Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University Colonials Thursday night at Saint Francis University begin the second third of their 18-game Northeast Conference schedule. Or the third sixth of their 18-game Northeast Conference schedule.
Or ...
"Honestly, as players we haven't thought about that,'' senior guard Velton Jones said. "We go day by day. We don't think about anything head. It's a day-to-day contract. That's all we try to worry about. That's how we do it.''
Or at least that's how they've been doing things since they stumbled out of the NEC gate with two losses at home.
"Those two losses were a big wakeup call for us,'' Jones said. "We let two games get away from us, but you just have to let it go and move on, and that's what we've been doing. We just try to get better every day, take it day by day, don't look ahead or don't look forward to anything. Whatever we can control that day, that's what we do.''
Man, you talk about your tunnel vision.
"What we try to do is limit (thinking about) everything other than how we can get better each day,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said. "I'm just worrying about how we're doing things, and I want our guys to be doing that same exact thing.''
Apparently the message has been received.
"Day-to-day contracts, as Toole said,'' sophomore Lucky Jones said. "We just have to continue to work hard. Forget about the last game, move on to the next game. Forget about the last practice, move on to the next practice and try to get better each and every day.''
Toole began using the day-to-day contract mantra after that 0-2 start. If a player doesn't give what Toole feels is the proper effort in practice, the coach excuses that player from the rest of that day's practice.
If a player doesn't exert himself to what Toole feels is the appropriate manner in a game, said player will not play in the next game.
Lucky Jones is a case in point.
He was suspended for the game at Fairleigh Dickinson Jan. 10.
Lesson learned. Two nights later, he scored 18 points and had eight rebounds in the Colonials' 70-55 victory at Monmouth.
"It was a wakeup call,'' Jones said. "My teammates told me, 'You need to come out of your little slump and come help us.' It was a big light bulb (turning on) in my head.''
Jones followed that strong performance with 15 points in RMU's win against Sacred Heart last Thursday and then had another 18-and-8 effort against Quinnipiac last Saturday night.
"It's unfortunate it ever had to get to a place like that,'' Toole said. "When you're as talented as Lucky is and you want to be a good player, a quick reminder in practice that you're not up to par should be sufficient for you to re-focus yourself and go out and do what you're supposed to do. Sometimes it takes people a little bit longer to learn, and I think we're going to continue to go on these day-to-day contracts and hold guys accountable every day.''
Something Toole has to guard against constantly is the Colonials becoming victims of their recent success. They won 117 games in the previous five seasons and have played in the past four NEC championship games.
"You have success and then maybe you don't have the same focus, the same desire,'' Toole said. "It's why sometimes becoming successful is easier than maintaining success. As soon as you get successful, you want to relax. That's what our natural instinct is - 'Hey, I just worked really hard and did good things. Now give me a break.'
"We talked about this early in the year, that this would be a real test of our leadership and our maturity. Sometimes this season it's wavered, so now we just have to keep it as simple as humanly possible and stay as focused as we can.''
Toole can understand it - to a point.
"You get distracted. You lose focus,'' he said. "You go through the spring, you go through the summer, you go through the fall, and every time you walk around campus someone's saying, 'Hey, you guys are going to be so good this season. You guys are going to be great.' And then you come into the gym and your coach is saying you're going to stink and then all of a sudden it's like, 'Well, I want to believe those people (out on the campus) because that's so much easier than what (the coaches) are telling me.'''
Toole does seem to recognize that his players have apparently taken to heart the day-to-day approach.
"Our defensive details have been better,'' he said. "Our urgency's been better, and I think our focus has been better.''
That's resulted in the Colonials' current four-game winning streak that has made some RMU observers call this team "resilient.''
"I don't know if it's a resilient group,'' Toole said. "I think it's a group that at times is a little bit frustrating and a group that's a little bit inconsistent. That's been our M.O. all year. You know, two losses, three wins, two losses, three wins, kind of get fat and happy, not play well, get embarrassed, now all of a sudden get re-focused and run off a little stretch (of wins). Now the question will be, can we maintain this? Can we continue to stay humble and stay hungry and prepare ourselves each and every day for whoever our next opponent is?''
These Colonials do seem to have regained their defensive swagger, although Toole noted that Sacred Heart last Thursday night shot 47 percent from the field and Quinnipiac Saturday night shot 56 percent.
"I have to figure it out because I thought these last two games we defended pretty well,'' Toole said. "We might have to turn to points-per-possession. That might look a little more kind to the Colonials. But I'm going to keep reminding them of this 56 percent and that we need to continue to get stops. That the shooting percentages are too high and that we need to continue to grind out wins. If you look at one-bid leagues, the team that's up there in field goal percentage defense is a lot of times the champion.''
Currently, against NEC opponents, the Colonials rank eighth in field goal percentage defense, allowing foes to shoot 44.8 percent from the field. Yet they rank third in scoring defense (67.8 points per game).
The difference can be explained by their tenacity defensively. The Colonials lead the league in steals (10 per game) and turnovers forced per game (16.3). And they're also first in turnover margin (plus-4.5 per game).
"Defense is always the thing for us,'' Velton Jones said. "We lost track a little bit, but since then that's all we do - defense, defense, defense. That's how you win championships. Not by scoring. Defense wins championships, and that's what we've been trying to do. We're trying to get back to our old Robert Morris ways, and that's playing defense.''
The Colonials at Saint Francis University also will have to rebound well.
Red Flash sophomore Earl Brown is averaging 15.4 rebounds per game in a seven-game stretch of double-doubles.
"He's killing it on the backboard,'' Toole said. "He's been great.''
Brown, a high school teammate of Colonial David Appolon at Philadelphia's Imhotep Charter, owns the longest consecutive double-double streak by an NEC player since current Red Flash assistant coach Eric Taylor had an eight-gamer during the 1997-98 season (Jan. 10-Feb. 2). Taylor also had a 10-game double-double streak that season (Nov. 10, 1997-Jan. 3, 1998).
Saint Francis University is 1-16 and has lost five straight games since beating Central Connecticut State in the NEC opener Jan. 3. However, the Red Flash aren't getting blown out. Twice it lost by five points or less and twice more it lost in overtime.
"There's frustration because everybody wants to win,'' sophomore guard Dom Major told the Altoona Mirror last Saturday. "We have the tools to do it. It makes it more frustrating because we know we have the tools.''
NEC NUGGETS: Robert Morris became the second NEC program to reach 300 regular season league victories with its win against Quinnipiac. The Colonials (300-240) join Fairleigh Dickinson in the 300 club ... Colonial senior Russell Johnson will become the 21st member of RMU's 1,000-point club if he scores at least four points Thursday night. That would also make him the 12th Colonial to amass 1,000 points and 500 rebounds ... Those three overtime games in the NEC last Thursday night were a first. According to the league, there had never been a slate of league games that produced three overtime contests on the same day ... NEC-leading Bryant is 13-4 overall after finishing 2-28 last season. That 11-win jump made the Bulldogs through last weekend the most improved team in the country this season.
