Here's to you, Mr. Robinson: Fortune, fame sure to follow

Thomas Robinson rocks.

Thomas Robinson dominates.

Thomas Robinson is driven to greatness.

Thomas Robinson is The Man!

Those are the mantras I recite into my bathroom mirror every morning.

Eh, not really, although, you know, they probably ought to be. Besides, only the DMV and credit-card companies - and my column picture today - know me as Thomas, so the mirror would sense something was up anyway.

Rather, the declarations describe the brilliant college basketball season the Kansas junior forward from Washington, D.C., by that cool name has produced in the wake of family tragedy a little more than a year ago.

Knowing what I know of him through national media reports - and given how I've always been half on the lookout for a star namesake athlete just for conversation's sake - I'm proud to enlist in the Thomas Robinson fan club.

Come on along, why don't you?

Thomas Robinson is worth your time. He's had it rough, after all, and he's emerging on top. During the middle of his sophomore season as Kansas' sixth man, his maternal grandparents and then his single mother died separately within a month of each other.

Three full-body blows in a row. And then came constant worry for his 8-year-old sister, Jayla, left motherless in D.C. while he was in school and playing ball in the Midwest. Jayla's father, recently incarcerated, stepped in but Thomas dotes on her as best he can from 1,100 miles away.

It makes for a terrible tale of loss that the 6-foot-10 Robinson, a leading candidate to be named Player of the Year in college and a strong NBA prospect, is turning into an inspiring tale of triumph for the fourth-ranked Jayhawks (20-5).

In his first year as a starter, Robinson averaged 18 points and 12 rebounds, which is a rare combination of excellence in college hoops. It's Tim Duncan and Blake Griffin territory.

It is superb, the product of especially powerful motivation now to take basketball as far as he can take it. When they planted a tree at Kansas to honor his mother, Thomas wrote a note to her and buried it with the roots, according to a profile on ESPN.com.

The note said: "Mom, I guarantee you have no worries about Jayla. I will make sure everything is okay. I won't blink. My promise."

Yeah, you go, T-Rob.

Sadly, the Kansas people wouldn't let me talk to my man for a couple minutes on the phone, seeing as how his plate is already full of requests and all that. If I got him, I was going to tell him how proud I was of him for, among everything else, playing up to the exacting standards of his name.

And I was going to mention what great work he was doing restoring pride to a surname that's a little down on its luck throughout sports right now.

Sure, Cooperstown houses a few Robinsons, but Jackie, Brooks and Frank aren't walking through that door anymore, if you know what I mean. MLB.com lists five Robinsons on big-league baseball rosters at the moment. You've never heard of any of them.

David Robinson is in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, though, and we are proud of cousin Dave. Also, of little Nate, the freakishly springy 5-9 guard with the Golden State Warriors who's a three-time winner of the NBA dunk contest.

Canton is still waiting to enshrine its first football Robinson, although Ramzee Robinson was Mr. Irrelevant in the 2007 draft, so that's something, right?

Anyway, trust me, no one shrine-worthy currently graces our gridirons either, unless free-agent receiver Laurent Robinson, with his career-high 54 catches and 11 touchdowns last season for Dallas, or New Orleans Saints backup cornerback Patrick Robinson are about to bust loose into legends.

Yeah, probably not.

Which is where Thomas Robinson comes in large, carrying the hope and faith and long overdue promise of keeping an honorable name in the national conversation - and better yet, the video highlights - for the next decade or longer.

We all can agree, then. Thomas Robinson is an awesome dude.

Tom Robinson, 757-446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com