By Paul Meyer
RMUColonials.com
Oct. 23, 2013
 
Meyer on Morris Link
 
Moon Township, Pa. - In recent seasons, Robert Morris University has played in the NCAA Tournament, the National Invitation Tournament and the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.
 
So what's next for them? The Super Bowl?
 
Apparently, that's correct.
 
According to one inside source, the Colonials will do just that Nov. 17 when they play at Kentucky.
 
"We don't just play college basketball -- we are college basketball,'' UK coach John Calipari told Wildcat Nation a few days ago as part of Big Blue Madness. "As you know, we are everyone's Super Bowl.''
 
If that's true -- and that's debatable -- then perhaps a college football team playing Alabama is like the seventh game of the World Series. Or maybe like, say, Denver and New Orleans meeting in February in that "One Shining Moment'' game. Or Boston and St. Louis playing in the Frozen Four.
 
Or maybe it's just kind of a quibble-drive to call Calipari out on his hyperbole.
 
Whatever, this year's Colonials won't go all Super Bowl about playing the Wildcats again. After all, last March 19 Robert Morris turned the Wildcats into the Buffalo Bills and beat them, 59-57, at a jam-packed Charles L. Sewall Center.
 
"It's a game on our schedule that I think as we get closer will add some more excitement to the game,'' Robert Morris coach Andrew Toole said Monday. "We know how talented they are. We know how gifted they are. We know how hungry they're going to be because Coach Cal mentioned that they were humbled last year. I'm sure they have been reminded of that over and over and over and are going to be out for, you know, blood.''
 
In that game March 19, the Wildcats seemed more like they were out for, you know, just the merciful end to a disappointing season.
 
And that's exactly what the Colonials gave them.
 
It was a party-like atmosphere at the Sewall Center that evening, no question, but Super Bowl-like?
C'mon.
 
"I don't know if we were approaching the game in terms of making it a Super Bowl,'' Toole said. "I do think that because of what it says across the front of their jerseys people tend to pay a little more attention or get more excited or prepare better or be more excited to play them. But I don't think we approached it as, 'Hey, this is our Super Bowl.' I think if we would have had any one of a number of high-major teams coming into our building it would have raised the level of our excitement as a team and gotten our university's attention and the attention of our fans and all that kind of stuff. I wouldn't say we approached it as a Super Bowl. Again, last year's (Kentucky players) -- as we continued to watch them -- I think our guys understood that we would be able to compete, and we hoped we could be there at the end and make a couple plays, and that's what happened.''
 
Right about now, you could be thinking, "Hey, that game at Kentucky -- Super Bowl or not -- isn't until Nov. 17, so why are you writing about it now?''
 
Decent question, so let's move on.
 
The Colonials are about three and-a-half weeks into their preparations for the Super Bowl … er, the start of the regular season against
 
Savannah State Nov. 9 at the Sewall Center.
 
But they're less than a week away from actually playing a game, albeit of the exhibition variety. The Colonials play California (Pa.).
 
Monday night at the Sewall Center at 7 p.m.
 
While the game isn't anywhere close to a Super Bowl, it will be a welcome break from the tedium of practices for the Colonials.
 
"It will be great,'' Toole said. "It's not just (at Robert Morris). It's everywhere. I think a lot of guys sometimes need to learn the hard way. As much as you tell them over and over in practice there are certain things to do, for whatever the reason when you play against a different opponent, when you see a different jersey, when you see someone you haven't seen before and maybe you're not as successful as you would like to be, some of the lessons start to sink in. I'm hopeful in the Cal game we can learn a lot from that experience.''
 
The Colonials began practice Sept. 27, so they're deep into "When are we going to do something different?'' mode, which isn't surprising.
 
"Especially because of the number of new guys we have," Toole said. "In the past, we would start practice around Oct. 15, practice for three weeks, play a game and get into the game schedule and then maybe come early December people would maybe hit the wall a little bit and start to grind some. Well, now they're going to have six weeks of practice before they even get to a (regular season) game. There are definitely some ebbs and flows to their ability to maintain their intensity on a daily basis, and that's where you have to do some coaching and some motivating and some discussing to help guide these guys through the process.''
 
That said, Toole is thankful for the extended preseason practice time.
 
"We needed as many team reps as we possibly could having six new guys,'' he said. "We needed all of them to be able to have as much of an understanding as they possibly could about what they need to do to be successful here. In the past, we probably would have had a week of practices under our belts. Instead, we have about 15 practices under our belts at this point, and I think it makes a dramatic difference. We're not anywhere near where we want to be, but I think we've improved. Judging from a couple of the intrasquad scrimmages that we've had that we've seen on film, we've made some improvements on the details, and we need to keep improving as much as we can before November 9.''
 
Any of the new players standing out so far?
 
"Each of them has their days in a positive way,'' Toole said. "Each of them has their days in a negative way, and it's because they're really learning the grind of Division I basketball. I'd say Aaron Tate has probably done the best job of any of our new guys in terms of trying to do what we're asking him to do, trying to pick up the concepts, trying to understand the terminology, trying to be in the right spots. He's not always there, (but) even our returning guys aren't always there.''
 
Tate is a 6'5'' sophomore from New Bern, N.C., and Dodge City Community College.
 
"I think he's done the best job of taking coaching and trying to implement it into his game,'' Toole said.

Toole, entering his fourth season as the RMU head coach, also cited Desjuan Newton, a 6'2" junior from Seattle and Central Arizona College.
 
"He's probably done the best job competing on a daily basis,'' Toole said. "He's a guy who brings a tremendous amount of energy onto the court.''
 
So Monday evening pay some attention to Tate and Newton -- because their new teammates certainly have.
 
"Our team ranks the other players on the team, and those two guys have been (consistently) on the high side because I think (the players) understand the value of what they've brought this early in practice.''

Something not to pay too much attention to is who starts Monday night.
 
"One of the things I dislike is 'starters, backups,''' Toole said. "They're players. I want basketball players. Whether their opportunity on the floor is small or whether their opportunity is great, I want them to come in and be able to contribute to us winning. They probably don't always see it that way because they look at it more on an individual basis rather than the collective basis that I do, but I don't put a lot of stock into starters.
 
"I don't put a lot of stock into the 'bench team' versus the starting team or the first team versus the second team. Every day in practice we mix our teams up. If you can play, you can play. I'm more focused on who's going to be in there when we need a big stop or we need to execute. Those are the guys I'm looking for on a daily basis in practice. If you look at the history of our minutes over the last six years, there are a lot of guys who play an equal amount of minutes -- or almost an equal amount of minutes.''

Tweet #PackTheChuck