Thomas Robinson has gone from D.C. playgrounds to the verge of the Final Four with Kansas.

Thomas Robinson

has gone from D.C. playgrounds

to the verge of the Final Four

with Kansas.

ALL-MET ELITE

By Mark Giannotto

ST. LOUIS — About two hours before the Midwest Region semifinals Friday night, Kansas star Thomas Robinson received a text message on his cellphone that made him flash the smile that has illustrated one of the great stories in college basketball this season. It was a message from his former AAU coach in Northeast Washington, Dwight Redd, a man Robinson calls “a father to me.”

Redd hadn’t told the 6-foot-9 junior forward he was coming to St. Louis, hoping to surprise him now that Robinson is on the cusp of completing his evolution from a skinny 13-year-old on the playgrounds of Southeast Washington to a chiseled physical specimen expected to be one of the top five picks in this year’s NBA draft. That, though, only made Robinson worry about tickets as the Jayhawks were getting ready for their Sweet 16 game against North Carolina State.

“He’s taken care of me my whole life, so when he told me he was here [Friday], I was kind of mad I didn’t know because . . . our tickets had to be in the night before the game,” Robinson said Saturday as No. 2 seed Kansas prepared to face No. 1 seed North Carolina on Sunday in the Midwest Region final.

“Basketball didn’t always look so clear for me and when it didn’t look clear for me I was just a regular kid in D.C., and Dwight, he didn’t see it as that. He took care of me no matter what my situation was. Without him, I probably wouldn’t have made it this far.” Basketball has been his outlet and a way to channel his desire to provide for his family, something that hasn’t really changed even dating back to his days at Eastern High and Riverdale Baptist, Redd explained.

“People think he’s this overnight sensation, but it’s been years coming with a whole lot of hard work and determination,”.Riverdale Baptist Coach Louis Wilson still remembers how raw Robinson was when he first came to the school before his junior year of high school. But he knew there was something special in his new player and recalled telling former Maryland assistant Keith Booth at the time, “this kid, he’s gonna be really, really good.”

Maryland didn’t offer Robinson a scholarship until his senior year, when his recruitment went viral following a dominant performance at a Reebok summer camp in Philadelphia, but the Terrapins weren’t the only ones who underestimated him. As a junior at Riverdale Baptist, Robinson only mustered honorable mention All-Met honors. He left the area to play at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire for his senior year because “my mom wanted me to get out of D.C.,” Robinson said. 

Robinson lived with Wilson in Upper Marlboro during the week while he attended Riverdale Baptist, and his work ethic was insatiable. After dinner most nights, he would beg Wilson to let him go back to the gym even though he had already been through a full practice.

“The sacrifices he’s made throughout his life to the game of basketball is why he’s now a star in the making,” Wilson said. “I get a smile every time I see him performing with that great, big old smile.”