Meyer on Morris Link
 
Moon Township, Pa. - Oct. 28, 2013 - If genes have something to do with the situation, Robert Morris University's primary point guard should be pretty good this season.
 
Anthony Myers-Pate, having waited his turn for three seasons, will man the point for RMU in 2013-14 -- six years after his cousin finished a stellar run in the position.
 
You might remember Derek Coleman. He became the primary point guard late in his freshman season (2003-04) and played there for the rest of his standout RMU career from 2003 to 2007.
 
Coleman finished with 1,042 points, which when he graduated ranked him 18th on the Robert Morris career scoring list. He also had 440 assists, fifth-best all-time when he left.
 
In his senior season, Coleman, who averaged a stamina-sapping 38 minutes per game, averaged 12.8 points and 5.4 assists per contest.
 
And he was just about indispensable.
 
Late that season, a reporter asked coach Mark Schmidt what it would be like not having Coleman at the point the following season.
 
"It will be like losing [Ben] Roethlisberger or Carson Palmer or [Tom] Brady or [Peyton] Manning," Schmidt told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I'm not saying he's at that level, but he's that important to us and what we do. Without him, we're not nearly as good."
 
Schmidt paused, then added: "Without him, we wouldn't be able to play.''
 
High praise for Myers-Pate's cousin indeed. And a pretty tough act to follow.
 
Then consider this other tough act Myers-Pate gets to follow. He succeeds at the primary point guard position a guy named Velton Jones, who is arguably one of the best players the Colonials have ever had.
 
Myers-Pate, though, is ready.
 
He gets advice from Coleman.
 
"I talk to him a lot,'' Myers-Pate said. "We hooked up this summer. He's happy for me. He always lets me know that. He might say it on Twitter, Instagram. He'll comment on my pictures when I'm working out. If I post something about Robert Morris, he always has something to say about it in a positive way. He's happy for me. He's always telling me to go hard and be hungry and humble.''
 
Myers-Pate learned a lot by playing with Jones and studying him on the court when he was on the bench. For three seasons.
 
"I learned about leadership from 'V''', Myers-Pate said. "Speaking up to guys. Being the heart of the team -- dive on the floor when you need to. Get everybody else riled up. Little things like that. I mean, there's some stuff you can't teach -- like heart.
 
"It's my time to show it now.''
 
Myers-Pate does not come into this job without some experience at the point. He started eight games at the position last season -- including that rather memorable National Invitation Tournament game against Kentucky -- when Jones was sidelined for various reasons.
 
Over his three previous seasons, Myers-Pate averaged 23.5 minutes, 5.5 points and 3.1 assists per game. Thanks to a career total of 315 assists entering 2013-14, Myers-Pate could wind up surpassing his cousin's career total.
 
Coleman impacted the point guard position at Robert Morris in a way not connected with his points and assists.
 
When Mike Rice was named the Colonials' head coach after the 2006-07 season, he studied a lot of Robert Morris film. Something he noticed almost immediately was how much time Coleman spent handling the ball. On some possessions, Coleman would pretty much dribble the ball for many of the 35 seconds.
 
Rice, who brought in current RMU head coach Andrew Toole as an assistant back then, wanted the point guard to become more aggressive -- and that showed in the way Jones handled running the point.
 
"We want our point guards to be aggressive,'' Toole said. "We want them to be attacking. We want them to be play-making. But we also don't want them to be ball-stoppers. We don't want them to be someone who's just going to hold onto the ball. They have to be quick decision makers. If you have the opportunity to attack, take it. If you don't, move the ball and move yourself and let someone else
try to attack. Some of the motion offense that we run allows for a number of guys to have opportunities to either dribble-penetrate or make a play for themselves or make a play for a teammate.
 
"I think (point guard) is one of the hardest positions to play in college basketball. You're somebody who really has to be in tune with situational basketball -- time and score. You have to be in tune with the coaching staff. You have to be in tune with your personality. You really have to have a good grasp of a lot of things that are going on in the game. We try to utilize our point guards in a way where we can bring some organization to our team. We want to give them opportunities to kind of start the process of putting the defense at a disadvantage. The point guard has to be in tune with what's going on not only on the court, but the bench. They need to be the bridge between those two worlds.''
 
Toole has stressed that to Myers-Pate.
 
"He's been doing everything in his power to give me little tools and ways to be a better leader,'' Myers-Pate said. "He's always sending me text messages about NBA point guards like (Rajon) Rondo and how he makes everybody around him better. (Toole) does little things like that -- emails, tweets -- daily.''
 
Toole knows that how Myers-Pate handles the point will go a long way toward determining how successful the Colonials are this season, and he seems perfectly comfortable with Myers-Pate handling the position.
 
"Ant's somebody who I know 98, 99, 100 percent of the decisions he makes are in the best interests of the team,'' Toole said. He's not a guy who I ever say, 'Hmmm. I wonder if there was something to that.' Or, 'Man, I can't rely on Ant to work hard today.' He's one of our hardest workers -- whether it's in the weight room, whether it's on the court, whether it's in the classroom. You know, he's a guy who has built up a lot of credibility. He's a guy who's built up a lot of trust. There are still some things that we're trying to help him understand and get through. He's got to be maybe a little more vocal this year than he's been in the past, but we don't ask him to do anything we don't think he's capable of doing.
 
"He's played a lot of minutes. He's done a lot of different things. He's played a lot of different roles. He's someone we've relied on greatly his first three years. His responsibilities aren't any different than they were last year. He might not have as big a personality to share the role with as he did in Velton, but I still think that what we asked him to for the last three years is the same thing we're asking him to do this year. There might be more opportunity for him to do it, but the job description hasn't changed entirely. I'm hard on our point guards. I challenge them every day. I expect a lot out of them, and I think he's been used to that during his time here.''
 
Myers-Pate said he began envisioning himself as the Colonial point guard when he was a sophomore.
 
"I was like, 'Man, I can't wait until it's my turn,''' he said. "I knew I had to work extra hard -- harder than I had been working -- and that (it would) show on the court."
 
Myers-Pate takes over a team that lost not only Jones but also Russell Johnson, another of RMU's all-time great players, from last season's 24-11 team. He'll have to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of six new players this season -- quickly.
 
"I think it's going to be hard, not knowing how the six new guys are going to react,'' Myers-Pate said, "but I think it's going to be exciting and I think it's going to be fun.''
 
Myers-Pate will get some help at the point from Kavon Stewart, a freshman from Paterson, N.J.
 
"We're tried to have those two guys spend as much time as we can together,'' Toole said. "We've had Ant kind of show Kavon how to work, show Kavon what's important, show Kavon how to deal with his coaches, how to deal with his teammates. I think Ant's doing a pretty good job of tutoring him on some of the finer points of being a player here.''
 
Toole said Stewart seems to be grasping the nuances and responsibilities of playing point guard at RMU pretty well.
 
"He has a very high basketball IQ,'' Toole said. "He has great vision, so I think he sees a lot of the things that occur on the court offensively, defensively. He has very good anticipation skills and a good feel for when to go, when not to go. He's still learning some of the places that he can and can't go. You know, in high school sometimes you could get all the way to the rim and not have to worry about help. He's still learning some of that territory, but I think he's a kid who wants to be good, and I think he's working like a player who wants to be good.''
 
No doubt Stewart will learn a lot from Myers-Pate, who while running the point this season also will be preparing his likely successor for next season.
 
"It feels great,'' Myers-Pate said. "I know there's a lot of responsibility that comes with (the position). I've been here three years. Now it's my turn. I have to step up to the challenge.''

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