Rousing performance at Monmouth, and that’s just on the bench

Monmouth coach King Rice was searching for talent at a high school basketball tournament in Philadelphia five years ago when he spotted a “little fellow” on an adjacent court who possessed a knack for penetrating and scoring.

The player, Justin Robinson, a diminutive guard from Kingston High School in Ulster County, New York, wove his way inside so many times that his play became riveting to Rice, a former point guard under Dean Smith at North Carolina.

“Maybe we should be watching him,” Rice told an assistant.

Monmouth was the only Division I program to offer Robinson a scholarship. The “little fellow” is listed at 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds, although Rice conceded, “He might be 5-7.”

Regardless of his actual height, Robinson has blossomed into a productive scorer this season as a junior as the Hawks have emerged as giant-killers.

Robinson averages 20.1 points a game, and Monmouth has gained unfamiliar attention with its on-court accomplishments and a sideline show provided by bench players.

Robinson scored 16 points and produced six of his team’s 16 steals as the Hawks fought back from a 13-point deficit in the second half to topple UCLA 84-81 in overtime in their season opener in Los Angeles.

Robinson had 22 points, including two free throws with 3.6 seconds left, when Monmouth shocked then-No. 17 Notre Dame 70-68 at the AdvoCare Invitational on Nov. 26. That was Monmouth’s first victory against a nationally ranked team in its 32-year history in Division I.

The Hawks finished third in the AdvoCare Invitational, avenging an earlier defeat to Southern California with an 83-73 victory. Robinson’s 27 points in that game gave him a tournament-record 77 points.

Monmouth earned another signature victory for the program on Dec. 15 at Georgetown, running past the Hoyas 83-68. Five days later, Monmouth knocked off Rutgers of the Big Ten 73-67.

All of those victories against major-conference foes might not have gained as much notice if not for the antics of the players on the bench, whose choreographed celebrations have become popular on the Internet. In one of their favorite maneuvers, one player pretends he is a fish while two others hold him aloft like a trophy and another gestures as if taking a picture. In another, one player acts as if he collapsed from the excitement while another hurries to resuscitate him.

The celebrations have evolved to the point that Greg Noack, a junior forward, tucks a script into his sock based on decisions made during the reserves’ pregame meeting. Among the playful corps of reserves is Tyler Robinson, Justin’s younger brother and a freshman walk-on.

The routines started when Monmouth stunned UCLA on Nov. 12 at Pauley Pavilion.

“We were our own home crowd basically in a gym filled with people who didn’t want to see us win,” Tyler Robinson said.

Rice, in his fifth season, welcomes the bench’s enthusiasm.

“We all talk about everybody’s role being important, but bench guys sometimes don’t feel that,” he said. “Because our guys are able to express themselves in the right way, it’s been fun and kind of caught on across the country.”

Justin Robinson embodies the team’s spirit.

“Just like me, we have guys on the team who felt they were underrecruited and can play with the best,” he said. “It just adds hunger to your game.”

Robinson is difficult to defend because of his tremendous acceleration.

“I know I’m fast,” he said. “If I can get half a step on my opponent, I can get by him.”

Defenders beaten off the dribble often foul Robinson as they try to recover. He has converted 74 of 87 free throws (85 percent) through 16 games. When opponents step back in an effort to thwart his slashing style, he burns them from the outside, shooting 40.7 percent from 3-point range.

“I’ve never seen anybody able to shut him down,” Rice said, adding, “If we need him to be a scorer, he can go get baskets at any point.”

Robinson said he had turned his small stature into an advantage because it forced him to expand his game.

“You’ve got to find ways around it — make your feet faster, get stronger, become a better ballhandler and perimeter shooter,” he said.

The on- and off-court attention is a measure of progress for Monmouth, which has only one NCAA Tournament victory, a 71-49 rout of Hampton in a play-in game in 2006, its last appearance. Rice went a combined 33-62 in his first three seasons. The Hawks finished 18-15 last season and advanced to the semifinal round of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.

Another measure of progress will come Friday night when the Hawks visit Iona, the two-time defending MAAC regular-season champion. Rice worries that a series of attention-grabbing nonconference victories may go for naught if his team is unable to win the conference’s postseason tournament. In the 35-year history of the MAAC, only Manhattan (1995) and Iona (2012) received at-large berths to the NCAA tournament.

“The sure way to do it is to win the conference tournament,” Rice said, referring to the conference’s automatic bid, “and that’s going to be a hard thing to get done because the league is very even.”