Send up a prayer for Thomas Robinson tonight

If there is anyone that you are going to root for this season, it should be Thomas Robinson.

In December, Robinson's maternal grandmother passed away. On January 16th, his maternal grandfather died. And on Friday night at 11:00 pm -- only 17 hours before the Jayhawks were scheduled to tip off their most important game of the entire regular season -- Robinson found out that his mother had died of an apparent heart attack.

She was only 37 years old, a single parent that was raising Robinson's nine-year old sister Jayla. His sister was the one who called to give Robinson the tragic news.

“How his life has changed so much just overnight, it’s a pretty sad thing. People deal with it all the time. He’ll deal with it like a man. But still your heart certainly hurts for him and his family,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.

“As a coach, you always think your players like each other,” he added. “That’s always been a quality all teams have – good teams like each other. It’s very important. And last night I saw a different level than I even knew existed. It was pretty special. The mothers of some of the players that live here were over there. The whole team was there. It was the saddest thing I’d ever seen in my life. It was something that was humbling but also made you proud. They do care about each other an awful lot.”

I feel for Robinson. He never knew his father, which means he lost essentially entire in the span of a month, and his sister lives in Washington DC.

Robinson made the decision on Saturday morning, after being up all hours of the night with his teammates and some their families. He won't be making the trip to Colorado with his team for Tuesday's game. He is flying back to Washington DC, and his mother's funeral looks like it will be held either Thursday or Friday.

I'll touch on the the Texas game and what it means in tomorrow's Pregame Beat.

For now, my thoughts and prayers go out to Thomas Robinson. Keep your head up, big fella.