People continue to overlook T.J. Robinson of the Long Beach State men’s basketball team.
The 6-foot-8 sophomore forward was left off the Big West Conference media’s preseason team released Thursday.
Teammate Larry Anderson and UC Riverside’s Kyle Austin were the no-brainer selections for the six-player team. Mark Payne and Joe Harden of UC Davis, UC Irvine’s Eric Wise and UC Santa Barbara transfer Orlando Johnson were also selected by the 24-member voting panel.
How does UC Davis, which was selected to finish sixth in the preseason poll, get rewarded with two nods? Meanwhile, the preseason-favorite 49ers received 17 first-place votes but just one player was selected to the team? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Or what about Johnson, who sat out for a season after leaving Loyola Marymount? Are his 12.4 points per game in the 2007-08 season enough to merit a selection in a completely different conference?
This isn’t a cry for the local team, but instead another glaring omission for Robinson, who averaged 13.5 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting a conference-high 62 percent and posted three of his five double-doubles in Big West games last season. He was also selected to Blue Ribbon Magazine’s preseason All-Big West team earlier this year.
Last season, Robinson earned honorable mention and all-freshman honors in the league. But he was arguably the 49ers’ most consistent performer and could’ve warranted a second-team selection — and maybe challenged Anderson for Freshman of the Year honors.
In comparison, on the 49er women’s side, LBSU’s Whitney Fields and Karina Figueroa were named to the media’s preseason all-conference team despite the 49ers’ last-place finish last season.
Nothing against the LBSU tandem — especially Figueroa, who was injured and never stepped on the court last season — but it doesn’t make sense and it’s not their fault. Hell, I even had a vote in the women’s poll (but not the men’s) and voted for Figueroa — and even felt a bit guilty for that — but did not think it was right to include a second 49er on the list.
Now, it is just a preseason poll and the results in March will be all that matter, but maybe Robinson’s performances will at least be looked at a bit closer.