his three-point shot, he scored more points inside the three-point line than outside it for the first time as a Wolverine. The January 27 game against Rutgers marked the 17th consecutive game in which Robinson made at least two three-point shots. Robinson made only one three-point shot in each the subsequent two games against Penn State and Indiana. Nonetheless, Robinson entered the February 6 Michigan–Michigan State rivalry game against the 10th-ranked Michigan State Spartans as the Big Ten Conference leader in three-point shots made and three-point field goal percentage, but he was held to 0–3 in three-point shooting in the game. The game marked the first time since the season opener, that Robinson did not make a single three-point shot, ending a 22-game streak. On February 10, Michigan defeated Minnesota as Robinson posted a game- and season-high nine rebounds to go along with 14 points on 4-for-7 three-point shooting.
On March 10, in Michigan's first game of the 2016 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament against Northwestern, Robinson scored 21 points including a three-point shot that tied the score with 46.5 seconds remaining in overtime. The following day, in the quarterfinals against first-seeded Indiana, Robinson again put Michigan in position to win by tying the score with a three-point shot with 46 seconds remaining. The following day, in the semifinals against Purdue, Robinson recorded his 90th three-pointer of the season, becoming just the fifth Wolverine in history to reach the milestone. On March 16, in the First Four round of the 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, Michigan defeated Tulsa, 67–62, with support from Robinson who recorded his first double-double as a Wolverine with 13 points and a season-high 11 rebounds. Robinson finished the season second to Bryn Forbes among Big Ten players in three-point field goal percentage with a 45.0% mark.