The one trait that people tend to notice most about Quinnipiac men's basketball twins
Aaron Robinson and
Andrew Robinson, other than their vastly different hairstyles, is that they are always smiling.
It's a trait that they attribute to their mother, Cheryl, who raised them as a single mother on disability. She was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease as a teenager and later dealt with complications from lupus and epilepsy, before she sadly passed away in November. Due to the adversity, the family never had much in the way of material possessions, but if you measure wealth by happiness, they were easily in the one percent.
"She was somebody who was always sick, but she was always that ray of sunshine for us," said Andrew. "So if we see her smiling through her pain, then why can't we?"
"She was always so upbeat, so happy," said Aaron. "No matter what was going on with her, she always had a smile on her face."
As a result of her health complications, Cheryl became paralyzed from the waist down during the twins' senior year of high school, which eventually forced her from the family's apartment and into a rehab center. Aaron and Andrew decided to stay together beyond high school in order to make it easier for her to visit them. They were teammates for one year of prep school at Putnam Science before accepting scholarship offers to Quinnipiac (an excellent choice for a pair of broadcast journalism majors).
The twins made frequent visits home to Maryland their freshman year to do what they could to help take care of their mother as her health failed, all while excelling in the classroom. Andrew earned a 4.0 in his freshman spring, while Aaron was close behind with a 3.8. This fall might have been even more remarkable, as the twins earned identical 3.93 GPAs, one A- away from being perfect, despite losing the woman that Andrew called "our rock" midway through the semester.
The Robinsons attended their mother's funeral on a Friday, along with the Quinnipiac coaching staff and many of their teammates. The following day, they were back with their team, volunteering at a Special Olympics basketball event on campus and posing for pictures with the competitors, naturally with smiles on their faces.
A few days later, the team traveled to Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex for Thanksgiving week to play in the AdvoCare Invitational. It was a difficult time for them, due to the family-oriented nature of the Thanksgiving holiday and the reality of their mother's passing still settling in. Nobody would have batted an eye if they asked to stay home, yet they packed their bags and headed to the so-called "Happiest Place On Earth", a location that was partially ironic and partially perfectly fitting of their mother's memory. Ultimately, though, being with their team was just what they needed, as the program helped to act as their surrogate family while they dealt with their grief.
"I know emotionally they are devastated right now, and it's going to take time," said Head Coach
Tom Moore. "But the fact that they have basketball is a great healing element for them. They have their teammates rallying around them, encouraging them to wake up and attack the next day. The good part about their mother's story is that she got to be there to raise them, put her stamp on them, and make them such special people."
The Robinson twins have had a pink heart sewn into the inside of their game shorts (pink was their mom's favorite color) to help give them some comfort, and they each have her likeness tattooed on their chests. They've also found comfort in their routines. Just as they always have, they've been at practice every single day, ready to work hard and make the team better, while finding time to get some extra shooting in on the side. Aaron is taking a planned redshirt season and hasn't seen any game action, but every time Andrew gets in a game and gets a shot up, you can almost feel the entire Quinnipiac bench trying to will the ball into the basket on his behalf, giving him another reason to flash a smile.
On Thanksgiving Day in Orlando, Andrew checked into a nationally televised contest on ESPN2 against No. 11 Gonzaga midway through the first half. Just over a minute later, he found himself open on the right wing on a fast break. A three-point shooter by trade (he made five in one half against Marist as a freshman to earn the MAAC Rookie of the Week award), he didn't hesitate to put up the shot -- his first shot since his mother's passing.
Swish.
If there was ever a shot that was destined to go in, that might have been it. In addition to it being Thanksgiving, it also would have been his mother's 55th birthday.
"That was definitely a special moment," said Andrew. "It really felt like she was out there with me."