Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - Welcome, Robert Morris University fans, to the good old days of the Northeast Conference Tournament.

Robert Morris at Mount St. Mary's. Or, more frequently, Mount St. Mary's at Robert Morris.

Heck, welcome, RMU fans, to those good old days of Mount St. Mary's versus Robert Morris period.

You remember, don't you? All those games between the Colonials and the Mountaineers? There were 15 of them in a five-year span, and they produced quite a rivalry back in that day.

Come on, you remember. Shoot, it was just three seasons ago.

Andrew Toole certainly remembers.

"Vividly,'' the RMU coach said.

Toole arrived at Robert Morris in 2007, as an assistant coach with Mike Rice.

That means he became involved in the rivalry in its third season.

This rivalry began rather quietly in the 2005-06 season.

During that regular season, the Colonials lost to Mount St. Mary's twice - by one point and two points.

That was a sign of things to come.

However, in the ...

What's that? You're asking why this might be relevant now? Hold on, we'll get to that.

In the quarterfinals of the 2006 NEC Tournament, Robert Morris, the fifth seed, played at fourth-seeded Mount St. Mary's and won, 67-66, when Jeremy Chappell made a three-pointer from the left corner with 12.3 seconds remaining.

Voila! Rivalry.

These teams would play each other twice in the regular season and again in the NEC tourney in each of the next four seasons. Most of the games were close. Eleven of the 15 games in that five-year stretch were decided by seven points or less. Robert Morris won eight of those 11 nail biters.

However, most of the final four conference tournament games were not close. Three were decided by 17 points or more. Mount St. Mary's won two of those three, all of which were played at RMU's Charles L. Sewall Center.

The one game that wasn't a rout was RMU's 48-46 victory over the Mountaineers in the NEC championship game at the Sewall Center. Dallas Green's jump shot from the left baseline won that one in the final seconds.

The next year, Green again gained a piece of history. He topped off RMU's 80-62 semifinal win by making the only three-pointer he attempted during his four-year career.

That meant that in back-to-back seasons Green made the final basket of the season at the Sewall Center.

The Colonials went on to win the NEC Tournament championship by winning at Quinnipiac a few nights later. And that meant that in three consecutive seasons the winner of the RMU/Mount NEC Tournament game advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

That's why we mention this rivalry in this space.

On Saturday, the Colonials play host to Mount St. Mary's in the NEC Tournament for the first time since 2010.

Perhaps this semifinal matchup will rekindle a rivalry that kind of burned out during the previous two seasons.

"There were a couple years there where (the games) weren't as intense,'' Toole said, "but with the job (Mountaineer coach) Jamion Christian's done and the way they're playing now I think you'll see maybe an old-school matchup of Robert Morris and Mount St. Mary's. We had some absolute wars with them. You always knew it was going to be an incredibly intense matchup, and I think Saturday will be no different than that.''

"It's going to be a big challenge,'' Christian told the Carroll County Times of playing RMU in the Sewall Center. "That place is going to be rocking.''

The Mountaineers handled a noisy crowd of 2,680 at Bryant's Chace Athletic Center in an NEC quarterfinal game last Thursday night, coming from behind to win, 75-69.

"(The) crowd bothered us a little bit in the first half,'' Christian told the Providence Journal. "We got going a little bit fast. Our guys did an unbelievable job at halftime of resetting.''

"They are hot, and they played their butts off,'' Bryant coach Tim O'Shea said. "In all honesty, they were the team I least wanted to play because they were hot and (because of) the matchups. I like their team.''

The Mountaineers have won eight consecutive games, and 10 of 11, since losing at Robert Morris, 76-68, Jan. 26.

"I said last week I thought Mount St. Mary's and Quinnipiac were playing the best basketball in our league and (Mount St. Mary's) proved me right with their performance at Bryant,'' Toole said.

In the game at Robert Morris, Jan. 26, the Colonials built a comfortable lead in the first 10 minutes and increased it as the game wore on. They led, 62-45, with seven and-a-half minutes remaining and still led by double digits, 71-55, with only 2:16 left.

However, the Mountaineers staged a frantic rally and closed to within four points, 72-68, with 24 seconds left. Free throws by Karvel Anderson and Russell Johnson enabled the Colonials to hold on.

"They really beat us pretty good,'' said Christian, in his first season as the Mountaineers' head coach. "We are a little bit of a different team now, but on that day they were much better than us.''

Freshman guard Shivaughn Wiggins is one reason the Mountaineers are a different team now. He moved into the starting lineup in mid-January and soon became a large piece of their offense. Over his past 15 games, Wiggins has averaged 14.7 points per game.

However, something that hasn't changed is the Mountaineers' pressure defense.

"We're going to have to be strong with the ball and make sure we are able to execute against pressure,'' Toole said. "We're going to have to have poise against pressure. They're a team that tries to create chaos on the floor, and you have to have a great balance of when you're going to attack their pressure for scores and when you're going to be able to run some offense. If you get into complete chaotic mode against them it's to their advantage because they want to make as many possessions as possible with their defensive pressure. That's an issue for any team, and we haven't handled pressing defenses (well) at times this year, and so we're going to see a lot of it on Saturday afternoon.''

The Colonials, who had 15 turnovers against the Mountaineers, Jan. 26, had only nine turnovers in their 75-57 quarterfinal victory over St. Francis Brooklyn last Thursday night.

"(That) doesn't guarantee us anything on Saturday,'' Toole said. "It's obviously something we've talked about. (There have been) a number of games where we got exposed a little bit (against full court pressure). We've worked on it. We've talked about it. We've coached it. The guys have probably been more diligent in their understanding of what's going on out there, and I think that's one of the reasons why we've had fewer turnovers.

"I also think for a stretch there we were playing with one point guard. (Anthony Myers-Pate) would play one game. Velton (Jones) would play the next and we'd kind of just rotate. So it's nice to have both those guys available. (And) Russell (Johnson) and Lucky (Jones) sometimes can be a mismatch on the floor and bring it up themselves as well.''

Like Mount St. Mary's, the Colonials (23-9) haven't been slouches when it comes to winning recently. They've won their past six games and 15 of their last 17.

"We've been trying to be humble and hungry, not thinking about how many games we've won,'' Velton Jones said. "We've just been trying to work every day and keep staying humble and not getting ahead of ourselves.''

It's helped RMU that Jones' sore right shoulder seems to have improved over the past week or so. He took only four shots, and scored three points, against St. Francis Brooklyn, but he had eight assists in the game.

"I think Velton's becoming somewhat more understanding of whatever the defense gives you is what you take,'' Toole said. "There were times maybe toward the end of last year and the beginning of this year where he would get frustrated when teams would try to take him out. He's a guy who's at the top of scouting reports, and so you have to adjust sometimes. Sometimes you have to be confident enough to get your teammates involved in the game so that you can finally become involved in the game from a scoring aspect. We never care who shoots as long as it's a good shot for us, and he's one of the best guys we have at creating shots for either himself or for others.''

The Colonials also showed some opportunism against the Terriers. They had 15 offensive rebounds and turned those into 22 second-chance points.

"If you miss it and then go get it and put it in, that's pretty good offense,'' Toole said. "I thought we had a number of guys who were active getting to the glass. If that's there for us, we have to try and take advantage of it. You have to try and take advantage of every possible point that someone allows you to get during the course of tournament play because you never know when you're going to need them.''