Meyer On Morris: It's The Holiday Season

By: By Paul Meyer

Men's Basketball | 12/11/2014 9:37:00 AM

Moon Township, Pa. – In this installment, we discuss Santa, cell phones and selected other stuff.

This in the wake of still another Robert Morris defeat, a 74-59 setback to Buffalo, Sunday at the Charles L. Sewall Center.

"Not the result that we want. Not the execution that we want,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said after his team sank to 2-6 on the now-not-so-young season. "I thought in some aspects there was a little more energy, but we still have defensive breakdowns. We still have too many negative plays that impact your ability to win the game. A lot of times, the teams that make the fewest mistakes win versus the team that makes the most positive plays, and we just make so many mistakes that it's hard to win.

"We have to keep talking about them. We have to try to keep emphasizing them. We have to keep stressing them. We have to keep begging guys to maybe think before they act offensively and defensively because we put ourselves in such difficult positions that it's frustrating all the way around.''

Well, how about this? Instead of "begging the guys,'' why not just ask Santa Claus? It is, you know, the holiday season after all.

"It's at the top of my Christmas list,'' Toole said, smiling. "Santa's got the letter and we're hoping that he comes through on it. I've been a nice boy all year.''

Hear that, Mr. Claus? The Colonials need your help. In fact, they've needed it for quite a while. Sure could have used some assistance last Sunday when a staggering 24 turnovers, some of them real head-scratchers, contributed to their loss.

Toole estimated at least half those turnovers were of the unforced variety.

"I think there's a direct connection between your brain and your feet,'' Toole said. "When your brain's thinking the right way, your feet will be in the right place and you can make certain decisions. All too often with us, you can see that as soon as they think, something bad happens with their feet. Something bad happens with the decision. Sometimes, we try to make such low-percentage offensive plays that I'd rather take a shot-clock violation. Sometimes, it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

"The thing that makes even less sense is that we have (been doing) these now for (eight) games. Like some of the stuff we do, how many times do you have to stick your hand in the fire for it to get burned before you realize that's probably not a good place to go? We haven't figured that out yet, and I'm really hopeful that we figure that out.''

It was suggested that, hey, this stuff will happen when you're a young team. And the Colonials were even younger against Buffalo because senior Dave Appolon couldn't play because of back spasms.

"It's an easy connection to make and it's a good cop out for me,'' Toole said. "I can hang my hat on that -- 'Oh, we have young guys handling the basketball and so they're turning it over.'''

However, Toole won't accept that. After all, young players get older every day. And they gain more experience with every game. Heck, with every practice.

"We do one if not two passing drills every day,'' he said. "We dummy our offense every day. We dummy our sets every day. We do a fast break drill every day to try and work on these situations that we find ourselves in. We must not be coaching it very well or not explaining it well enough.''

Bottom line?

"We don't value the ball,'' Toole said. "I think that's just part of who people are as a basketball player regardless of what (year) they're in. When it happens game after game after game after game it starts to be alarming because you sit there and say 'We've seen this before. We've watched this on film. Coaches have pointed this out to me.' And so we have to coach it better, I think, instead of taking the bailout that, 'They're young.'''

Against Buffalo, the Colonials actually had more turnovers (24) than field goals (23). The turnover total was 10 above their average of 14 per game. That was costly because the Colonials shot decently from the field Sunday -- 47.9 percent. Give them 10 possessions in which they got off a shot, and it probably would have been a different game.

Except, maybe, for this. Their defensive woes persist. When a team is averaging just under 63 points a game and allowing 75 points a game, it's tough for that team, in this case the Colonials, to win.

So what gives with the generous defense?

"I don't know if there's necessarily one common thing,'' Toole said. "It would be nice if we could say, 'OK, this is the issue' and then just fix it. But unfortunately basketball's a multi-effort game and there are different layers to it.''

Well, out of all those layers, what is the biggest issue that's causing defensive breakdowns?

"I'd say the biggest thing that really hurts us, and it might not even be necessarily a technical thing, is we don't talk about anything,'' Toole said. "Maybe if I can figure out a way to adhere their cell phones to each other and they can text each other the entire game we might get some better communication, but we don't talk. In the game of basketball, where there are so many moving parts, guys get screened and have no idea it's coming. Guys are moving from area to area and no one wants to tell their teammate that that guy moved. And so we find ourselves in difficult positions, and I think if we would just talk about a lot of this stuff we'd simplify a lot of it. But our lack of communication certainly creates confusion for us.''

Maybe smart phones are the answer, then. Perhaps ask old Santa about getting a few of those.

Not to get greedy, of course.

And, besides, the players might have other things they want more.

"Everything's worth what you're willing to pay for it," Toole said. "We're not willing to pay the price yet. There is no guy selling wins out of the back of a truck somewhere where you can get a connection to get it early. You have to earn it. You have to work for it. You have to pay the price. You have to pay the price in sweat. You have to pay the price in knowledge, effort, energy and making good decisions. Everything's worth what you're willing to pay for it. And we're not willing to pay for a win yet. So we keep getting L's.''

The L to Buffalo was RMU's third straight at home this season. The last time the Colonials lost their first three home games to begin a season was 2001-02 when they lost three games in three days in the University Hoops Classic. Those losses were all similar -- 82-55 to South Florida, 83-55 to Kent State and 77-53 to Oakland.

That tournament was notable in at least two aspects. One, it included California-Irvine, which has one of the most eye-catching nicknames in collegiate sports -- Anteaters. Two, one of Kent State's best players was Antonio Gates, who went on to fame in another sport -- professional football.

That Kent State team, by the way, gained entrance to the NCAA Tournament as a 10th seed that season and advanced all the way to the Elite Eight, where it lost to Indiana. Kent State in the Sweet Sixteen beat Pitt, which also was in the University Hoops Classic, 78-73, in overtime.

OK, bit of a digression there. Back to the Buffalo game.

Freshman Elijah Minnie raised some eyebrows with his first collegiate double-double, posting 10 points and 10 rebounds.

"Elijah's a guy who wants to play and he wants to play more,'' Toole said. "The last few days we've had some conversations about what he can do to play more. One of them was to play harder and compete in practice so you can prepare yourself to go on the floor and do some of the things he did (against the Bulls). He had five defensive rebounds in 114 minutes coming in to (the Buffalo game). Somehow he got seven in 26 (minutes against Buffalo). Not sure that we hit him with a magic wand and said, 'Hey, you're going to be able to rebound (Sunday).' It just seems like he put forth a little more effort than he had previously.

"I told him after the game, 'If you can come Tuesday and bring the same kind of effort (in practice), you're going to continue and improve and help us more and more and more. And you're going to build more trust with your teammates. You're going to build more trust with the coaches, and now you'll be able to be in situations where we believe you're going to try and do the absolute best with the absolute most energy.'''

NOTES: In addition to being without Appolon Sunday, the Colonials were able to play freshman point guard Jafar Kinsey for only 12 minutes because he aggravated a turf toe condition last Friday during practice. "He warmed up (Sunday) and thought he could give it a go,'' Toole said. "I think he banged it a couple times pretty hard, and that made it really uncomfortable for him. I was glad he tried to give it a go, but you could tell he was limited in some of his ability to move out there. We'll address that as we move forward.'' … The Colonials next play Saturday afternoon against Duquesne at home … Freshman guard Marcquise Reed led the Colonials against Buffalo with 18 points. However, he also was charged with a team-high six turnovers … Buffalo entered the game limiting its opponents to 28.9 percent accuracy from three-point range, and the Colonials did nothing to hurt that stinginess. Robert Morris was a chilly 4-of-20 from international waters … For the second straight game, an opposing post man dropped a double-double on the Colonials. Buffalo's Justin Moss had 20 points and 11 rebounds. On Dec. 2, Youngstown State's Bobby Hain went for 24 and 14.

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