It’s one of those uncanny statistics that may or may not mean anything.
When Michigan senior swingman Duncan Robinson has scored six or more points in a game this season, the Wolverines are 28-0. That includes Saturday night’s Elite Eight victory over Florida State in Los Angeles, where he scored seven points.
Michigan, which is going to the Final Four, is 32-7 overall this season and has won its past 13 games. So it’s not like Robinson’s numbers have skewed things dramatically. The Wolverines have been good all season. But …
“I think some of it is a little bit of a coincidence,’’ Robinson said after the game. “We’re playing really well right now. It’s six points. It’s kind of an arbitrary number. But I’ll take it. I’ll keep trying to score six, I guess, if that’s a recipe for success.”
The two biggest points Robinson scored against FSU were the two free throws he made with 21 seconds remaining and Michigan clinging to a two-point lead. When FSU got the ball back, it was Robinson, a New Hampshire native and a transfer from Division III Williams College, who rebounded a missed FSU shot and dribbled the clock out for the victory.
With 2:23 remaining, Robinson hit a huge 3-point shot to give Michigan a 55-44 lead, leaving FSU scrambling frantically to get back into the game.
“There was no bigger dagger than the one in the right corner, right in front of me,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “[It] turned out not to be a dagger … but we just did enough to win it.”
After Robinson’s 3-pointer, Michigan missed two of its next three free throws as Florida State cut the lead to 55-52. A moment later, Michigan led by only two points and that’s when Robinson went to the line for those two massive free throws.
They represented his sixth and seventh points of the game, pushing Robinson over that critical statistical threshold.
Four years ago, Robinson was playing for Division III Williams, which lost the D-III national championship. He transferred to Michigan after that season. He has scored more than 1,000 points at Michigan and ranks fourth all time in school history in 3-pointers.
After having fouled out before the end of the Wolverines’ Sweet 16 win over Texas A&M on Thursday, Robinson was simply happy to be on the floor at the end of Saturday night’s game.
“It’s way more nerve-wracking when you’re not in the game,’’ he said. “In the game, you feel you can have some control over it. You’re moving around, doing something with all that energy.”
