Meyer on Morris Link
NEC Hall of Fame Class of 2013

Moon Township, Pa. – There will be some pretty good stuff going on inside the Charles L. Sewall Center Thursday night.
 
The main event features Robert Morris playing Bryant in a huge/big/key -- take your pick -- Northeast Conference game.
 
The subplot in that tussle is junior forward Lucky Jones trying to become the 22nd Colonial to score 1,000 career points. The junior is 12 points short of 1,000.
 
If Jones does, indeed, score 12 points Thursday night, he'll be 965 points behind the evening's guest of honor -- Myron Walker.
 
Walker, RMU's all-time scoring leader with 1,965 points, will be honored because he's been inducted into the Northeast Conference Hall of Fame this year, along with longtime RMU football coach Joe Walton.
 
So come early, stay late and don't leave your seat.
 
Walker, from Aliquippa, Pa., played for the Colonials from Dec. 19, 1990, the date of his spectacular Robert Morris debut in a game at the University of Dayton, through the 1993-94 season. In addition to his 1,965 points, he had 603 rebounds (eighth on RMU's all-time list), scored 20 or more points in 47 games (easily the most in program history) and scored at least 30 points in a game six times (again, easily the most in program history).
 
In short, you wouldn't get much of an argument if you suggested Myron Walker is the greatest player in Robert Morris history.
 
"He was the best all-around player,'' said Jim Elias, an RMU assistant coach when Walker played and now a color analyst on Robert Morris radio broadcasts. "He contributed from day one. He was a very coachable young man, a great shooter.''
 
In fact, Walker was one made field goal from being a 50 percent career shooter. He made 741 of his 1,484 attempts in his 105-game career.
 
"He was really good driving to the basket, could finish around the hoop and was a good passer,'' Elias said. "And Myron in the open court? Wow. He was very smart. He had a high basketball IQ. I think he's the best all-around player that I've seen here, and I've been around since 1983.''
 
Chris Shovlin, the Voice of RMU Athletics and radio's equivalent of the "forever stamp,'' agrees with Elias that Walker is the best-ever.
 
"If you look at the pure point total and the fact that he did it in three and-a-half years, I don't think there's any question,'' Shovlin said. "He could handle the ball. He was a good teammate. He fed the ball. He was the one who attracted all the attention. He was the star of the show when he was here, no question about it.''
 
Walker didn't waste any time becoming the center of attention, either.
 
He had to sit out the first seven games of the 1990-91 season after transferring from Kent State a year earlier. The Colonials went 1-6 waiting for Walker.
 
Then, in that game at Dayton, Walker came off the bench with 15:20 left in the first half. The rest is rich history.
 
Walker scored 22 points against the Flyers, hitting 8-of-17 shots from the field and making all six of his free throw attempts. He also had five rebounds in his 29 minutes on the court. Andre Boyd led the Colonials that night with 26 points and 10 assists, and Wade Timmerson had 11 assists and eight points.
 
But Walker was the man in RMU's 99-94 victory.
 
"Robert Morris just literally ran (Dayton) off the floor,'' Shovlin said. "The place was stunned.''
 
Walker's presence on the active roster charged up the Colonials. That Dayton win was the first in a nine-game winning streak. After a loss at Monmouth, the Colonials won four more in a row en route to a 17-11 finish.
 
Walker averaged 16.3 points per game and was named to the 1991 All-NEC Rookie Team.
 
The next season, he averaged 19.8 points per game while setting RMU's record for most points in a season with 614. He was voted the 1992 NEC Player of the Year, the first, and only, sophomore so honored by the league. He also was named Most Valuable Player of the 1992 NEC Tournament when he led the Colonials to the championship and a meeting with UCLA in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Walker averaged 17.8 points per game as a junior and was All-NEC for a second consecutive season. In his senior season, he averaged 20.1 points per game and became the only Colonial to make All-NEC First Team in three consecutive seasons.
 
"Myron Walker was easily the best all-around player that I ever coached at RMU, but what stands out the most is that he was at his best in the biggest of moments,'' said former head coach Jarrett Durham.
 
Walker scored a team-high 15 points in the game against UCLA, which led by only five points (45-40) with 10 minutes left but ran off to a 73-53 win.
 
Walker finished his career having averaged 18.7 points per game, the best in program history.
 
"Myron Walker is maybe the most complete player ever in the NEC," said former Wagner head coach Tim Capstraw, who coached against Robert Morris during Walker's time as a Colonial.  "His uncanny knack for scoring from everywhere, combined with his ability to play lockdown defense, helped make Robert Morris an outstanding team."
 
"It always seemed whenever Robert Morris needed a basket, Myron was the one who was taking the shot,'' said Dave Calloway, who played and coached at Monmouth during Walker's career. "Those great Jarrett Durham teams at Robert Morris always had a toughness factor that seemed to be the edge that always had them on the winning side. But in the end, you still have to score more points than the other guy, and Myron was the player who scored those points. He was as good a scorer as anyone who has played in the NEC."
 
Walker, who led Aliquippa to a state championship in his senior year when he averaged 24.4 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, opted for Kent State despite heavy Robert Morris recruiting interest.
 
"Jarrett was recruiting him pretty heavily,''  Shovlin said. "I was doing all their games on the radio. Jarrett was at almost all his games. Robert Morris was on him early. He went with Kent thinking they were a bigger program.''
 
"We knew we weren't going to get him,'' Elias said, "but we told him, 'If you ever want to transfer back, we have a scholarship for you.' Luckily, we did.''
 
Walker quickly soured on Kent State. He went there thinking Kent was going to play an up-tempo style, but that turned out not to be true. So he left Kent before the basketball season started in 1989 and enrolled at Robert Morris.
 
"We were familiar with him, and Jarrett, being from Aliquippa, knew the family," Elias said. "I think that's kind of why he came here, because of Jarrett Durham being an Aliquippa guy.''
 
Kent State's loss certainly was Robert Morris' gain.
 
"He had a lot of good games,'' Elias said. "That was the thing about him, he was so consistent. Almost a double-double every game. The only weakness he had was he was thin.''
 
Walker as a Colonial was listed at 6'4'' and 190 pounds.
 
"He probably would have been an NBA player had he been a little bit better handling the ball,'' Elias said. "He wasn't a great ball handler. Good enough in our league, but not the NBA. He also just wasn't big enough.''
 
Walker, who did play professionally in Europe, still played in pickup games for a while after returning to Western Pennsylvania. And he did get bigger.
 
In an interview with Rich Emert of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in March of 2003, Walker said he was a little larger than when he played for the Colonials, saying he was 6'5" and 220 pounds.
 
Emert suggested to Walker that would make him more of a power forward.
 
"More like a power guard,'' Walker said.
 
Power forward. Power guard. Whatever.
 
Myron Walker could play.

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