It’s that time of year college hoops fanatics all truly love dread (or is it love to dread? Or perhaps dread to love?). From division to division, conference to conference, program to program – fans from coast to coast are pressed to endure the roulette wheel/wildfire/Master Class on Chaos that is the transfer portal.
With just four teams left in the NCAA Tournament, many fans have turned their attention to the coaching and player carousel spinning round and round at breakneck speed.
While most mid-major conferences are bleeding players who are looking to defect to Power 5 conferences, not all mid-major programs are in disarray quite yet. Despite the unpredictability of recruiting high school players and the volatility of navigating the infamous portal, the Northern Kentucky University men’s hoops program actually has some positive news to fixate on for the time being.
Reigning Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year and All-Horizon League Tournament Team honoree Trey Robinson (Hamilton, Ohio) has chosen to forgo jumping into the portal and has announced he will be returning to NKU for one more season.
The 6-6 senior wing will be using his additional COVID Year to wrap up some unfinished business in Highland Heights while pursuing a graduate degree. He is finishing up his Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Leadership (Sports Business) at the time of this writing and will be graduating in May.
Head coach Darrin Horn posted on his Twitter/X account: “Thankful we get to coach this guy one more year…..special dude. Everything we want our program to be about….and we caught a glimpse at end of year just how good he can be!”
Over the course of his four-year college career, Robinson has emerged as a leader of a Norse program that has gone 74-51 (.592) overall and 51-21 (.708) in the Horizon League during his tenure. In those four seasons, he has also personally seen his game evolve over and over, resulting in a senior season in which he averaged 11.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists per game while shooting 43.9% from the field.
His 873 total points places him just 127 shy of the 1,000-point club at NKU, a number which he would be on pace to eclipse by his 11th or 12th game next season if his scoring average from the 2023-24 season carries over into his next campaign.
Over The Years
Freshman:
- 24 games (5 starts), 16 minutes per game
- 5.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.8 apg, 14 steals
Sophomore:
- 31 games, 18 minutes per game
- 4.0 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 0.7 apg, 42 steals
Junior:
- 34 games (25 starts), 22 minutes per game
- 7.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 1.6 apg, 33 steals
Senior:
- 33 games (33 starts), 31 minutes per game
- 11.7 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.9 apg, 60 steals
- Shot 128 free throws, compared to 58 as a junior, 24 as a sophomore and 48 as a freshman
While his first three seasons sported some fairly modest numbers, the effort and improvement were there, boiling just below the surface until he blew the lid off the pot the second half of his senior season.
The early season knee injury to sophomore guard Sam Vinson was catastrophic for the team, but it did afford Robinson more opportunity to be “the guy” when leading scorer Marques Warrick was being double/triple teamed by opponents.
The last quarter of the 2023-24 schedule in particular saw Robinson turn a corner as he found his groove and began torching opponents both in the scoring column and on the boards. Toward the very end of the season, at times he looked almost undefendable. As a matter of fact, in the last 10 games, he averaged 16 ppg and 9 rpg.
HoriZone Roundtable (HR) had the luxury this past weekend of going “1v1 with #1” with Robinson (TR) to discuss his decision to stay at NKU:
HR: So you’re ready to run it back one last time with the Norse. Did you ever officially enter the transfer portal to see what other options were out there for you?
TR: “No, I never entered the portal… it was something I was thinking about for a few weeks but decided not to.”
HR: Earlier in the season Coach Horn hinted that you could have jumped ship after last season and linked up with a Power 5 school…how close were you to leaving Highland Heights?
TR: “I do remember him saying that and since I never entered the portal last year or this year, I feel he was saying that as an assumption…which I believe was true as well.”
HR: Why did you choose to stay in Black & Gold versus testing the waters elsewhere?
TR: “It took me awhile to come to my decision of staying…actually, (it took me) all the way up to the meeting that I had with my coaches a few days ago I still hadn’t decided. But, after talking to them I decided I would stay. I think staying is better for me and my future in basketball. The portal can be a scary thing simply because you don’t know if the schools you are talking to really have your best interest in mind. Also, my coaches and teammates and even fans of NKU genuinely love and care for me, so leaving that would have been hard.”
HR: Knowing Ques (Warrick) has entered the portal and may not be back next season, what do you see as the outlook for the program moving into 2024-25?
TR: “Obviously not having Ques is going to be hard and it’s going to be different, but with any team I play with here at NKU I am confident that we have a chance, because I’ve been fortunate enough to be around guys that put the needs of themselves behind the needs of the team.”
HR: All signs point to Sam (Vinson) being back and healthy next season. Knowing who you will have back next season, who do you see as some players to look out for?
TR: “Playing with Sam always makes things easier because he’s such a good player, even with the (knee – ACL tear/cartilage) injury he’s coming back from. But obviously we need to fill some spots… someone that I’m really excited about is Randall (Pettus), he can just do a lot of different things to help the team and is a great teammate. I think getting the chance to get on the floor this year will really help him come next year.”
HR: What memory hits you most as something that kind of symbolizes your time at NKU the past four years?
TR: “I would say just playing in front of the fans at home… man, just being in front of them and feeling the love and energy from them. And now I’m fortunate enough to get another year to go get a championship.
Norse assistant coach Eric Haut weighed in on his Twitter/X account at the end of February, and summed up his view on Robinson staying home one more season:
“Hard to quantify the impact that Trey has had on our program the past 4 years. A GREAT player & a SELFLESS leader that’s always done the little things that go into winning! We don’t have the success we’ve had w/o him & he’s only going to keep getting better!”
Losing all-time leading scorer Warrick and starting point guard Michael Bradley to the portal and graduation are going to be tough voids to fill – but with Robinson’s surprise return and a healthy Sam Vinson coming back, it will feel like the Norse are actually adding two extraordinarily talented plug-and-play players into Coach Horn’s lineup card.
Thus far, Warrick is the only Norse player to formally announce his entry to the portal, but there is always the chance more players will follow suit once they take time to evaluate where they stand and what options may be available to them. One thing is for sure though, the Norse coaching staff will be hard at work looking to deepen the roster so that they may hit the ground running next season.
Great read as always Larry!!