Senior forward Amari Robinson has been voted Clemson’s Best Female Athlete by the student body due to her outstanding contributions to the women’s basketball team.
Robinson has played the most minutes of any player on the team this season, averaging 28.9 minutes per game. Her field goal percentage is also the highest on the team at 46.3%, and she leads the Tigers in points per game with 13.4.
Despite being named the best female athlete by her peers, Robinson insists she is not done.
“I definitely want to make it to the postseason for us as a team, and I want to close this season out better than when we started,” Robinson told The Tiger earlier this year. “We definitely started high and have our ups and downs, and I want to make sure we stay consistent on that upward incline so that our post-season aspirations come to life.”
This is Robinson’s fourth season at Clemson. She came out of high school ranked as the No. 18 forward in the country, according to ESPN HoopGurlz, and was also a local star, winning Region Player of the Year two separate times.
As she transitioned to the college level, the Douglasville, Georgia, native wasted no time making an immediate impact on the Tigers’ team. Not only was she named Clemson’s female Rookie of the Year for the 2019-2020 season, but she was also named to the ACC-All Freshman Team and earned ACC Freshman of the Week honors.
In her sophomore year, she started all 26 games for the Tigers, scoring 8.8 points and grabbing a team-high 6.1 rebounds per game. Despite the team having a 5-12 record in the ACC that season, she had her best performance against No. 23 Syracuse when she recorded 23 points, nine rebounds, four steals and three assists.
Although last year was rather dismal for the women’s basketball team (10-21 overall, 3-15 ACC), Robinson still had a stellar year in her 30 games. She scored over 25 points against both Boston College and Florida State and shot 80.6% from the free-throw line. She also brought in 6.1 rebounds and averaged 11 points per game that season.
The program as a whole has improved vastly this season, as the Tigers already have more wins than last season, sitting at a 14-14 overall record. The overall success of the team this season is something that Robinson attributes to their chemistry off the court.
“Just doing little things like having team lock-ins, playing games as a team or going somewhere to eat as a team — just doing those little things outside of the court to help develop it on the court,” she said.
Although she displayed her talent long before coming to Clemson, this is the first time Robinson has received the Best of Clemson Female Athlete of the Year award.
She is also just as talented academically as she is athletically, earning a selection to the ACC All-Academic Team each year she has been at Clemson, as well as being named to the ACC Academic Honor Roll twice.
Robinson and the Tigers will finish off the regular season on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 2 p.m. EST against the Florida State Seminoles.
