Russell Robinson steals show on defense

Opponents who have a size advantage don’t bother the 6-foot-1 Russell Robinson. As long as the player is smaller than 6-foot-8, he’s ready to defend the best player on the other team.

Robinson, a senior guard, has already guarded Southern California’s O.J. Mayo. Now he wants to guard other top players such as Texas’ D.J. Augustin and Missouri’s Stefhon Hannah. Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, who’s listed at 6-foot-8, might also be a possibility, but he could be out of Robinson’s range.

“That’s a little bit too much right there,” Robinson said. “You start getting into some power.”

Last week, Kansas coach Bill Self said his team needed to find a lockdown defender until junior guard Brandon Rush could return to full strength. Robinson is ready to guard the top player for Eastern Washington when Kansas (6-0) faces the Eagles tonight at 7 in Allen Fieldhouse and for the rest of the season.

He sure looked like a lockdown defender Sunday against USC. Robinson stayed inside O.J. Mayo’s jersey for all 33 minutes he played. O.J. Mayo, one of the top freshmen in the country and surefire lottery pick in next June’s NBA Draft, shot just six of 21 from the field and turned the ball over five times because of Robinson’s pressure. O.J. Mayo’s miscues were a major reason the offensively challenged Jayhawks were able to escape with a four-point victory.

“That was the main thing, to wear him down,” Robinson said about his job on O.J. Mayo. “We knew he’d take shots, but I wanted to make him work for it and think about it.”

O.J. Mayo, at 6-foot-5, had a four-inch size advantage on Robinson. Robinson said he could handle the bigger players by just fronting them in the post. He said his teammates could help if the ball gets thrown toward the basket behind him. Self is fine putting Robinson in that defensive role.

“I really believe it’s much easier for a small guy to guard a big guy than a big guy to guard a small guy,” Self said. “I think he can. Now when Brandon comes back and Rod gets better then I think we could have three guys that could lock you up pretty good.”

The defensive side is where Self wants Robinson to help the most. He said he didn’t even look to see how Robinson performed on the offensive end and said Robinson performed better offensively if he didn’t think about doing too much.

Self just wants to see more defensive effort from Robinson like he saw on Sunday.

“To me,” Self said, “if we have more than the other team and it’s a big especially on the road, Russell’s going to be a big reason why we won.”