Meyer On Morris: It's Competition

By: By Paul Meyer

Men's Basketball | 12/6/2014 5:16:00 PM

Moon Township, Pa. – After his team's loss Tuesday night, Andrew Toole was at a loss.

The Robert Morris coach was mystified, flummoxed, puzzled and frustrated.

All in the wake of RMU's dispiriting 89-81 defeat at the hot hands of the Youngstown State Penguins at the Charles L. Sewall Center.

"I'll never understand it,'' Toole said. "I don't know how to explain it.''

How, indeed. His team played its second home game of the season after having been on the road for five consecutive contests. One would think the Colonials would have been excited about getting back into the Sewall Center. His team was coming off its second victory of the season, having defeated Louisiana-Monroe, 71-54, on Thanksgiving Day. One would think the Colonials would want to try mightily to build on that and construct a winning streak at the outset of a month in which they have four home games.

One would also think a stirring 10-point blitz in the final 75 seconds of the first half that lifted the Colonials to a 48-46 intermission lead would have -- finally -- roused them from their doldrums.

Nope. On all counts.

"We should have come out (in the second half) with the same kind of effort, the same kind of enthusiasm,'' said senior Lucky Jones, whose steal and three-pointer at the horn capped that 10-point sprint. "We didn't have the full 40-minute effort. We didn't play hard for 40 minutes. When we start playing hard for 40 minutes, that's when we're going to start winning.''

But when will that happen? Sunday against Buffalo in the Sewall Center? Two weeks from now? A month from now when the Colonials begin Northeast Conference play? Ever?

Who knows?

Certainly not Toole.

"I don't have any idea,'' he said. "We had a lack of effort. Lack of passion. Lack of toughness. Lack of knowing where you're supposed to be on the floor.''

One could point out that the Colonials have seven new-to-the-program players who are either freshmen or junior college transfers.

"We only have two seniors,'' Jones said. "We have a lot of new guys and transfers. I don't think where they came from or how they were raised or how they were taught effort was instilled in them. Here at Robert Morris we play hard for 40 minutes. Being young should be more of a reason for us to come in and play harder. We have a lot of young guys, so you (should) have a lot of energy. You should have a lot of energy at 18, 19 years old, and you should just want to play and want to win and want to play hard.''

Yep. One would think that.

Including Toole.

"Clearly, defensively we didn't get the job done,'' he said. "We didn't come out with the proper amount of energy, and we didn't compete the way you need to in order to win a Division I game, so you lose. We had no energy, no activity, no real desire. I'm begging them to tell me how to touch upon whatever nerve you need to touch upon to be able to play the way you're supposed to play. It was just one thing after another that we did not do on the defensive end of the floor that we talk about. That we talk about every day.''

Toole does not want to hear a word about the Colonials' inexperience.

"We're not using youth as any type of excuse for why we haven't been successful,'' he said forcefully. "They know what we're supposed to do. We know what we're supposed to do. We know how you're supposed to do it, and you have to do it. A lot of these young guys are getting a great opportunity to be on the floor, but they have to perform better than they are. It's not the first time they've played basketball.''

Toole is not excluding Jones from this. Never mind that Jones finished with a team-high 21 points.

"His first two stints in the game I thought he was actually really sub-par in terms of his effort," Toole said. "He was just standing there and watching. He got it going where he made some shots. He made a great play at the end of the (first) half. He made some good hustle plays. But you can't do it for 22 of the 29 minutes you play.''

It flat-out confounds Toole that this group can't manufacture urgency for 40 minutes. Or play hard for 40 minutes. Heck, you go hard for 20 minutes. You get 15 minutes to rest at halftime. And then you go back at it for another 20 minutes.

"I can't relate to it,'' he said. "I don't know how you consider yourself to be a Division I college basketball player who's worth your salt and fail to compete. I would rather coach a group of guys that have no idea where they're supposed to be on the floor and competed as hard as humanly possible. I don't know what you do this for if you're not willing to compete. I don't know why you step on the floor. I don't know why you show up every day if you're not willing to compete whether you play two minutes, 40
minutes, zero minutes.

"It's competition. Someone's going to be better than somebody else when that game is over. Someone's going to be better than somebody else when you run a sprint in practice. Someone's going to be better than somebody else when you run a drill in practice. Somebody wins and somebody loses in everything. And the problem is, we have guys who are more concerned about the minutes they play and the points they score than whether we win or lose. I don't understand that. I wasn't raised that way. I was never taught to think that way, and I don't understand how that is now the norm versus the exception.

"That's what I said to them in the locker room -- I don't know how to get you guys excited to play a basketball game. I don't know what it is. How can you not be excited? You get to do it 30 times a year. (For) 335 days you can just sit and do whatever you want to do. Thirty times a year you get to play a basketball game. During the course of your career, you might get 120 games, maybe 125 if you're lucky. In your life. This might be the last time you're ever on a team, you're ever a part of a team or you're ever in a competitive environment that you can go out and fight and compete and sweat.''

Toole paused. Then his voice took on a more strident tone.

"It's not new guys or old guys. It's everybody. Guys will compete for a couple seconds here or a couple possessions there and then want a break. Then guys will compete for a couple possessions here and we'll get two guys on the floor who will compete a little bit and then three guys on the floor who are standing and watching. How many loose balls did we stand there and watch? We didn't get one loose ball. (The Penguins) got every loose ball. They got every single loose ball in the game. Our program was built on being the team that gets the loose balls. Somewhere we've lost that. I've got to find out where and I've got to try and fix it. But I don't understand how you don't get excited to compete.''

Toole cited a key juncture in the game. The Colonials stood in a 72-72 tie with Youngstown State with just under four minutes left. During winning time, the Penguins scored 17 of the final 26 points.

"It's really hard to win Division I games,'' Toole said. "Every time you relax, you put yourself in jeopardy of winning the game. We have about 13 guys on our roster who are looking for every opportunity they can get to relax -- from senior to freshman. You can't win games like that. Two of the games we won, Bradley and Louisiana-Monroe, they let us run offense. They let us do what we were comfortable doing. We haven't imposed our will on anybody. We don't have a will.

"Our will is to point the finger. Again, it falls on my shoulders. I have to figure out a way to change it, to talk about it, to get it through, to emphasize the right things over and over and over and over and over and over. We're in desperate search of guys who will respond to that and will listen to that and embrace that.''

Maybe it comes down to this. It's said that where there's a will, there's a way. Perhaps in RMU's case, if they can't find a will, there's no way.

NOTES: Youngstown State (5-4) entered the game shooting 41.9 percent from the field, including just 28.8 percent from beyond the arc. Against the Colonials, the Penguins shot 54.1 from the field, including 44.4 percent from deep … Junior Stephan Bennett made the first two three-pointers of his career … Buffalo, coached by former Duke standout Bobby Hurley, is scheduled to visit the Sewall Center again next season. That game could have a very early tip. Toole would like to get the Colonials involved in ESPN's 24-hour basketball marathon for a second time. Robert Morris did it four years ago, playing an 8 a.m. game at Kent State. "I thought it was a neat experience and something I'd like to try again,'' Toole said. Next season's game against Buffalo could be that "again'' thing. "I think Bobby is the kind of coach who might be interested in something like that,'' Toole said. "This is far, far down the road. There are a lot of hurdles we'd have to clear before then. We haven't contacted or reached out to anybody. And no one has contacted us.''

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