Moon Township, Pa. - Christmas arrived very early for Robert Morris University a few days ago.
Or maybe Thanksgiving simply came early.
Whatever.
"We're thankful,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said.
Consider that in less than 24 hours the Colonials, after an 0-2 start to their season, picked up their first victory, learned they'll have two home games next week and found out Russell Johnson will begin his season Saturday at Xavier after the senior missed the first three games while nursing a high ankle sprain.
All cool stuff indeed.
Taking nothing away from the Colonials' 74-58 win against Fordham last Tuesday evening and from Johnson's return, the coolest gift was the addition of the two home games to a schedule that heretofore included just two games at the Charles L. Sewall Center before January.
Robert Morris will play Bowling Green (1-2) Monday at 7:30 in the consolation round of the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament, then entertain Cleveland State (2-1) Tuesday at 7:30.
"We have talked extensively about how difficult it is for us to have home games,'' Toole said. "It's going to be nice to be able to have two more home games. These will be two very good tests for us. I think it will give us a strong gauge of if we're improving the way we think we should be at this time, and I think it will grab all our guys' attention because we know Cleveland State well and they know Bowling Green. Hopefully, they'll be excited to play them. And hopefully we get a good turnout from fans and have a great atmosphere.''
This will be the Colonials' first-ever meeting with Bowling Green from the Mid-American Conference. Robert Morris played Cleveland State in each of the previous three seasons, losing two of the three games that were decided by a total of 17 points.
In addition to getting to play twice more at home, the Colonials also benefit logistically next week. Had they been scheduled to finish the NIT event on the road, they would have had to travel Sunday after the Xavier game Saturday afternoon and most likely would not have arrived back on campus until the wee hours of Wednesday morning - at the earliest.
"It would have made it more complicated,'' Toole said. "Now we can bus right back after the Xavier game and get a good night's rest Saturday. Sunday we'll prepare for Bowling Green and then Monday be able to go to class and be in our normal routine.''
The Colonials' situation will seem more normal Saturday when Johnson takes the court for the first time. He probably won't start at Xavier, but he'll be a welcome presence nonetheless. In his first three seasons at RMU, Johnson averaged 8.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.
"It's going to add a lot of benefit to us,'' Toole said of Johnson's return.
But it's not just Johnson's points and rebounds.
"It will (give us) another guy who knows what we're trying to, who understands our formula,'' Toole said. "That's huge. He's been through so much in his career here. He can play multiple positions. He's an excellent rebounder. He's another guy who can make a shot. And it just kind of allows us to get more into a flow about what our rotations will be. Maybe we can keep some guys fresh so they can play shorter segments and play harder and be more effective in those segments.
"I hope that he's as excited to get out on the floor as we are to have him back in the mix. I hope he realizes - and he should know this better than anyone in our program other than Lijah (Thompson) -- just how quickly it can be taken away from you. Each time you get to go out there you have to appreciate that, and you have to respect that.''
Lijah Thompson, one of three scholarship seniors on this team, injured his knee in late September and will miss the entire season.
Xavier opened its season with a 117-75 rout of Northeast Conference member Fairleigh Dickinson, then buttoned-up Butler, 62-47.
One of the key players for the Musketeers is old Robert Morris "friend'' Travis Taylor, who transferred from Monmouth of the NEC two years ago.
Taylor, a 6'8" inside presence, averaged 17.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game for Monmouth in 2009-10, his final season as a Hawk.
In the opener against FDU, Taylor had 20 points and 12 rebounds. He followed that with 15 and nine against Butler.
"I thought he'd be a very effective player for (Xavier),'' Toole said. "He has a really nice skill package on the post. He's able to make a 15-footer. He's been very, very aggressive rebounding and defending, and I think it's probably worked out the way he would have liked it.''
Things didn't work out the way the Colonials wanted until their third game this season. After blowout losses at Rider and against Lehigh in their NIT opener, the Colonials had a typical Robert Morris performance in their win against Fordham.
RMU played solid defense, limiting the Rams to 35.8 percent shooting from the field. The Colonials held a 44-31 edge on the glass. They committed only 10 turnovers. And they had four players score in double figures.
Why the turnaround from the two losses?
"I'll say two things,'' Toole said. "One, I think our guys really went into the game understanding that if they did things together that we'd be way more successful than if they tried to do it individually. And, two, we made some shots early that allowed us to be able to stay confident with what we were doing. I think it would have been a much different game if we didn't make some of those shots early in the first half because then guys start to say, 'Well, you know, staying together is great, but we still can't make a basket.' So it was nice to be able to make some shots. At the end of the day you have to score to win.''
It seemed puzzling to a listener that the Colonials, who returned virtually every player from a team that had 26 wins last season, would start this season playing more individually than collectively. Wouldn't the players realize why they were able to win 26 games last season and simply carry that over to this season?
"I'm not sure why it happens,'' Toole said, "but it happens everywhere. I look at programs that are successful. That's why there are so few programs that can sustain the success they have year in and year out. It's difficult. Human nature starts to tell you that you've got it figured out or you can flip a switch and turn it on and off. That's the exact opposite of the truth. I think you start to believe at times that the way you were successful doing it before was just because of what you did as an individual and not necessarily what we did as a team. The game has a really, really, really quick way of humbling you if you disrespect it, and I think we had some guys who were disrespecting the game. It showed them their true colors.''
Still seems strange.
"It's something we monitor all the time,'' Toole said, "and I think if you talk to all the other Division I coaches in the country they monitor it, too. It's trying to balance that idea of being confident but also staying hungry and being humble, understanding that winning is extremely fragile. If you don't follow the process to winning, if you don't buy into what you're doing on a daily basis, if you don't bring the effort and the focus on a daily basis, you can get beat by anybody.''
