Future Heel Evolving

Covering basketball recruiting can sometimes be a tough job. Some kids never answer the phone or texts. Some won't do interviews, period, unless you catch them in person. Even then, some of them might sneak out.

Some won't really offer up much information in response to the best probing questions. And many of them keep their circle tight and virtually cut off access to reliable information to college coaches and media.

Brandon Robinson does not fit into that category. He's an open book. He returns texts. He answers the phone. He's generally accessible most of the time.

The UNC-commitment was always easy to reach during his recruitment. He always offered great quotes and seemed genuinely excited to talk about his recruiting process when called upon. He was an easy read for most media, including Tar Heel Illustrated, as a prospect who the Tar Heels had a strong chance of landing, even before he offered his verbal commitment to Roy Williams.

Even though he might have tried to play coy, the athletic 6-5 senior just could never pull it off. He admits he tried to hide his emotions and feelings.

"I did," he laughed." And I tried to hide it. I wasn't ashamed of it when people knew I was happy."

He has North Carolina in his heart and has for some time. The staff has cultivated a strong relationship with the Douglasville (Georgia) wing and he's off to a really good start in his senior season.

"It's been going real good," he said about his team's performance so far. "We are playing well and we have only lost one game."

The scoring punch. His athleticism. A new mindset and tremendous results are showing up in his game totals.

"I've been killing it. I'm averaging like 30 points, six rebounds and four assists and two or three steals a game," he said.

Robinson has had games of scoring over 30 points several times and he's racking up the points from the arc and at the rim. He's been shooting a high percentage from the field as well as the free-throw line. He admits that his swagger and new attitude has a lot to do with it.

"I have confidence in my game and I play aggressive" he explained." I just have a different mindset that I refused to be stopped. My ball-handling is better and I have been posting up smaller guards. Getting to the basket has been easy."

The Tar Heel staff, as well as his coaches at Douglas County High have had a big part in the evolution of Robinson's mindset. They've asked him to attack more. They have told him to be a go-to scorer and they've challenged him to step up and be a consistent threat from the outside as a shooter and at the rim as an attacker.

"Yeah, that's been a big thing. I'm just trying to get ready for the role that I'm going to play in college."

The Tar Heel staff will be happy to hear that he is finding much success.