Marquette basketball player Natalie Robinson is in good company.
The 5-foot-11 senior forward ranks third in program history in career steals behind star junior guard Laniah Davis and 2019 Indiana All-Star Emma Nolan, who helped lead the Blazers to consecutive state championships in 2018 and 2019.
That underscores the impact that Robinson has made in her four seasons as a starter. But it only scratches the surface.
“She’s so versatile,” Marquette coach Katie Collignon said. “That’s one of her best attributes. She can play point guard. She can play the center position.”
Robinson, whose 236 career steals are just 14 fewer than the record shared by Davis and Nolan, is particularly effective on defense, though.
“She has such a nose for the basketball,” Collignon said. “She really does. The amount of deflections she gets, rebounds. She gets a lot of tips. She gets her hand on the ball. She’s just so disruptive on the defensive end. She’s really a staple on our defense.
“There’s some plays she makes that’s like, ‘Gosh, we’re really going to miss that next year.’ She makes quiet plays that might not show up on the stat sheet but just make such a huge difference for us, especially defensively.”
But by no means are Robinson’s contributions limited to one end of the court for the Blazers (22-4), who reached the Class 1A state championship game last year and will play North Miami (16-10) in a LaPorte Semistate semifinal on Saturday.
“Offensively, she does a great job for us too,” Collignon said. “She plays our four position, but she also plays some guard for us. She makes us a lot bigger when she’s playing guard, which is nice.
“She handles the ball well. She can shoot it. She’s had some really good takes to the basket this year. She’s really been more aggressive on the offensive end as well.”
Still, Robinson has embraced her primary responsibility.
“I focus on defense,” she said. “I feel like I’ve gotten better with my defense — and offense too. But I still have work to do. Defensively, I try my best, and I do get a lot of stops.
“At first, I wanted to score more, and I can score. But I feel like if I don’t score, I have to play defense. Defense is my first priority. If I don’t get on the offensive end, I can get on the defensive end. I like defense a lot. I like playing defense, getting stops, so my teammates can score.”
Practicing against Davis has helped Robinson hone her craft.
“Coach has me guard Laniah in practice, and guarding Laniah is pretty hard,” Robinson said. “The more I guard her, the more I get better on defense. If I can guard her, I can guard pretty much anybody because she’s really fast, she has skills, she can get to the basket, she can shoot.”
Robinson has been remarkably consistent throughout her career. She is averaging 5.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.8 steals this season and ranks second on the team behind Davis in both rebounds and steals.
But sophomore guard Marissa Pleasant believes this season’s version of Robinson has been the best yet. Pleasant was 6 years old when she met Robinson, and they played together in Portage Youth Basketball along with Pleasant’s sister Kayla, a senior at Portage. Pleasant and Robinson have also played together in AAU.
“Just watching her grow to be the basketball player she is today is amazing,” Pleasant said. “She has developed so much even from her junior year to her senior year. There’s just been a drastic change. She’s matured a lot in the game. She’s a threat now. Not that she wasn’t before, but she’s a huge threat on the court. She can get that rebound, she can defend, she can get that basket when she has to.
“She’s like a gazelle. She’s shifty. She’s just really good. It’s going to be a big loss when we lose her next year. We’ll always appreciate her.”
So, too, will Collignon.
“She just does things right,” Collignon said of Robinson. “When you do that, you put yourself in a role and play a lot of minutes. She might not have the biggest stats, but she does so many things for us that it’s hard to take her off the floor. I take her off for a second, and she’s going right back in. She’s just a tough competitor.”
Robinson also competes in cross country, track and softball. But she wants to continue to play basketball in college, where she intends to major in nursing.
She would like nothing better than to leave Marquette with a state championship, especially after the near-miss last year.
“We’ve been playing with each other for a long time,” Robinson said. “We have that chemistry with each other, that bond. It feels like a family.
“We’ve worked hard for this. Last year being state runner-up, we just looked at it differently. Now we actually have to go for it this time.”
