Robinson’s dunk is signature moment of game

The best dunk of Thomas Robinson’s Kansas basketball career will be in the pregame video montage someday soon. Very soon, actually, like probably the next home game. You’ve probably seen it by now. If not, turn on one of the highlight shows. You won’t wait long.

You will see a fast break, Robinson somehow ahead of nearly everyone, Tyshawn Taylor coming down the right side, eying his friend, lobbing the ball over two Baylor players and watching Robinson grab the ball with his right hand and throw it down through the rim and 16,300 people began to go hoarse.

Probably a little deafer, too, the defining moment of KU’s 92-74 win over No. 4 Baylor on national television, and the biggest reason Robinson and Taylor couldn’t stop giggling afterward.

“I caught the elevator to the top stairs,” Robinson says.

“Yeah, he pressed the up button,” Taylor says.

“ Ding!” Robinson says.

That’s when Taylor started humming the theme song to “SportsCenter,” and there is no way to know these things for sure, but it felt like something changed after Robinson’s dunk.

Baylor has more talent than KU, and when’s the last time you could say that about a game at Allen Fieldhouse? But this building is different. Strange things happen here. This might be the best homecourt or homefield advantage in all of sports, and it has taken lesser moments than Robinson’s dunk to ignite the Fieldhouse machine in hundreds of victories like this one.

All other factors being equal, Baylor is better than Kansas. The Bears won their first 17 games, the best start in school history. Perry Jones III and Quincy Miller will be NBA lottery picks. Anthony Jones started for the Elite Eight team two years ago and now comes off the bench.

But all the other factors aren’t equal, not here, where KU has now won a staggering 85 of its last 86 games. This place is always at its best in the biggest games, which turn into the kind where the refs have to blow their whistles a little louder and the coaches have to come out on the court a little further to be heard.

Good players are the biggest reason KU has won or shared seven consecutive Big 12 titles, of course, but the advantage they get playing here is next on the list. The Jayhawks will probably win all their home games this year, again, which means they can lose three or four road games and still extend their streak to eight — with one of the least talented teams of the bunch.

This one, we know by now, is Robinson and Taylor and then some guys. Jeff Withey blocks shots. Travis Releford plays with energy. Conner Teahan shoots threes. Those are all nice things, but it doesn’t run without the two stars.

Taylor scored 28 points for the second consecutive game, the best stretch of his four years as KU’s starting point guard, and this season will go the way he goes.

But on Monday, this was all about Robinson. Assuming he goes pro, there are 13 games plus the postseason remaining in a career that will probably be remembered with a retired jersey someday.

The team around Robinson may not be as talented as what Bill Self has made the norm around KU, but this is the frontrunner for national player of the year and a force of nature the Jayhawks haven’t had in years.

He is a physical specimen, 6-foot-9 with muscles bulging from underneath his jersey, constantly playing with the kind of energy and dogged determination that coaches lose their voices trying to cultivate.

Last year’s passing of his mother and grandmother made Robinson’s one of the most compelling stories in college basketball. But this year, it’s his play, a testament to both his own hard work and the effectiveness of KU assistant coach Danny Manning.

Baylor is one of the longest teams in the country, but mostly because of Robinson, got pushed around like a poor print reporter around Holly Rowe. KU outscored the Bears by 14 in the paint, and outrebounded them by 15. This was a big boy game, and Robinson was the biggest.

He finished with 27 points and 14 rebounds on 18 shots, dominating the matchup with Jones III (18 points on 17 shots). If you watched closely, too, you got the feeling that Robinson was playing for more than just a win.

The whole thing was a highlight tape of sorts, all that the NBA scouts in attendance could’ve wanted to see. Robinson grabbed loose balls, he deflected passes, used an 18-footer and a dribble-spin move for different baskets, even led a fast break in which he dribbled the length of the floor and passed to Travis Releford for a layup.

Robinson did other things, too, little things that basketball people will notice. He bumped Jones while Baylor set up most every possession, stayed out of foul trouble, and had one defensive sequence in which he altered a runner and came back to the basket quick enough to get the rebound.

“He’s so much better now than he was in Maui,” Self says. “And I thought he was really good in Maui. I thought he was the best player in Maui.”

Nothing got decided on Monday, of course. We are barely one-quarter of the way through the conference schedule, and KU’s three toughest games — at Missouri, at Baylor and at Kansas State — are still on the schedule.

But less than a month removed from the hand-wringing after losing to Davidson, the Jayhawks have once again played their way into the overwhelming favorite to win the conference.

On Monday, they did it mostly because of Robinson, Taylor, their ally-oop, and an arena full of screamers.

To reach Sam Mellinger, call 816-234-4365, send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com or follow twitter.com/mellinger. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com