Hoops star Robins steps on a different court to aid m. volleyball

When basketball head coach John Thompson '88 was asked to describe Ray Robins, he replied, "Which Ray Robins? The basketball player, the volleyball player, or the student-athlete?"

In fact, this question can now be posed more often than ever, with the current rash of two-sport athletes on campus this year. Sophomore B.J. Szymanski (football and baseball), senior Cameron Atkinson (football and track), sophomore Will Venable (basketball and baseball), and even a three-sporter — senior Kelly Baril (field hockey, basketball, and softball) — are all getting in on the act. Another of these two-sport athletes is Robins, who made his transition to volleyball only in his senior year after his college career in his first sport — basketball — was over and done with.

"I never really thought I was good enough to play," Robins said. "But without anything to lose, I wanted to see if I could compete and have some fun."

Robins was good enough to be an All-Ivy selection for basketball. While not spectacular at any one part of the game, he consistently ended his games with a "Princeton line" on the stat sheet — doing a little of everything to help the team win. He ended the season second on the team this year in points, three-point field goal percentage, three-point field goals made, and blocked shots.

Unfortunately, this kind of game did not follow him onto the court that has a net in the middle of it instead of one on each end.

"Ray's the third outside hitter right now," head volleyball coach Glenn Nelson said. "An outside hitter has to pass too, and that's not his strong suit. His strong suit is hitting and blocking, so if we need some hitting and blocking, we'll put him in." Robins lettered three times in volleyball in high school and twice in basketball, but he was recruited as a basketball player and a phenomenal athlete. He is one of the few Tiger basketball players who has been able to get a dunk into the hoop in traffic, but does not limit himself to flashy opportunities.

"The best way to describe Ray, for the lack of a better word, is 'willingness,'" Thompson said. "It's a term that has become clichéd, but he is extremely coachable. He tries to execute what you tell him; he has an understanding of what's important, and I think that probably transfers over to volleyball."

Robins' transfer to volleyball was actually after 12 games — half of the season — had already been played. Without the obligation of off-season basketball to worry about, he gave volleyball a shot.

"I've thought about it over the last four or five years," Robins said. "Nothing was really going on this year. My thesis was pretty much done after basketball season, so I thought I would come out with no overlap."

At six-feet, seven-inches, Robins took his ability to play above the rim and used it to control the air above the net with his high-powered hitting and athletic blocks, though he lost a few gritty points of the game while playing with the orange ball.

"Basketball has always been my main sport," Robins said. "In volleyball, I don't do enough things well. I'm not as in-tune as those guys who have been doing it for so long."

Although Robins' short volleyball career may not earn him many headlines, his basketball career has done that from his very first game. Robins' time as a basketball player at Princeton began with a 27-point performance in his first start, the highest point total in a debut since 1963, when Bill Bradley '65 set the mark. Bradley went on to a second career as well — one in the National Basketball Association (NBA), followed by the United States Senate.