Life With Justin Robinson

Justin Robinson makes everybody better. (Photo by Jon Fleming)

Virginia Tech men’s basketball had a great weekend last week. On Sunday, they found out they would be a 4-seed in the NCAA Tournament (their third straight NCAA berth), and got a favorable draw with a 4-team pod of Saint Louis, Mississippi State and Liberty in addition to themselves. The best news, however, came hours earlier on Sunday when it was announced that Justin Robinson would be returning to the lineup after a 12-game hiatus due to a foot injury.

Regaining the school’s all-time career assists leader is always a good thing, but Virginia Tech was especially hampered by his absence. Today, I want to take a look at why Virginia Tech was different after the injury, and what you can expect moving forward.

First, let’s take a look at some data.

Pre-InjuryPost-Injury
Wins/Losses17-37-5
Wins/Losses vs. NCAA Tournament teams5-21-4

This is pretty cut-and-dry. The Hokies were able to pull it together to win seven games to end the season, but only one of the seven came against an NCAA Tournament team. To be fair, the lone win was against Duke. That was a great win no doubt, but was against a Duke team without their best player as well.

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