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RMU Basketball

Men's Basketball By Paul Meyer

Meyer On Morris: We're Off To See The Wizard

Moon Township, Pa. – With a tip of a tin hat to "The Wizard of Oz,'' which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, we look forward to the Robert Morris Winter of Oohs. And, of course, aahs. Maybe even a few awes along the way, too.
 
Friday evening, the Colonials will realize they're not in the preseason anymore. They begin the 2014-15 season against Lafayette in the Charles L. Sewall Center. As Dorothy Gale once so famously observed, "There's no place like home.''
 
"I think everybody's excited and ready to go,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said.
 
One would think so. The Colonials have traversed their own version of the long yellow brick road to reach this point.
 
"You put a lot of effort into the spring, the summer and the fall getting guys ready,'' Toole said, "Now you see if you did a good job or if you did a poor job. This is where you start to get evaluated on where your team is, how you coached, how you prepared, how ready guys are, what's your plan like. You find out all those answers for real in the opener.''
 
"We get a chance to see what kind of crowd we're going to have, see how the new guys are going to react to certain things and certain situations in the first game,'' senior Lucky Jones said. "We get the jitterbugs out of the way. There's just a lot of anticipation to see how our season is going to go.''
 
The Colonials, 22-14 last season, will try to extend their streak of consecutive winning seasons to 10 in 2014-15. When January arrives, they'll embark on their Northeast Conference schedule and seek to successfully defend their regular-season championship achieved last season with a 14-2 record.
 
But there's much to be done and endured before January, beginning with the first of their 12 non-conference games.
 
Take a good look at the Colonials Friday evening. You won't have another chance to watch them in the Sewall Center until Dec. 2, when they host Youngstown State.
 
After the Lafayette game, Robert Morris will play its next five games on the road. They'll skip Kansas, but they will be in North Carolina, Illinois, the District of Columbia and Tennessee for games against -- in order -- UNC, Bradley, Georgetown, Tennessee-Chattanooga and either Coastal Carolina or Louisiana-Monroe in Chattanooga.
 
"It's extremely challenging,'' Toole said. "There's not only the quality of opponent we're going to play, but also five of our first six are on the road, so that will be a challenge in itself. With a lot of new faces, it's going to be something we're going to have to work through together. We have to make sure we're as prepared as we can be and see where we come out at the end. We'll definitely know a lot about ourselves when we come home to play Youngstown State.''
 
Jones, who this season can become RMU's career rebounding leader and also move into the top five on the career scoring list, is especially eager to get the season underway.
 
"Being my senior year, I can't wait to go out there and lay it all on the line,'' said Jones, a preseason All-NEC selection.
 
Opening at home makes this game even more special.
 
"It means a lot, especially with the Colonial Crazies and the kind of crowd we're going to have and how amped they're going to be,'' Jones said. "It's an exciting moment.''
 
Toole also awaits the opener with great anticipation.
 
"Absolutely,'' he said. "This is my fifth opener (as head coach), and every year I don't think I've been any less on edge about it, any less excited about it, any less anxious about it. You want to see how guys are going to respond when it really counts. Opening at home makes it a little more exciting, but getting to go out on the floor for the first time with this group of guys is something that's exciting regardless of location.''
 
The Colonials tuned up for the Lafayette game by beating Division II Mansfield, 75-49, in an exhibition game Nov. 4.
 
"I was happy with a lot of it,'' Toole said. "I thought there were some really positive things that went on during the game. On the whole, it was a positive step for us. I thought, for the most part, everybody did a lot of good things, and I think they had fun out there, which was nice.''
 
"It was a great opportunity to let our freshmen and our newcomers feel how it is to be on a D-1 court,'' Jones said. "We really had fun out there. A lot of us had open jump shots and we passed it for great shots. That's our main key. We play together in practice, we have fun with each other and we have a culture. We don't care who shoots the shot as long as it goes in. If it's a great shot, we want you to shoot that and take that jump shot each and every time.
 
"We don't have just one guy on this team who's our main focus. We have a group of individuals who collectively come together as a team, and we just work together and do everything we're supposed to do. It was a great start to build on. We have a lot of work to do, but it was a beginning. Hopefully we're working toward some great things.''
 
The Colonials played a 2-3 zone defense against Mansfield, and you'll probably see a lot of that zone this season.
 
"I thought we did a good job,'' Jones said. "We got lackadaisical on the defensive end, especially on my side. I felt like we gave up a good amount of threes, both open and uncontested. I think if we clean up those things we should be all right.''
 
The Colonials had a 39-24 halftime lead, but Mansfield trimmed its deficit to 44-38 in the first five minutes of the second half. RMU tightened up defensively and soon pulled comfortably ahead.
 
"The message is that some of our offensive runs were keyed by our defense,'' Toole said. "We were up and down defensively. I think for all these new guys it was great for them to get on the court in a game and really get an idea of what a game is like. During the course of practice we're talking about tons of details. We're talking about spacing. You're picking up new terminology, new plays, new philosophy. To see guys have success within that framework is really important.''
 
Of the "new guys,'' junior college transfer Rodney Pryor was most impressive. He was 6-for-8 from three-point range and finished with 20 points.
 
"It's nothing new to me,'' Jones said of Pryor's performance. "He's been doing this throughout the preseason, knocking down jump shots. I told him if the defense is going to give him something that's a high percentage just keep shooting it. That's what he did. I told him I'm proud of him, especially because of the injuries he's been through in the past. He had the opportunity to come in and knock down some great shots. It helps our offense out a lot.''
 
Jones likely will do a lot of talking to the seven newcomers eligible to play for the Colonials this season.
 
"I'm still maturing,'' Jones said. "I'm learning everybody's personality and knowing how to talk to certain people. I have that ambition to get to know everybody and how to talk to them to make sure they're doing everything they're supposed to do on the court to make us a successful team. I think the more I do it, the better the team can be. We have a variety of shooters and drivers and all types of things on the fast break, so we have a lot of good things.''
 
The Colonials hope they have so many good things that there will be a lot of thrills in the Sewall Center this season.
 
The Winter of Oohs (and Aahs) is upon us.
 
NOTES: The Colonials won at Lafayette, 90-81, last season. They trailed, 59-48, with 14 minutes left before rallying for the victory. Karvel Anderson led RMU with 21 points. Jones had 14 points and Dave Appolon added 10 … The Leopards were 11-20 last season, including 6-12 in the Patriot League. They were hurt by the loss of top scorer Seth Hinrich, who missed 11 games because of a knee injury. Hinrich, a 6'8" forward, scored 16 points against RMU last season. A career 44.7 percent shooter from beyond the arc, Hinrich enters this season with 1,102 career points … Lafayette was picked to finish fourth in the Patriot League this season … Coach Fran O'Hanlon begins his 20th season at Lafayette. Toole was an assistant coach at Lafayette under O'Hanlon in 2006-07 … The Leopards last season averaged 71.4 points per game and allowed 74.7 points per tilt.


 
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Players Mentioned

Karvel Anderson

#15 Karvel Anderson

G
6' 2"
Senior
Sr.
Lucky Jones

#22 Lucky Jones

G/F
6' 6"
Senior
Sr.
Rodney Pryor

#11 Rodney Pryor

G
6' 5"
Junior
Jr.

Players Mentioned

Karvel Anderson

#15 Karvel Anderson

6' 2"
Senior
Sr.
G
Lucky Jones

#22 Lucky Jones

6' 6"
Senior
Sr.
G/F
Rodney Pryor

#11 Rodney Pryor

6' 5"
Junior
Jr.
G