Mark Pope says Jaxson Robinson had a better mindset going into the Mississippi State game

Kentucky basketball got back on track in their win against No. 14 Mississippi State on Saturday. Coming off a road loss at Georgia on Tuesday, the Wildcats showed serious game against Mississippi State and responded well to things that went wrong in Tuesday’s loss. In addition to responding well to physical and rebounding issues, Kentucky scored the ball very efficiently against the Bulldogs after scoring just 69 points against Georgia.

The ball movement was excellent as the Wildcats were able to combat Mississippi State’s aggressiveness with a lot of movement to keep the swarming Bulldog defense on its toes. Kentucky assisted on 21 of their 34 made shots. Along with those assists came a season-high 27 points for Jaxson Robinson on 9-12 shooting overall and 7-10 from three-point range. Robinson cooked in Starkville, and a big reason Kentucky came away with the top 15 win.

Not only did he just have 27 points, but he was one of a few players who made a clutch shot in the final minutes that sparked a big momentum for Kentucky. He came up huge in a hostile environment and Mark Pope said after the game that Robinson had incredible focus leading up to the game. The head coach has coached Robinson for three seasons now, and he says Robinson has never had a game of that magnitude.

“That’s the best part of coaching. You just watch guys grow and do things that they didn’t know they could do at times they didn’t know they could do them. When you get to be a part of that’s really special Jax is incredible He had a really rough week come to me (Saturday) morning – We talked a few days ago and he’s been incredible in practice the last two days with his voice, his energy, his juice and his freshness He told me i morning that he was like me I’ve been worried about making shots, about missing shots, worried about my future, all the things when you get a young guy that can get to that spot, you see performances like (Saturday) …He’s done it before. He hasn’t done it on this big stage. He hasn’t done it in this league like this…against a ranked team on the road, but he’s certainly done it now.”

– Pope about Robinson’s performance on Saturday.

It’s great to see Robinson have one of the best games of his career after struggling recently, and he did it when Kentucky needed to respond and fight back after Tuesday’s loss. He and the Wildcats will look to bring the answer over to Tuesday when they take on No. 10 Texas A&M at Rupp Arena.