| Kye Robinson, left, and Kullen Robinson are both wearing Hood hoodies in this picture from 2023, but don’t let that fool you. These brothers are from the same mother, but play for different coaches. Family photo |
By Ryan Scott
D3hoops.com
FREDERICK, Md. – “We are a basketball family.”
It was the first thing Kelly Gambrell said to me when I met her on the court after Hood’s 114-104 second round victory over Redlands. I was looking over her shoulder at the Mary Washington-Amherst game as the Eagles started to pull away. UMW went on to win 81-64, and Kelly would have two sons in the NCAA Division III Sweet Sixteen.
“We both think we’re better than each other,” says Kye Robinson, sophomore guard for No. 5 ranked Mary Washington, who’s scoring 24 points per game this season and is set to host UW-La Crosse on Saturday afternoon for a trip to Fort Wayne.
“When we were really young, I had the upper hand, because I was a lot bigger, but the gap has closed a lot since then,” adds Kullen Robinson, a junior guard and All-MAC Commonwealth second team selection for Hood.
Injuries and COVID conspired to keep the brothers apart during high school – they actually played against each other twice during Kye’s sophomore and Kullen’s junior year, before joining forces at Alexandria City High School in Virginia.
“I know his game so well,” says Kullen. “I know our games go together so perfectly. That season is still probably the most fun I’ve had. This season I’m having with the Blazers is competing with it a little bit, but it was great playing with him.”
Kye adds, “That year we had beaten Bishop Ireton, a private school right down the road from us – we hadn’t beaten them in at least 30 years or something like that. That was a pretty cool memory.”
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| Kye and Kullen Robinson playing summer league ball together in high school for Alexandria City in Northern Virginia. Family photo |
The Robinsons parted again for college, with Kullen choosing Hood, largely due to the persistence of coach Chad Dickman and the camaraderie he felt with the team. You can see that connection evidenced on the floor during games, where all five players can rebound, shoot, score, and handle the ball. They work well interchangeably and it makes the Blazers very hard to defend.
Kullen notes, “We play so free offensively. Obviously we have certain players who do different things, but ultimately being able to get up and down and just play, it’s definitely fun. You don’t have room to think too much about the game, just play.”
Hood averages 96 points per game and no one has really been able to slow them down this year. This week, they head up to Hartford to play No. 1 ranked, defending national champions, Trinity – a team which thrives on defense.
“It’ll be the most physical game we play all year,” says Kullen. “It’ll probably be the hardest game to score, too. They haven’t played a team like us yet, so we’ll see what happens. Rebounding will probably be the most important part of this game, because of how they crash the boards.”
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| Kullen, above, and Kye Robinson today. Hood athletics photo by Aaron Heller @ah.flics |
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| d3photography.com photo by Mike Atherton |
Kullen is very much the unsung hero, because a lot of attention at Hood gets drawn to Jevon Yarbrough, the 5-11 junior guard from Hagerstown, Maryland, who’s averaging 26 points per game, along with six rebounds, and five assists. Yarbrough is the flash, but Kullen Robinson is the engine, getting big boards, drawing defensive attention, and spacing the floor.
Yarbrough plays a lot like Kye Robinson in many ways, so perhaps that’s why Kullen pairs so well with him.
Kye might’ve ended up at Hood as well. He says, “It would’ve been that [much] more special if I was playing with my brother in the Sweet 16.” But UMW coach Marcus Kahn was on him early, and by the time Hood came calling, he’d already met the team at Mary Washington and felt “these are the kind of coaches I want to play for; they can keep my head on straight and make me a better person overall.”
Charting your own path and being confident to go out and succeed were lessons each of the Robinson’s learned from their older sister, Konnor, who finished her college career at Winthrop last season and is now playing professionally in Europe. See, they really are a basketball family!
“Even though she may not know it. I looked up to her a lot,” says Kye. “Definitely more than she knows. Once I saw that she played D-II college basketball at Trevecca and then went D-I, I was like, ‘hmm. If she can play college basketball, why can’t I?’ ”
Kullen credits his sister with instilling a love for the game. “When me and Kye were younger, we’d go to a lot of her AAU games; we have basketball in our hands, we’re dribbling on the sidelines, going to shoot during timeouts. She had a lot to do with us falling in love with the game.”
Kye plays with that love plastered all over his face. A very charismatic guy, with a big, perpetual smile, Kye often makes very difficult things look easy. The smooth way he gets to the basket or an open shot, the balletic rebounds and crisp outlet passes, they all drive a Mary Washington team who looks unstoppable at the moment.
Robinson will have to match up with one of the few players in Division III capable of keeping up with him on the offensive end. UW-La Crosse’s Sam Grieger averages almost 26 points per game and dropped 36 on nearly 60% shooting in their win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, a pretty formidable defensive team.
“I am loving this matchup,” says Kye. “I’m crossing my fingers and hopefully I can get the recognition he’s probably going to get by the end of the season. I think it’s going to be a very fun matchup. I’ve heard a lot about him. I think it’s going to be a super fun matchup given the star power.”
Mary Washington has NCAA Tournament experience after a surprise run last year, when the team was almost entirely freshmen and sophomores.
“Zack Blue [UMW’s senior PG who graduated last season] was a tremendous help to me,” remembers Kye. “He had so much experience. If you ask Zack, I learned everything from him. I definitely learned just how important defense is. Early in the year we played Yeshiva, Guilford – and they put up a lot. Even though we won those games, they put up a lot of points and we usually try to pride ourselves on defense.”
Kye also credits Blue with encouraging him to get to the basket. Mary Washington is not a heavy three point shooting team; they rely on a lot of high percentage shots, which often involves Robinson at or near the rim.
UW-La Crosse also presents some typical WIAC size, but UMW had little trouble rebounding against a bigger Carthage team at the Great Lakes Invitational in November; they’ve only gotten better since.
Neither Hood, nor UMW will have an easy time of it on Saturday. Nobody at this stage of the tournament is an easy out. If they do manage to both win this weekend, they’ll be together in Fort Wayne next week, with a potential head-to-head meeting in the Final Four on the 21st.
Nobody is looking that far down the line, however, except perhaps mom, Kelly, who’s working on what outfit she’ll have to wear to support both sons in their spotlight moment. Hood on the front and Mary Washington on the back, perhaps?
They are a basketball family, after all – I’m sure she’s got plenty of jerseys to choose from.