By Paul Meyer
www.RMUColonials.com
Feb. 28, 2013
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - There are so many possible scenarios involving the final placement of teams in the Northeast Conference standings that even Ken Pomeroy might be flummoxed.
You know how it goes. If this happens and that happens and don't forget about this other tidbit, then this is how it will turn out.
A bunch of "ifs, ands or ... ''
But the Robert Morris University Colonials need not concern themselves with any of the myriad possibilities.
Except one.
If RMU wins at Bryant Thursday night, they'll be the NEC regular-season champions and thus possess the top seed in the NEC Tournament, meaning they'll play at the Charles L. Sewall Center for the duration of their stay in said event.
"It's going to be exciting,'' Colonial point guard Velton Jones said.
The Colonials will pack a 12-4 NEC record into their luggage for the trip to Smithfield, R.I., where the Bulldogs await with their 11-5 conference mark. Every other team in the NEC has at least six league losses, so this is it.
Unless, of course, it's not. Robert Morris plays at Central Connecticut State Saturday, while Bryant plays Saint Francis University at home Saturday. If those games are relevant to the regular-season championship, there could be other factors in play, but we're not going there now.
So the focus is on the Colonials and Bulldogs Thursday night.
These two teams arrived at this junction from different paths.
The Colonials began the conference season with a two-loss stomach punch at home, falling to Bryant and Central Connecticut State. However, after answering that wakeup call, they strung together 12 wins in 14 games.
"We knew after those two losses if we just kept playing, and playing our way as though we know what we can do, that we'd be fine coming down the stretch,'' Jones said. "I think that's what we did.''
Bryant, celebrated in the media all season because of its tremendous turnaround from last season's 2-28 (1-17 in the NEC) record, won its first six NEC games and nine of its first 11 but has lost three of its past five games.
Jones was a big contributor for the Colonials in that first Bryant game Jan. 3. He scored 24 points and had six assists and six steals. However, the Colonials couldn't overcome the Bulldog trio of Dyami Starks, Frankie Dobbs and Alex Francis, who combined to score almost all of Bryant's points in its 84-77 win.
Starks (29), Dobbs (26) and Francis (18) totaled 73 points that night. Guards Starks and Dobbs shot a combined 12-of-20 from three-point range, and the trio was 23-of-30 from the free throw line. Robert Morris as a team was 11-of-14 from the chalk.
"When we played them the first time, we got away from our formula a little bit,'' Jones said. "This time, we'll just try to stay true to our formula.''
"They caught us when we were out of whack and not doing what we're supposed to do,'' senior Russell Johnson said. "We bought into everything (since then), and now we're rolling. (This) feels like a chance to get them back.''
"There's always a bit of excitement when you lose to a team and then you play them again,'' Jones said.
There are also concerns when you play a team again, and RMU coach Andrew Toole has a few of them.
"Obviously, playing them on the road is completely different than playing them at home,'' Toole said. "They run an extremely efficient offense. They are a difficult team to make uncomfortable because Frankie Dobbs is a fifth-year senior who has a ton of experience (and) plays with great poise and makes really good decisions. They have a terrific understanding of their roles. Bryant's one of the teams that I really enjoy watching play because they seem to have great chemistry, they all understand what their roles are and they try and excel within their role.
"They have three guys-plus who can go for 20 or more points with Starks, Dobbs and Francis, and (Corey) Maynard, (Joe) O'Shea and Vlad Kondratyev are really good at understanding how to play off those other three. There are a lot of things that concern me. Not to mention the fact that it's at their place and they're well coached.''
Bryant coach Tim O'Shea, who is Joe O'Shea's uncle, has deftly guided his team through the tough transition from Division II status to Division I.
"It's a credit to him and his staff,'' Toole said. "Speaking to some of his assistants as they were going through the transition, a lot of them spoke about the fact that he was the perfect guy to do it because he understood what he was getting into. He understood it was going to take some time. He understood it would be a three- or a four-year process from where they were to where they wanted to be. I think he was very intelligent about his planning of this improvement with the transfers sitting out last year (Starks and Joe O'Shea) and some of the things they've put in place. I think he's done a fantastic job.''
Especially because a lot of the current Bulldogs witnessed last season's 2-28 struggle.
"Things change a lot when people get tired of the results,'' Toole said. "I'm sure he had the attention of his whole team in the offseason and the summer and the fall. Those guys are hungry to become successful. It's like in boxing. It's sometimes easy to become the champion. It's hard to stay the champion because now you're taking everyone's best shot. You maybe don't have as much motivation to go out there and prove people wrong because you think you've become successful. When you become successful, a lot of times most people's reaction is to relax. It's very hard to continue to stay on your toes and prepare the right way and maintain the focus.''
Perhaps that was part of the Colonials' problem during that first weekend of league play in early January. After all, they'd played in each of the previous four NEC championship games, winning two. They knew Robert Morris had won at least 20 games in four of the previous five seasons. With their 20 victories this season, the Colonials have made it five 20-plus seasons over a six-season span - a feat unmatched in NEC history.
So Robert Morris is used to success.
"It's hard to get players to understand that you watch a team on film and I'll say, 'Add five percentage points to that guy's three-point shooting percentage. Add five points to that guy's field goal percentage. Add another level of intensity that they're going to play with against us because they want to beat Robert Morris,'" Toole said. "Tom Moore (Quinnipiac's head coach) said after they beat us (Feb. 14) how important it was for his program to understand the feeling about beating Robert Morris. That's a huge compliment for our program.
"It's also a huge responsibility for the guys who are helping run the program and the guys who are in the program right now. I think sometimes our guys who are in the program don't always understand that. You're a freshman or a sophomore here - and even some of the juniors who haven't been to the NCAA Tournament or who haven't been through some of the wars - and you think, 'Oh, (the opposition wants) to win.' No, they really want to beat you. They have extra motivation to come out and play harder against you than they might against some of their other opponents. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.''
Maybe these Colonials have now. Or maybe not.
"It's usually a day-to-day decision that you have to make,'' Toole said of judging his team's awareness. "Going into (last) weekend and having two home games, I thought there was an opportunity for a letdown because we had done good things in the last few weeks. We'd won a nice stretch of games.''
The Colonials didn't have a letdown last weekend. They beat Monmouth and then easily handled Fairleigh Dickinson on Senior Night.
"I was happy with the way we handled each game,'' Toole said. "I think that that's hopefully a sign that we understand how important these games are now. We understand the maturity that it takes, the preparation that it takes, and I hope that that's something we can continue to carry forward. But again we have to be cautiously optimistic because things can change quickly.''
Having to remain cautiously optimistic seems endemic to teams trying to maintain success.
"It's not just here. It's everywhere,'' Toole said. "Everybody's guarding against a letdown or something that disrupts your momentum or preparation or anything. It would be much easier if you had 15 guys who were completely internally motivated who were beating you to the punch on the scouting report and beating you to the gym every day and knew everything inside out. You could just sit back and put your feet up. But then what job would I have to do?''
Toole was able to kind of sit back during the Colonials' 89-46 rout of FDU last Saturday night.
He had to like that Jones, who missed the previous two games because of continuing struggles with a sore right shoulder, scored 20 points and was 4-of-5 from deep. That should indicate Jones will be able to play at Bryant.
"I would think he's going to want to be out there,'' Toole said a few days ago. "My hope is that we get him more involved in practice this week because early in the game he looked a little rusty with the speed and some of the ball-handling. I hope we can have him get some reps this week in practice and then be able to be as close to full strength as (he) can be on Thursday.''
For his part, Jones seemed, well, cautiously optimistic.
"I'm not going to say it's completely healed, but it's getting better,'' he said. "I'm just trying to take it day by day and do what I need to do to get it to 100 percent.''
Toole also enjoyed watching the Colonials shoot well from the field for most of the FDU game. That included junior guard Coron Williams, who drained threes on back-to-back possessions midway through the second half.
"I think we were extremely unselfish,'' Toole said. "We shared the ball, and I think when you have confidence in your teammates and confidence that when you're open the ball's going to find you, you shoot freer. You shoot a higher percentage because you're shooting higher percentage shots. It was nice to see Coron make a couple threes because he's been a little bit sporadic in his shooting over the last couple of weeks. So maybe having him make a couple in game rhythm might kind of get him going because if he starts going like we know he's capable of that makes us that much more dangerous.''
NEC NUGGETS: Bryant leads the NEC with a scoring average of 78.9 points per game against league foes. Robert Morris has held league teams to an NEC-low average of 64.8 points per game ... Bryant showed no ill effects from having to play three games in five nights in its 84-68 win over visiting Sacred Heart Monday night. The Bulldogs shot 56.1 percent from the field. Starks made 10-of-14 field goal attempts and scored 25 points. Dobbs had 17 points, 10 assists and seven steals, and Francis contributed 15 points and 10 rebounds. Quinnipiac's Moore recently told the New Haven Register he thinks that trio is "a potential three first-team All-NEC players.'' ... Sacred Heart's Shane Gibson scored 30 points and became the fifth NEC player to pass 2,000 career points ... Also on Monday night, Central Connecticut secured a spot in the NEC Tournament for the 15th consecutive season with its 67-65 win against visiting Quinnipiac. The Blue Devils achieved the victory on Kyle Vinales' 28-foot trey with six seconds left. "After I shot it, I thought, 'Wow, I'm kind of far away,''' Vinales told the New Haven Register. "But (the basket) looked like an ocean. I knew it was going in.'' Vinales had made just 5-of-18 field goal attempts in the game before his decisive cast from international waters that pushed his game total to 17 points. Quinnipiac, which had won six straight games, was only 4-of-16 from deep and 13-of-22 from the free throw line. The Bobcats were 8-for-30 from the field in the second half ... LIU Brooklyn, which won the past two NEC championships, is trying to avoid having to play its first tournament game on the road. "Right now, we're fighting (for) a home game,'' Blackbird standout Jamal Olasewere told the New York Daily News. "The sense of urgency is through the roof.''
