Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. – None of the current players for Robert Morris is old enough to have watched the television show back in the day, but the group trooped into its locker room last Friday and saw an updated version of "Eight Is Enough'' on the smart touch screen. In starring roles? The Colonials.
 
No Grant Goodeve. No Willie Aames. No Adam Rich. This time, the cast included Lucky Jones, Karvel Anderson and Anthony Myers-Pate.
 
It was a pick-me-up gimmick envisioned primarily by RMU coach Andrew Toole, and his staff, in the wake of the indefinite suspensions of four Colonials that left the team with eight players.
 
"They'd never seen 'Eight is Enough,' but we put their pictures on (the screen) and it says, 'Eight Is Enough' on the screen,'' Toole said.
 
Did Toole, who's only 33 years old, ever watch "Eight Is Enough"? After all, the show only ran from 1977 through late 1981.
 
"Oh, yeah,'' he said. "On reruns.''
 
OK. That gives the coach some cred.
 
"We just tried to throw things out there with the number eight,'' Toole said, ''and that was the one that came up. It was a little bit goofy.''
 
Probably not as goofy as, say, calling the team "The Octagonal Quintet.'' Or changing the show's original title to today's possible text/twitter spelling of "8s Nuff.''
 
"It was something just to kind of lift everyone's spirits a little bit, and maybe it's something they can buy into,'' Toole said. "We told them that we'd looked at some of our better performances this year, whether it was at Alabama or Mount St. Mary's or Bryant, and said, 'The eight guys in this room are basically responsible for those performances.' We constantly talk to them about what we have in (the locker room) is enough.''
 
At least to this point, those eight have been enough.
 
Playing really short-handed for the second time in two games, the Colonials rallied Saturday and prevailed over Wagner, 74-70, at the Charles L. Sewall Center, extending their start in Northeast Conference play to 6-0 for the first time in program history.
 
"A good statement for us,'' Anderson said of the win over the team that the league's coaches voted in the preseason as the favorite to win the NEC championship this season. "I'm proud of the fact that we fought and we stayed together through all the adversity, because there was a lot of it throughout the game.''
 
"Coming into this game, we continued to tell ourselves that we have a lot of fight in us and even though people keep doubting us we still have to get the job done with the people we have,'' Jones said. "It takes five versus five, and I think we did a good job with our five.''
 
"Losing our players has brought us together tremendously,'' Myers-Pate said. "We just stick together. With the eight guys we have, we'll go to war no matter what.''
 
"The way we're playing and the effort we're giving, guys stepping up, rallying together, I like coaching this group,'' Toole said. "I like the way they've come together and responded to the situation.''
 
"They're still our brothers,'' Anderson said of the suspended players. "Whatever happened, happened. That takes nothing away from what we've been through the whole year, the preseason. They're still family, no matter what. They're going to support us. We're going to support them, no matter what happens.''
 
"It adds more fuel to the fire to win,'' Myers-Pate said.
 
"That fired me up to see them still supporting us even though they're not on the team,'' Aaron Tate said. "That made me want to play harder.''
 
Ah, interesting point there. It does seem as if these Colonials have played extra hard the past two games. More guys on the floor diving for loose balls. More people in the rebounding scrums. More defensive pressure. More …
 
"The urgency went up,'' Myers-Pate said. "We want to keep this going.''
 
"Everybody feels like they have to step up,'' Anderson said, "and that's what everybody's doing.''
 
"I think they've played very hard in the last two games,'' Toole said, "but I think that's the way they should play all the time. There's never an excuse for the effort you give, and I think that was some of our frustration early in the year because there were times when I didn't think we were giving the proper amount of effort. Some of our new guys, whether it's Charles Oliver, Aaron Tate or Kavon Stewart, who were going through this for the first time, sometimes need to learn how hard it is to win and how hard you have to play. Even a (veteran) guy like Stephan Hawkins or Dave Appolon, guys who have been inconsistent in their minutes at times, are now having much larger roles and have given the proper amount of effort to that. Maybe some of it's due to the fact that they're more comfortable. They know, 'Hey, I'm going to be out there and I might make a mistake, but if I can play hard that's going to give us the best chance to be successful.' The guys have bought into that in the last two games, and hopefully they can continue to do that going forward.''
 
The game, watched by a decent-sized crowd that braved the snowy, windy elements, was everything a basketball fan could want. It had big shots, great passes, tough rebounds, emotion, intensity and drama, and it came down to the final seconds.
 
"I thought that was a really, really good college basketball game,'' Toole said. "I thought both teams played incredibly hard. I thought both teams, at times, executed really well. The emotion, the intensity that was in the game, was terrific. Our guys the last seven minutes or so were talking about how fun it was to be out there competing. I'm really proud of the effort they gave, the way they were able to rebound the basketball against a much bigger team, the way we were able to execute offense and make some timely shots. I thought their effort and their togetherness was incredible. I was very proud of the way they performed.''
 
"High level," Wagner coach Bashir Mason told the Staten Island Advance of the play of both teams. "Maybe even championship caliber.''
 
Robert Morris toughed its way to a 33-31 halftime lead, but the Seahawks surged ahead, 45-38, in the first few minutes of the second half. During the first media timeout of that half, Toole challenged his troops.
 
"I kind of jumped them a little bit in the huddle,'' Toole said. "I didn't like our look. I didn't like our energy to start the second half. I thought we looked flat. Guys kind of had this glazed look to them. I said, 'There's people in the building. They're yelling and screaming. It's a seven-point game. Why aren't we flying around and playing as hard as we can? We can rest tomorrow. We can rest Monday. We don't play for five more days. There are 16 minutes left in this game. Why aren't we just going to empty our tanks here and just leave it all on the floor?' Fortunately, we were able to make a couple shots right after that timeout that sparked us a little bit, but I thought it was a really fun atmosphere to be part of. I thought it was a really competitive game, and I didn't understand how you couldn't be excited to be on the floor in that game, so I was a little bit shocked as they came over for that timeout, and I wanted to let them know that.''
 
Three minutes later, the Colonials were within a point at 47-46, and it was game on.
 
Robert Morris took the lead for good, 54-53, on a three-pointer by Myers-Pate with 10:18 remaining.
 
"Whatever the game calls for, I have to step up and make a play,'' Myers-Pate said. "If I get an open shot, I have to knock it down. The other teams are going to try to take away Karvel and Lucky a lot. That opens up the game for me.''
 
Another three by Myers-Pate, a shot from the corner that proved to be the Colonials' only field goal in the final seven and-a-half minutes, really got the crowd into it with 3:46 left.
 
That basket put RMU up, 66-62, and charged up Jones, who swung his fist and shouted to the crowd on his way back down court.
 
"I knew it was going in because he gives you that pose,'' Jones said. "That's money. You just have to go back down the court and play defense. I just looked at the crowd. We feed off the crowd, and they give us a lot of energy. I know they weren't really into it in the beginning because we were (ahead), but once he hit that three it was just straight momentum going into the rest of the game. As long as we had (the crowd) with us and the players on the court and the coaching staff giving us fuel, we just tried to get the job done.''
 
They accomplished that with some huge free throw help from two rather unlikely sources.
 
Stewart, a freshman celebrating his 20th birthday, was just a 63.4 percent free throw shooter at game time. By game's end, he was a 71.7 percent free throw shooter. The little lefty made 10-of-12 free throws against Wagner, including 4-for-4 in the final 28 seconds.
 
"That was big,'' Anderson said. "He hasn't been a very confident, consistent free throw shooter. He just hasn't had much confidence at the free-throw line. But you saw today, he just played free. He told us before he walked to the line he was going to make them. You don't hear that out of him much. I feel like we're seeing him maturing. He's growing up a little bit, and happy birthday to him.''
 
The final outcome came down to Tate being at the free throw line with five seconds left. The Colonials led, 73-70, which was good. What was not entirely favorable was that Tate, who had two free throw attempts upcoming, was only a 38.5 percent free throw shooter as he toed the stripe.
 
"I was nervous,'' Tate said. "That was my first time being in a situation like that in a long time.''
 
It showed. Tate missed his first attempt. Wagner had life.
 
Not for long. Tate's second attempt hit the rim, bounced high off the glass and then dropped through.
 
"I'm just glad that second one bounced in,'' he said with a smile.
 
"I definitely breathed a sigh of relief,'' Toole said. "After the first one, I didn't know what the second one was going to look like. But, as crazy as it sounds, we preach to our guys all the time about the basketball gods.''
 
Those guys are supposed to reward players and teams who, according to Toole, "respect the game, do the right things, give the proper amount of effort and give yourself the best chance to be successful.''
 
So, after 39 minutes and 55 seconds Saturday, those guys must have decided the Colonials deserved to win.
 
"They might have been with us on that occasion,'' Toole said, "just because of the effort and the respect that our guys gave over a 40-minute period. Everybody was on the floor, everybody was making plays, everybody was together and everyone was cheering for each other. Sometimes when you do those things the ball bounces your way, and that might be a pretty good illustration of it right there.''
 
"Right there'' showed that sometimes one (of two) is enough.
 
For the Seahawks, the loss was their second in less than 48 hours. They lost at home to Central Connecticut State Thursday night.
 
"One of the things that makes it so difficult to play here is the whole trip aspect," Mason told the Staten Island newspaper. "We played at home on Thursday, then got on a bus Friday and drove seven hours to play again on Saturday afternoon. Add to that the fact that you're playing a very good team, and it's a real challenge."
 
Wagner hasn't won at Robert Morris since taking a 69-65 decision in the Sewall Center in the quarterfinals of the NEC Tournament March 3, 2005.
 
"It's a tough place to play," said guard Latif Rivers, who led the Seahawks with 19 points. "We did play with more energy than we did on Thursday, but today it came down to playing a good team and not making enough of the big plays when we had to make them."
 
Anderson, tenaciously chased by Wagner's Dwaun Anderson for much of the game, led the Colonials with 21 points.
 
"Very tiring,'' Anderson said of the Seahawk guard's defensive attention. "It's frustrating, but you have to stay composed. We know the type of players they are. We were prepared for it. You just have to wait on screens, and my teammates did a good job of screening for me so they couldn't just take me away. If they do try to take me away, we have more than enough people to hurt them.''
 
"He's a really tough guard," Mason said. "Karvel can really shoot it, and that makes a defender honor every head fake and shot fake. When you do, he is strong enough to drive the ball to the rim."
 
UP NEXT: The Colonials have another significant contest Thursday night at home against Bryant, which raised its NEC record to 5-1 with an 83-79 win against visiting Saint Francis Brooklyn Saturday.
 
At halftime, Robert Morris will honor former Colonial great Myron Walker (1990-94), the program's career scoring leader, who's being inducted into the NEC Hall of Fame.
 
Bryant, which lost to the Colonials in Rhode Island, 71-67, Jan. 11, made 35-of-44 free throw attempts in its win against the Terriers, who didn't help themselves by making only 17-of-32 free throw attempts. The Bulldogs led, 64-60, with just under four minutes left before Dyami Starks scored nine consecutive Bryant points to make it a 73-64 game with 1:21 remaining.
 
Brent Jones scored 20 points for St. Francis Brooklyn, while Ben Mockford added 17, making 5-of-13 casts from international waters.
 
Alex Francis produced a 19-12 double-double for Bryant. Starks finished with 31 points, making 9-of-14 field goal attempts, including 4-of-6 from deep. In his past two games, Starks has scored 54 points, shooting 17-of-29 from the field. In his three games before those two, he scored 42 points, going 15-of-48 from the field.
 
NEC NUGGETS: Jones scored 10 points against Wagner, raising his career total to 988. He needs 12 points to become the 22nd member of RMU's 1,000-point club … The Colonials weren't the only short-handed team in the Sewall Center Saturday. Wagner's Jay Harris, who averages 9.4 points per game, did not dress because of a concussion sustained against CCSU Thursday … Central Connecticut State, which visits the Sewall Center Saturday, lost to rejuvenated Fairleigh Dickinson, 86-73, Saturday. The host Knights, who were 7-47 in NEC play the previous three seasons, raised their current NEC mark to 4-2. FDU quickly decided this match by rushing to a 35-12 lead in the first 10 and-a-half minutes. Faronte Drakeford had 20 points for the Blue Devils (1-5). Mathias Seilund led FDU with 18 points. Sidney Sanders Jr. had 12 points and 10 assists. Kyle Pearson came off the bench, whistled in six of seven field goal attempts and scored 12 points … Host LIU Brooklyn beat Mount St. Mary's, 75-71, and also received a nice effort off the bench. Freshman Glenn Feidanga, averaging 4.2 points per game, made seven of eight field goal attempts and had a 15-11 double-double in his 21 minutes. Point guard Jason Brickman contributed 14 points and 12 assists. Byron Ashe, 5-of-13 from beyond the arc, scored 18 points for the Mountaineers … Saint Francis University picked up its second NEC victory by edging visiting Sacred Heart, 68-66. Ben Millaud-Meunier made five free throws in the final 17 seconds to seal it for the Red Flash. Chris Evans led the Pioneers with 18 points.