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Rick Stansbury on Mitchell Robinson: ‘It was probably just as much a surprise to me as it was to you’

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Mitchell Robinson

Western Kentucky head coach Rick Stansbury spoke with local reporters this week, the first time he has faced the media since Mitchell Robinson left the program a week ago.

“It was probably just as much a surprise to me as it was to you when we found out he wasn’t here,” Stansbury said. “Like I said, Mitchell’s a good kid, he was doing fine here, but whatever reasons, he’s no longer here. He would benefit from structure, and he was doing fine, he’d been here for two and a half weeks, he was enrolled in class, we had started practice, three days of practice, two days of individuals, so there’s no question about all that. He was adjusting, he was handling that. Outside that, you know just as much as I know.”

“I wasn’t there to see those people in his ear, but I think it’s obvious what’s transpired,” he added when asked whether or not someone had gotten in his ear about transferring. “I had to move on. I got a team to coach, a team to get ready, and didn’t want there to be any more distractions for our team. These guys are working hard, I like our team, i lie our kids, but unfortunately, it’s the landscape of college basketball nowadays. It’s what it is. There’s os much uncertainty with all these kids, reclassifying, jumping around changing schools.”

Robinson is a top ten prospect and was an absolute steal of a signing by Stansbury, which is what made his commitment all the more head-scratching. Players of his ilk rarely end up at schools like Western Kentucky, and it appears that Robinson figured that out too late. He spent two weeks in class at WKU’s summer school -- classes that cost him a shot at playing this season without a waiver that seems incredibly unlikely -- and now looks like he will have to head overseas if he wants to play this season.

Robinson, according to Stansbury, did not tell him he was leaving. They did not speak face to face after he left, only a brief telephone conversation where Robinson told him he wanted to be closer to home.

“Does he go overseas? Does he not go overseas?” Stansbury said of the potential lottery pick. “I don’t know the answers to that. I have no idea. Is that all a possibility? It’s a possibility now, or two months from now. Any time it can possibly happen.”

The full interview can be seen below: