Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University Colonials won the Northeast Conference regular- season championship with a 14-4 record and finished two games ahead of their closest pursuers.

To a casual fan, that would appear to have been a pretty smooth ride.

However, the Colonials know it was anything but.

There were two rather significant potholes.

We've covered the Colonials' early problem caused by their 0-2 start in league play.

Here's the other one, and it involves St. Francis Brooklyn, their quarterfinal opponent in tonight's NEC Tournament quarterfinal game at the Charles L. Sewall Center.

When these teams played in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jan. 31, in their only regular season meeting, the Colonials lost not only the game, 71-61, but also point guard Velton Jones.

The senior sustained an injury to his right (shooting) shoulder during a defensive collision with a Terrier in the first two minutes of that game.

"I tried to play,'' Jones said, "but once I came down on offense I just couldn't do it. I couldn't dribble, couldn't shoot. Nothing.''

Jones spent the final 38 minutes of that game on the bench, watching his teammates fritter away an early lead and all the while wondering if he'd be able to play two afternoons later at LIU Brooklyn.

The loss to the Terriers and Jones' situation put a damper on the six-game winning streak Robert Morris had built after its 0-2 start.

Oh, junior Anthony Myers-Pate filled in adequately for Jones at the point against the Terriers. He scored 14 points, dished six assists and had no turnovers.

"Ant Myers had a very good game,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said, "but he wasn't able to make enough plays to get done what we needed done. I think in that game, probably of all the teams we've played so far, not having Velton in the game was significant because you need someone who can really make plays for others.''

So the Colonials faced the prospect of playing at LIU Brooklyn, Feb. 2, with their backup point guard starting and Coron Williams, a shooting guard, moving into the role of the new backup point guard.

What also faced RMU was the prospect of using that new point guard tandem against Jason Brickman, the outstanding point guard who had led the regrouped Blackbirds to a six-game winning streak after their 0-3 start in league play.

Go figure.

"The crazy thing is that goes back to the inconsistency of our team a little bit,'' Toole said. "What's exciting, or what excites us, makes us want to excel. Maybe sometimes if we're not as excited or it doesn't seem as cool to do, then we're not going to try as hard. Every game on your schedule should make you want to try as hard as you can.''

Perhaps, then, the Colonials that weekend in Brooklyn were looking ahead a bit too much to the game at LIU Brooklyn, which had defeated them in the NEC championship game in each of the previous two seasons, and not focusing enough on the game at St. Francis Brooklyn.

Especially after - even with Jones going out - the Colonials built an early 17-9 lead at St. Francis Brooklyn and still led, 22-17, with 8:50 remaining in the first half.

"Offensively, we stopped moving the ball. We stopped moving ourselves,'' Toole said. "They were a really good, physical defensive team that was taking away our ability to shoot some threes, and we didn't adjust very well. We didn't have the proper offensive detail, the proper offensive toughness to overcome their intensity. There were so many plays where we just kind of wilted to their`defensive intensity. Instead of working to make the right play or be stronger with the ball, we just said, 'OK, this is hard.' And we just kind of shut it down. Once we got that lead, we kind of exhaled a little bit instead of continuing to play with the necessary urgency.''

Perhaps the Colonials learned something about themselves in those games. Or re-learned something. Maybe they discovered that it's "cool'' to play hard in every game.

They lost only one more game during the rest of the regular season, which was a two-point loss at Quinnipiac, Feb. 14. They'll take a five-game winning streak into the NEC Tournament, an event in which it's definitely "cool'' to play hard in every game.

"I think we're different now,'' Toole said. "I hope we are. We've been in some situations where we've had to execute late in the game, execute down the stretch and come up with some big plays.''

That was evident in the final two regular season games.

At Bryant last Thursday night in the game that decided who would be the regular season champion, the Colonials played resolutely across the board and won, 77-75.

Then, last Saturday, with nothing significant for which to play, the Colonials won at Central Connecticut State, 81-61, pleasing Toole with their maturity.

"The consummate game,'' he said. "We handled it extremely maturely. Our two seniors (Jones and Russell Johnson) kept us focused and engaged.''

Jones could have sat out that game to give his still-sore shoulder some rest, but he never considered not playing.

"Why sit out?'' he said. "It's the end of the season. I wanted to try to keep my conditioning up, and it was a big game for us. You know, we lost to them in the beginning of the year, so it was more of a pride thing for us going into that game and for me just knowing it would be my last time playing Central probably. I just wanted to be on the floor with my team. If I was healthy enough to be able to play, that's what I wanted to do.''

Some people would think, though, that the normal thing for Jones to have done last Saturday was to rest.

Jones considered that thought.

"In the end,'' he said, "this isn't a normal program. We don't do things the normal way around here. Just the way we practice, how hard we go every day. We practice in chaos. We do things in chaos so we can be ready for games. For us to be able to do what we've been doing is good for us.''

Nobody can argue the Colonials' non-normal approach hasn't worked.

Over the last six seasons, the first three with Mike Rice as head coach while Toole assisted him and then the past three with Toole as the head coach, the Colonials are 85-23 in NEC regular season games.

"I'm a believer in the way that we play,'' Toole said. "I like the way we play. I like the balance we have. I like the fact we have multiple guys who can score and make shots. I believe in that philosophy.''

TOURNEY TIDBITS: Karvel Anderson, who's been bothered by a sore right wrist, did not play at Central Connecticut State but should be able to play Wednesday night ... Jones on his shoulder's status: "It's getting better. It is what it is right now. This is crunch time.'' ... Pay attention to the three-point line Wednesday night. If the Colonials are successful from beyond it, they have a good chance to win. If St. Francis Brooklyn is successful defending it, the Terriers improve their chances of winning. The Colonials had the best three-point percentage in NEC games this season, converting 40.7 percent. The Terriers were the best at defending the three in NEC games, allowing teams to shoot just 29.9 percent from beyond the arc ... Four Colonials ranked in the league's top 14 in three-point shooting: Lucky Jones (first at 52.7 percent), Anderson (fourth, 45.9), Johnson (12th, 41.8) and Williams (14th, 41.2) ... In their final four regular season games, the Colonials shot 41.2 percent from three (49-of-119). In their final six regular season games, the Terriers held their opponents to 25 percent shooting from international waters (24-of-96) ... St. Francis Brooklyn lost six of its final nine regular-season games after beating Robert Morris.