By Paul Meyer
RMUColonials.com
March 21, 2013
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - Two nights before his Robert Morris University team entered the ring with Kentucky, Colonial coach Andrew Toole compared the matchup to "Rocky.''
You know, that flick about a champion boxer, Apollo Creed, who picks an unknown pug, Rocky Balboa, and gives him an opportunity to win the heavyweight title.
Ninety minutes before the bell Tuesday evening, Craig Coleman, the Robert Morris athletic director, tried to go Toole one better when describing the game and the incessant buzz that had steadily built and at that point engulfed it.
"It's a cult game,'' Coleman said. "It's 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'''
OK, while we're having this "pick the movie'' contest, let's throw in "Hoosiers.''
And, finally, "True Grit.''
That's at least partly what decided this main event in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Tuesday night at the ridiculously raucous Charles L. Sewall Center which the Colonials won on points, 59-57.
"Robert Morris played a great basketball game,'' Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "They said, 'These guys (Calipari's Wildcats) cannot withstand our physical toughness.' Robert Morris played a physical, tough, hard-nosed basketball game. It was just what our guys needed to see and evaluate – 'Am I tough enough to play college basketball?'''
"An absolutely incredible effort by our guys,'' Toole said. "What we talked about in the pregame was playing to exhaustion, and if having four or five of your guys going into full-body cramps in the last five minutes of the game doesn't speak to full exhaustion and doesn't speak to how badly our guys wanted to win this game and what they were willing to do to win it, I don't know what does. I'm proud of the way they performed. I'm proud of the way we executed down the stretch. It was an absolutely terrific win. Not only for our program but the university as well.''
The Colonials certainly weren't intimidated by the presence of the Wildcats, who less than a year ago won the Division I national championship.
"We wanted to show we had no fear that we were playing Kentucky,'' senior point guard Velton Jones said. "Going into the game, we just kind of knew we could be physical with them. They were tall but not physically big. We just wanted to pressure them and get up into them just to let them know we were here and we weren't going anywhere – the whole game.''
The Colonials threw a flurry of early punches that emphasized Jones' point.
Anthony Myers-Pate, who twice battled cramps to get through his 24 minutes on the court, scored 46 seconds into the game. Coron Williams made a three. Russell Johnson made another field goal. And Lucky Jones turned a steal into an old-fashioned three-point play.
After the first "round'' – at the first media timeout 258 seconds into this thing – the Colonials led, 10-0. The Wildcats had managed only two shots from the field and committed four turnovers.
"It was too rough for us,'' Calipari said of those opening minutes.
Yet all so very real for the Colonials.
The day before the game, Toole commented on the circus-like atmosphere that had surrounded this game.
"Just because there's a circus going on around the game doesn't mean the game should turn into a circus,'' he said.
With just 4:18 elapsed, the circus had long since left town.
"I think once our guys got into the facility and saw how many people were at the game two hours in advance, well, once they got over that, it became a game,'' Toole said. "When we were in the locker room before the game and went out for warm-ups, guys were really engaged. Guys were focused. There wasn't any goofing around or guys not paying attention. Once they got over the atmosphere I think it really settled down and became a game. The way we started offensively, with Ant making that shot and us building that lead, it really settled us down because it proved to our guys that if we do what we work on and we are detailed, we're going to be able to get good things.''
Toole noticed something else during the warm-up period.
"When (the Wildcats) came in to warm up, I was actually a little bit surprised,'' he said. "I thought they would be more physical (in appearance). The matchups from a physicality standpoint, other than (Kentucky's 7-foot Willie) Cauley-Stein, we were as big if not bigger at certain positions. I think once our guys realized that, we were able to get over (any feeling of intimidation) very quickly.''
Let's not forget the noise generated by the fans. The attendance of 3,444 was the largest in Sewall Center history, and at least 95 percent of the people in the building were strongly supportive of the Colonials.
"The crowd gives us an extra boost of energy,'' Velton Jones said, "and I think it helped us out a lot.''
"All I could do was just look at the crowd and smile,'' Johnson said. "You know, even if we'd have lost the game, it was just great to have it at home with the crowd like that.''
Toole also acknowledged the affect of the crowd – to a point.
"I think early in the game you feed off it like crazy,'' he said. "It gets you so excited that you have no choice but to feed off of it. But once play starts going up and down and you have to make decisions I don't know much the crowd has an impact, to be honest. A few times there on defensive possessions late in the game, maybe them cheering and chanting might have given our guys a little bit more energy. But once that ball goes up, it's you versus them and somebody has to go make plays to win the game.''
The Colonials made most of them – just as they thought they might.
"They're a good defensive team, but they're not a great defensive team,'' Velton Jones had concluded after watching film of the Wildcats. "We thought we could exploit them a little bit and drive them baseline and get to certain penetration spots.''
"As soon as we found out we were playing them, it was just, 'Come out and play hard', and if we do what we do we can get the win,'' Johnson said. "That's what we talked about for two days. We did what we were supposed to do, and it came up big for us. We didn't do anything that we usually don't do.''
Which means, in Johnson's view, the Colonials did what they usually do – which included leading at halftime.
Robert Morris entered Tuesday's game 21-0 when it led at halftime.
Kentucky came close to holding a halftime lead. Cauley-Stein's free throw with 2:49 left put the Wildcats up for the first time in the game, 25-24. A layup by Jon Hood gave Kentucky its second lead, 27-26, with 1:40 remaining.
Those were the only two leads Kentucky had in this game, and the Wildcats held those leads for a total of 29 seconds.
Two free throws by Karvel Anderson with 1:27 left – and some excellent scrappiness defensively by Anderson – enabled RMU to enter halftime ahead, 28-27.
The Colonials began the second half the same way they began the first half – by being efficient offensively.
Velton Jones, penetrating well, scored RMU's first six points of the second half. Lucky Jones scored the next eight – half on a four-point play five minutes in. And Johnson added five points. His three-pointer with 8:58 remaining gave the Colonials a 49-36 advantage.
Toole did not get carried away with glee.
"I knew it was going to come down to one or two possessions,'' he said. "You know, (the Wildcats are) not just going to roll over and walk out of the building. We were going to have to earn the win.''
And in the process overcome the loss of Lucky Jones, who scored a team-high 15 points.
The sophomore was assessed a flagrant foul while trying to block Archie Goodwin's layup attempt with 3:41 left and was ejected. His teammates quickly rallied around Jones.
"We told him, 'We got you, Lucky,''' Velton Jones said. "That's all we were saying – 'We got to do it for Lucky.' Lucky's been battling all year for us. For him to get kicked out of a game like this, I know it hurt. But he had our back all year, so we had to (have) his back.''
Goodwin made his two free throws and scored on a put-back on Kentucky's ensuing possession to tie the game at 53.
Velton Jones made two free throws and deftly fed Mike McFadden for a slam, putting the Colonials up, 57-53, with 1:48 remaining. However, baskets by Cauley-Stein and Goodwin tied the game at 57.
There were 42 seconds left – in Kentucky's season, it turned out.
The Colonials ran the clock and called timeout with five seconds left on the shot clock.
They came out of that timeout and ran the play they wanted – an in-bounds pass to Johnson under the basket. It worked, well, almost well. Contested by Cauley-Stein, Johnson's shot missed. But McFadden grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Cauley-Stein.
There were 8.7 seconds remaining. McFadden, a 64 percent foul shooter, had two free throws.
"I asked Mike, 'Where's your heart at?''' Velton Jones said. "Because in that type of situation it comes down to all heart, really, and I know Mike has a lot of heart. I had no doubt in my mind that he was going to make them.''
"Basically, I just kept my composure,'' McFadden said. "I knew my team had my back. They gave me confidence. Everybody came up to me and said, 'You got this. You can make them.' I knew (the situation) was big and if I made them this was going to be a big one for us. Thinking about making them helped me the most. I just took a deep breath and knocked them down.''
With their fans ready to storm the court, the Colonials withstood Kyle Wiltjer's three-point attempt from the left wing just before the buzzer. Velton Jones punched the rebound into the air, and it was over.
Even Calipari seemed to know it was a fitting ending.
"They deserved to win,'' he said. "If we'd have won at the buzzer, it would have been a shame.''
"I think in the last two and-a-half minutes we made the plays that you need to make in order to win,'' Toole said. "Something we always talk about is having the mindset that there's always something else you can do to help your team. And so that last out of bounds, Russell made a great cut. It was open. They made a great play by going and trying to contest Russell's shot, but to Mike's credit he didn't just stand there and watch. He stayed with the play. He was able to grab the ball and get to the free throw line and shoot two incredibly huge free throws.''
The incredible hugeness of McFadden making those free throws will only grow larger in the coming years as Robert Morris fans continue to reflect on this team's implausible but not impossible victory over Kentucky.
"For (Kentucky) to come here and us get a victory is just great,'' Velton Jones said. "And it's a great thing for the university. It's just crazy.''
Jones paused, shaking his head.
"It's crazy,'' he said again.
And it's cathartic for the Colonials, who were unceremoniously bounced from the Northeast Conference Tournament by Mount St. Mary's on this same court less than two weeks ago.
"I said before this game that (playing Kentucky here is) probably the greatest consolation prize you could possibly have,'' Toole said. "And now it's just been magnified to the nth degree.''
