HYBLAW: Amari Robinson represents Clemson by handling business on, off the court

Amari Robinson’s just putting herself in the best position to be successful not only at basketball but in her future career as a teacher. (Photo: Jim Dedmon / USATODAY)

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Thu Nov 02 18:00:10 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Handle your business like a woman.

HYBLAW is one of the cornerstones of Amanda Butler’s women’s basketball program, and there is no one who embodies that more than fifth-year senior forward Amari Robinson.

Robinson’s superpower is consistently showing up with the same energy and intensity every day and in every situation, whether at 6 a.m. for practice, teaching eighth grade during the day, attending graduate seminars, in the weight room or studying film.

The Georgia native does all of these things as more as a student-athlete, and Butler said not only is she a leader on the 2023 team, but she should be admired and looked up to by those younger than her who want to pursue similar dreams.

“Our day begins with practice at 6 a.m., and Amari is showering and going to classes as Miss Robinson from 8:00 until 3:30. She's working a job. She's not interning. She's literally a teacher in a classroom every single day,” Butler told TigerNet during a recent one-on-one sit down. “After that, she studies a little bit and gets her lesson plans together. On some evenings, she has graduate school seminars because she will graduate with her master's at the end of this year. Somewhere in between there, I hope she's resting. She's got to get a lift in. She's got to get some individual work and individual film in with Joy (Smith), her position coach. All of it - roll it all up into a person, and it's Amari.

“She's not just doing it; she's doing it in a way that she should be studied by the younger person who wants to have that type of career, that type of impact on a program and have that level of readiness for what's next in her life.”

For Robinson, she’s just putting herself in the best position to be successful not only at basketball but also in her future career as a teacher.

“Really that this just something I want to do, and knowing that I've put myself in a position if I want to be a teacher and do all these things - play at a high level, be there for my teammates - it's just something that I have to do,” Robinson told TigerNet. “It does consist of being very busy and trying to be at three places at once, but I love what I do, so I would do it over and over again.”

In today’s world of college athletics, it’s rare to find a player who has stayed at the same place for their entire career, but Robinson is reaping her reward for all the hard work and dedication she’s put in at Clemson over the last four-plus years.

“Amari is very talented and very good, but the thing that makes her exceptional is that she's just elitely consistent,” Butler said of Robinson. “I know it's probably a product of her parenting and who she is as an individual and how she sees herself and her own internal standard that she brings every day. She almost arrived that way on campus. That's been her superpower from the beginning is just being consistent. She's intense, and she can bring intensity, but her consistency is way greater than her intensity in a way that produces results. I think her being a fifth-year player and a fifth-year player who's been at Clemson all five in today's climate and the landscape of college basketball is remarkable, and it makes her remarkable.

“I think it shows who she is as a person, her loyalty. She loves her University, and she knew that the trajectory is in a direction that she has had a direct hand in altering in a positive direction. I think she deserves to be here for a fifth year and for this to be her best year yet. She's worked very, very hard and invested a lot of who she is to put us in the position we're in. That's a position to come into a year that we have really high expectations for ourselves. Not that we haven't had those in the past, but you learn a little bit every year about how hard it's going to be and how close you are to being the team that you think can be or how far away and how to get there. She's been through it all. To have her experience and have her level of talent, and then you combine that with who she is as a human being, who she is as a leader, who she is as a woman, she is the embodiment of HYBLAW. Handle your business like a woman.”

As a veteran on a team with 11 upperclassmen, Robinson is the unquestioned leader in the locker room, and she has taken it upon herself her entire career to help the younger players, even if it means – rarely – using her teacher voice.

“Throughout the years, having the younger teammates and not understanding concepts, being able to use my teacher voice and teacher skills to help them, whether it's breaking down film or concepts or it might be the way I say it is different than how Coach Butler or other coaches say it so being able to break things down into smaller pieces for my teammates so we can be successful on the court,” Robinson said. “I try not to use my teacher voice with my teammates because they're a lot older and should know better, but sometimes it does come out a little bit.”