‘Old soul’ Jeremiah Robinson-Earl consistently excels in his own box for Villanova

Before Jeremiah Robinson-Earl even played a basketball game in a Villanova uniform, his coach, Jay Wright, called him “an old soul” as a compliment to the way he approaches his craft.

Now a sophomore for the Wildcats, Robinson-Earl goes through his daily routine in a workmanlike way, getting his shots up, emphasizing the fundamentals, being solid in his preparation for what the opposing team could bring to the next game.

While some other collegiate players constantly look for that highlight-reel dunk or some other brand of aerial acrobatics, the 6-foot-9 Robinson-Earl is content to play his game, stay within the team concept, and excel in the areas that he does well.

He references a quote from his idol, Kobe Bryant, from a video he recently watched.

“He talked about, everybody has their own box and how you should dance beautifully in your box,” Robinson-Earl said in a recent Zoom interview with The Inquirer. “It doesn’t mean that other people’s boxes are better or bigger, or smaller. Everybody has their own specific box where they dance beautifully.

“So I feel like me not trying to prove other things that I’m not necessarily comfortable doing or don’t work on, I don’t feel like I need to do that. But obviously your game will expand the more you play, the more you work, so maybe more things will come out. But I feel like just being able to do what you do really well is really important.”

He is doing much well for the third-ranked Wildcats. His 15.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game and his 50.3% shooting mark lead the team. Wright says he’s one of the best defensive players in the country, not just the way he guards in the post but on the perimeter as well.

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Robinson-Earl’s commitment to the basics and working on the things he does well goes back to Wright’s “old soul” reference, something “I don’t take personally at all,” he says. The coach of Robinson-Earl’s AAU team in Kansas City, Mo., saw the same traits early on.

“He’s just been a wise veteran from a young age,” said L.J. Goolsby, coach of KC Run GMC. “His mindset, he’s more mature than a lot of individuals at his age. He can walk in with a group of adults and you wouldn’t think any differently. That’s just him. His mom’s done a phenomenal job raising him. He’s a special young man.”

The 20-year-old Robinson-Earl, who hails from Overland Park, Kan., carried that maturity well before college, from his AAU team to Bishop Miege High School near his home to a final year at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he finished the 2018-19 season as a McDonald’s All-America.

Goolsby said the development of the mental part of the game was a key to his growth as a player.

“I think the biggest thing is just trying to continue to stay in the moment,” Goolsby said. “It’s really just fighting through tough times, adversity, things of that nature, and making sure that you always kind of stay consistent. That’s the key to continuing to fight through those hurdles.

“One of the things that I love about him is he’s always been driven to win, no matter when he was growing up through grade school, and then throughout the high school years. That’s always been a purpose with him. But he also knows in order to win, you’ve got to have the right attitude and help others around you be focused and positive and fight through some things. But that’s what makes him special. He’s had the right attitude for a long time.”

Robinson-Earl advanced the mental side of the game as he grew up following Bryant and his “Mamba mentality.”

“I feel like basketball is a more mental game than on the court playing because if you’re not confident, if you’re not smart, if you don’t know what you’re doing, then being out there is almost useless in a sense,” he said. “I feel like being strong mentally really leads into all the other attributes of the game of basketball.

“I feel like just [Bryant’s] love for the game and just always wanting to learn and be consumed by it was just amazing. I’m just so interested in it all the time.”

It should be noted that Lester Earl, Jeremiah’s father, defeated Bryant in a dunk contest when both were seniors in high school. Earl played college ball at Kansas but injuries kept him from playing up to his potential, and he went overseas to play professionally. Robinson-Earl has said it was “kind of cool to have someone in the shoes that I would want to be in.”

The physical side of his game was aided by the experiences gained in international competition playing for USA Basketball – gold medals at the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championships in Canada, and at the 2019 FIBA U19 World Cup in Greece, where he was the second-leading scorer.

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After being named Big East freshman of the year last season, Robinson-Earl gave brief consideration to the NBA, entering his name in the draft but withdrawing it within a week or two. He said conversations with Wright and Goolsby made him realize “I could get to a better point of my game.

“It’s a crazy experience and you don’t want to rush that,” Robinson-Earl said. “I looked at it as, why would I spend 17 years of my life playing basketball and then one year just to rush something? Nothing is guaranteed. It’s just taking your time and then going into a career that could be more guaranteed and you have a lot more success in that.”

What he didn’t say was returning to a team that could contend for a national championship.

“He knows he’s got some great teammates and that’s the focus this year,” Goolsby said.

It’s been a difficult season in college basketball amid the pandemic. The Wildcats have paused team activities three times, including one back-to-back stoppage where they went 27 days between games, and Wright constantly worries about how it affects the mental health of his players.

Robinson-Earl said it’s important to take the current situation one step at a time.

“I feel like that just kind of helps keeping everything grounded,” he said. “You’re staying in the moment and not getting ahead of yourself and just always being there mentally. It’s a little crazy just constantly being in the same spot with the same people doing the same thing. But it shows that we really love what we do, and I think it means a lot when we really enjoy each other’s company.”

Staying in the moment. Staying on an even keel. Sounds like what an “old soul” might say.

“You don’t want to get too high on the highs or too low on the lows,” Robinson-Earl said, “just kind of stay in your medium place where knowing the work you put in will be the result of how you perform.”