Meyer on Morris Link
 
Moon Township, Pa. – Oct. 31, 2013 – Robert Morris University's exhibition game against California (Pa.) Monday went pretty much the way these contests usually go for the Colonials. There were some bright spots, some lowlights and a win.
 
However, that last item took a bit of doing.
 
The Division II Vulcans held a 51-45 lead with eight and-a-half minutes left and still led by a point, 58-57, with 2:50 remaining.
 
But the Colonials, who spent much of the night trying to merge six players new into the program with the veterans, came together from then on and emerged with a 64-58 victory at the Charles L. Sewall Center.
 
"It was a great learning experience,'' senior point guard Anthony Myers-Pate said of the Colonials having to come from behind and get -- and then protect -- a lead. "For the new guys, their first college experience, it was a great learning experience.''
 
"The new guys'' -- as they'll be called for a while, it appears -- contributed down the stretch.
 
Freshman forward Jeremiah Worthem made two free throws after grabbing an offensive rebound to put the Colonials ahead for good at 59-58 with 2:24 left. After Myers-Pate made a field goal two minutes later, freshman point guard Kavon Stewart sealed the deal with three free throws in the final 16 seconds.
 
"As a team, I thought we had good energy,'' Myers-Pate said. "It was just the small detail things that we go over in practice that we didn't convert over to the game. A lot of old guys and the new guys (were to blame). We didn't mesh well. We didn't communicate.''
 
"We didn't really use our formula to the best of our abilities,'' senior center Mike McFadden said. "We messed up a couple of hedges, a couple of communication situations. It kind of put us in a hard place at the end of the game, but we were able to pull it out.''
 
Guard Desjuan Newton, a junior college transfer who stood out throughout the game, offered his perspective.
 
"I feel it went (well) because we got the win, but there's always room for improvement,'' Newton said. "The things we go through in practice we have to translate over into the game. I enjoyed myself. I got frustrated from time to time because I know what my team can do, and I hold everybody to a high standard. The things we weren't doing, I kind of let that frustrate me. Overall, though, I enjoyed myself."
 
It was Myers-Pate's first game as the Colonials' primary point guard. He performed well, scoring five points, dishing four assists, getting a steal and committing just one turnover in 23 minutes.
 
"I felt OK,'' Myers-Pate said. "I feel like I have to do more. I need to give everybody else energy, get everybody else riled up. I'm still working on that. But I felt comfortable.''
 
RMU coach Andrew Toole's level of comfort ebbed and flowed during the exercise.
 
"There will be an invaluable amount of film we can watch and use to hopefully grab guys' attention about what you have to do in order to be successful at the Division I level,'' Toole said. "(The) six new guys, I thought some of them did well. Some of them didn't do as well. There are certain things we did that I liked. There was a lot that we have to get better at.''
 
Which, really, is not a surprise with the season opener against Savannah State at the Sewall Center just ahead on Nov. 9.
 
"Detail escapes us sometimes with this group so far, and a lot of it is because they're new,'' Toole said. "They don't know. They've been able to get away with certain behaviors or certain lack of detail because they're talented or whatever might be the case, and now they have to figure out that some of this stuff that we're showing them on a daily basis in practice is really important -- being able to execute on offense, being able to execute on defense.
 
"I hoped some of the basic concepts we'd be doing better right now, to be honest with you. Simple things that I don't think require a whole lot of basketball IQ or a whole lot of knowledge. Jump out and close on the ball. There's stuff that we haven't been able to cover yet because we're still going over step one and step two. My hope would be that some of our guys would have taken those things more seriously as we get closer to games. I knew there would be game slippage. I knew there would be some mistakes and some errors, but some of the things I think we've worked on in practice I would hope some guys would have grasped it a little better than they have.''
 
Repetition, it appears, doesn't always produce understanding.
 
"How many times do you have to put your hand on the stove before you learn you're going to get burned if it's hot?'' Toole said. "This goes to, 'Are you competitive?' If I'm losing drills in practice because I'm not taking care of certain details and a coach or a coaching staff who I chose to play for is telling me I should do something differently, that seems to be enough to me logically. Like, 'OK, then I should change my behavior.' Now, there are some people it takes a little while for them join the party. Every team would love to have a team where there are 13 guys who say, 'OK. I want to play. This is what I need to do to play, and coach is telling me I'm not doing it, so I have to figure out how to do it.'''
 
The distribution of minutes played by "the new guys'' Monday could offer an indication of who's getting it and who isn't thus far.
 
Worthem and Stewart each played 19 minutes. Newton played 15 minutes. Aaron Tate was on the floor for nine minutes, while Britton Lee and Charles Oliver played five minutes apiece.
 
Worthem, a 6'6", 215-pounder, showed a knack for the glass. He had a game-high 10 rebounds and also contributed five points.
 
"He had some huge rebounds late in the game,'' Toole said. "That's what he does. He's a tough aggressive dude.''
 
Stewart, a 6'0" bundle of energy from Paterson, N.J., had 10 points, four rebounds, two steals and an assist and a steal.
 
"For the position he's going to try to play, he's going to see so many different things as we go through the year,'' Toole said. "There are going to be a lot of learning experiences for him. It's going to be a case of how well does he know his offense and where he blends in and where his personnel is supposed to be, how well is he understanding time and score situations. We're going to have to help him through some different defenses people do, some different ways people guard stuff. He's going to have a lot to learn as we go through this entire year.''
 
It's possible that Stewart and Myers-Pate will be on the floor together at times this season -- much like Myers-Pate and graduated point guard Velton Jones played together at times last season.
 
"I'm a guy who loves to have as many people on the floor who can make plays for themselves or make plays for others, so I could see them playing together at times,'' Toole said. "Kavon did some really good things tonight. Ant did some really good things tonight. We'll watch the film and see what more they can do for us.''
 
The 6'2'' Newton, likely to become a fan favorite quickly, had 10 points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal.
 
"You can't watch practice or even this exhibition and not know he was in the game,'' Toole said. "He's always involved in the action -- positively and negatively. More times than not it's positive. He has a ton of energy. He plays really hard. He competes. We just have to harness it. He has to learn when to go, when not to go. When to go for a steal, when not to go for a steal. Taking all that energy and that aggressiveness and kind of harnessing it in the right direction, I think we'll really have something.''
 
McFadden led "the old guys'' with an efficient game-high 18 points, getting those on 7-for-9 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 accuracy from the free throw line. He showed off a mid-range jump shot in addition to his close-in scoring.
 
"Mike was really active,'' Toole said. "I thought he ran the floor really well. I thought he got out in space and was able to use that space and attack. That's stuff we want to do with him. We want to have some more flow offensively where we can move him around a little bit more. Then maybe he can use his quickness and athleticism to go by some guys who might be bigger and stronger.''
 
McFadden averaged 8.5 points per game last season. Perhaps he can boost that four or five points per game this season.
 
"A lot of teams understand that I'm more of a finisher (around the basket) than a shooter,'' McFadden said, "so I'm just trying to add more to my offensive game. It's more just having confidence in myself. I (can) shoot. I never had confidence in it. This year it's a different approach. Hopefully during the season I can stay with that confidence and be more of an offensive threat. I think I'll have a much bigger role in the offense. Last year, and the year before that, we had a team full of scorers. We have a team full of scorers this year, but I'm a senior and I'm more of a top four option offensively. I'm taking that approach, and I'm ready for it.''
 
Senior guard Karvel Anderson, the Colonials' leading scorer last season at 12.5 points per game, was a non-factor Monday night. He was just 1-for-9 from the floor and had three points. He did have five rebounds.
 
"I think he was just off,'' Toole said. "He didn't get a couple to go early and didn't get some great looks. I think he passed up a couple where he was open, to be honest with you. And there were probably a  couple times when he was missed by his teammates. We want him to be aggressive and not be second-guessing that he missed the last (shot). If he's open, we want him to shoot it.''

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