Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. – It could be a rebound at precisely the right time. Or a three-pointer. Or a great assist. Some defensive help. A missed shot kept alive on the glass. A steal.  A loose ball snatched.
 
It could be, well, anything.
 
But one thing it's consistently been is something that's contributed to a Robert Morris win.
 
That's what Dave Appolon, Stephan Hawkins, Charles Oliver, Kavon Stewart and Aaron Tate have done regularly during the past three weeks to keep the short-handed Colonials not just afloat in the rough Northeast Conference seas but headed for port ahead of the fleet.
 
Individually, each has come up large. Collectively? How about mammoth?
 
"Tremendous,'' junior Lucky Jones said. "It takes five guys, but remarkably it's taken all eight of us at this point dealing with the adversity we've had. Times like this have brought all eight of us together. The five on the court are just doing everything  we're supposed to do to continue to help us win. I'm not saying this to sound cocky, but I love my five against any five in the league.''
 
"It's pretty impressive,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said before pausing to reflect on exactly what's transpired.
 
"It's really impressive,'' Toole said, strengthening his observation. "Everyone's done something in their own way to be able to help us get over the top. I think that's what your team is supposed to be about.''
 
Thing is, this team now isn't what it was a month ago. Because of personal reasons and season-ending suspensions, six players, two of them starters, are no longer with this team. That left eight players to carry on.
 
It also left Appolon, Hawkins, Oliver, Stewart and Tate to take up much of the slack, which they've done admirably in support of remaining starters Jones, Karvel Anderson and Anthony Myers-Pate.
 
In fact, what they've done raises this question: Would the Colonials be 9-1 without what they've done?
 
"There's no way,'' Toole said. "There's absolutely no way. We talk about it all the time, that now more than ever it's important that you prepare yourself as an individual player to bring what you can bring. We don't have another option. If you don't play well, it's not like we can say, 'Oh, let's put this guy in and see what he does.' So now it's more important than ever that everybody shows up every night, because if one individual doesn't show up, it makes it that much more difficult for us to be successful. The contributions we've gotten from everybody other than Karvel, Lucky and Ant have been huge.''
 
To wit …
 
Appolon, a junior who didn't play much in his first two and-a-half seasons, over the past six games has scored 29 points, grabbed 29 rebounds and contributed 12 assists. While playing some of the time at the point guard position, he's remarkably had no turnovers in his 139 minutes.
 
"That feels great,'' Appolon said.
 
Hawkins, a sophomore who's moved into the starting lineup with Appolon, in those six games has scored 51 points -- and made 20-of-36 field goal attempts -- and supplied 22 rebounds in his 139 minutes.
 
Oliver, a junior college transfer brought in to be a scorer, has put up 44 points and gone 9-for-10 from the free throw line in his 122 minutes.
 
Stewart, a freshman point guard, has 47 points and 18 assists in 130 minutes.
 
Tate, brought in as a sophomore from junior college, has 28 points and an eyebrow-raising 40 rebounds in his 137 minutes.
 
Collectively, this quintet has averaged 33.1 points a game over this six-game stretch. Back in, say, November, no Robert Morris fan could have envisioned that.
 
"I think Dave, Hawk and Chuck are probably the three best examples of (players who have) just become more comfortable,'' Toole said. "They've been able to relax and play. All those guys were guys who weren't always the most consistent in their approach daily, and so it was hard for them to be the most consistent minutes-getters on our team. Now because of situations they're getting more consistent minutes and they're playing more relaxed and more comfortable.''
 
"I think it's because everybody realizes that since we're short on guys everybody has to play a bigger role for us to be able to do what we want to do in this season,'' Tate said. "Everybody knows that we have to step up our level of play and do what we need to do to get where we want to be.''
 
So a heightened sense of urgency and an increase in focus have helped these five players raise their productivity.
 
"Sometimes earlier in the season, people wouldn't go as hard as they normally would,'' Anderson said. "I don't want to say they'd take a night off, but somebody else would take that spot. Now they can't do that.''
 
"It comes from the coaches,'' Jones said. "They deliver the message to us, and we as captains bring the message to our team. We're just a hungry team right now. We see the things that are ahead of us and we see the things that we can accomplish and we want to keep this going. We don't want to stop.''
 
That determination was evident last weekend in Brooklyn. The Colonials stuck that one-point loss to Central Connecticut State Feb. 1 squarely in the rear-view mirror and drove themselves to victories at LIU Brooklyn and Saint Francis Brooklyn.
 
No small feat, folks.
 
"I think Stephan Hawkins on Saturday played the most complete game of his career,'' Toole said. "He was terrific. He was tough and terrific. Aaron Tate in the last five, six games has been incredible in terms of his ability to rebound, his ability to play against some bigger guys and really affect their ability to score. He's making tons of winning plays for our team.''
 
"Hawk and Aaron are just playing incredible right now and taken our team to another level,'' Anderson said.
 
Back to Toole.
 
"Dave Appolon is the same exact way (as Hawkins and Tate),'' Toole said. "We've talked about it before, I think Dave is a guy who is now comfortable in what his role is and he's not going out there trying to do stuff that he can't do. I think he's realized that if he goes out and does what he's capable of that will really help us and that he doesn't need to show everybody some side of his game that's not necessarily going to help our team. Kavon Stewart's been playing with more and more confidence. He's been aggressive in attacking the rim. His focus has been better. Early in the year, like a lot of freshmen, he would kind of live and die with certain mistakes. His highs would be high and his lows would be low. Now he's been a lot more even keel in terms of, 'OK, I turned it over. Let me move on to the next play.' Or, 'I made a great drive or a great assist. Let me move on to the next play.' I think  that's the maturity in his game that's occurred.
 
"Charles Oliver, I thought, was terrific both games this weekend. He's had better performances in his last three or four games because he played hard. He's really played hard. He got in there and made some big shots for us (last weekend). He had big driving plays for us in both games. We need him to continue to be a secondary scorer for us off the bench and another consistent outside threat, which we know he's capable of doing.''
 
Of the five, Appolon has been in the program the longest, so his breakthrough perhaps has been the most heartening. He showed glimpses of help-ability in the past, but they didn't last. Maybe now he gets it.
 
"I think it's a combination of obviously getting his opportunity to play, and then, too, what he's doing with that opportunity,'' Toole said. "For the first couple years, we would butt heads with Dave because he wanted to do things that we didn't think he was capable of doing, and the ways we thought he could really help us he didn't know think they were very cool, because everyone wants to score. They want to shoot.
 
"Well, when Dave's played well and when he's shot and scored is when he's just gone out there and played as hard as he can and worried about being in the right spot offensively and being in the right spot defensively, making winning plays. In the last five or six games, that's exactly what he's done. Then he's gotten (for example) nine points against Bryant (Jan. 30) because he's not worried about, 'Hey, I have to get the ball and go make a play.' No. He's played within the context of what we're doing. He's understanding that if he scores or he doesn't he's still going to play the amount of minutes he's playing. If he gets rebounds, if he gets steals, if he's active defensively, if he sprints the floor, if he gets on the offensive glass, he's going to have a very productive game, and he's going to help our team in a really positive way.''
 
No question this has helped Appolon's self-esteem as a player.
 
"(I've been able to) show the coach I could do more instead of doing the little I was doing in the time I was getting,'' he said. "I feel like me working hard (gave) me the urge to play more and get more rebounds, (make) more winning plays. My confidence got way better, and the coaches got way better with me. I just feel more comfortable. It feels real good. My confidence is better. Even though I'm not shooting it great, jump shots don't mean all that to me. It's just about the winning plays and rebounds.''
 
When the Robert Morris roster dwindled to eight players Jan. 23, Toole had to make a decision about a fifth starter to join Jones, Anderson, Myers-Pate and Hawkins. He chose Appolon.
 
"When I really looked at it, obviously Dave was an option, Chuck was an option, Kavon was an option,
Aaron Tate was an option,'' Toole said. "I thought about trying to have some balance on the floor and on the bench. I also thought the way we could maximize Dave was by maybe getting him in there in the beginning of the game where he is the most energized, the most engaged. Chuck's Chuck if he starts or if he comes off the bench. Kavon's Kavon if he starts or if he comes off the bench. Aaron Tate's Aaron Tate whether he starts or comes off the bench. I thought maybe we could get a little more out of Dave if he starts because now all of a sudden he's thinking, 'OK, now I'm a starter on this team.'
 
"A lot of times when he'd gone into games and played well, in the first three or four minutes he played with a great amount of energy, and that had a positive impact for our team. So I thought if we could kind of bottle that up and get that on the court that might be a way that we can maximize his ability and still have those guys coming off the bench and being productive as well.''
 
One would think that Appolon's increased stature on this team will benefit him -- and the Colonials -- next season.
 
Same with Tate.
 
"It means a lot to me that I have a role like this,'' Tate said. "I have a chance to prove that coach Toole made the right choice to bring me out of juco basketball to play in this conference and show them what I'm able to do. The extra minutes have actually made me feel more confident faster because I'm getting more playing time, more chances to go against people who have been in the conference and been in the game longer, so it's actually making me mature much faster.''
 
All of this has also made the Colonials closer as a team.
 
"(We're) tighter,'' Appolon said. "We feel losing the players was like losing a piece of us, so we got tighter as a family. We just have to stay strong.''
 
And continue to find ways to win.
 
You know, continue to be resourceful -- without as many resources as this team had three weeks ago.
 
"That's the way our team is,'' Jones said. "Karvel being a shooter and scorer, me being an all-around player doing little things, Ant controlling the team. It's like everybody's behind somebody. Kavon Stewart's been watching Ant and trying to be as great a point guard as he is. Dave's coming along, finally getting the minutes that he deserves and playing the way he plays. And Aaron and Hawk are doing all the little things. I tell them all the time, 'When you get the ball, look to score, look to be aggressive.' We
 know how hard they work. And Chuck O just has to continue to stay in the groove, continue to stay hungry, continue to be ready to shoot every time he gets the ball -- not some of the time. He's our sharpshooter. We look for him when the offense is stagnant to make shots.''
 
"Three of the last four games, Lucky hasn't shot it very well at all and we were still able to figure out ways to win games,'' Toole said. "Piece some buckets together, whether it's Aaron Tate on the offensive glass, whether it's Dave in transition, whether it's Chuck coming off the bench and making some shots, whether it's Kavon getting to the free throw line.''
 
The "Eight Is Enough'' show will air again Thursday night in Loretto, Pa., against Saint Francis University. The Red Flash has won four of its past five games to get to 5-5 in the NEC. Its surge began nine days after it lost at Robert Morris, 73-68, Jan. 16. In that game, the Colonials led, 50-39, with 11:21 left, then fell behind, 65-54, with 4:40 remaining before going on a decisive 19-3 run.
 
"They're playing really well,'' Toole said of the Red Flash. "They're playing very well. They came into our building and probably should have won the game. We played well for a stretch in that game, and then they kind of took over the game. We were fortunate to come away with a victory. I'm sure they ecognize that. I think our guys recognize that. Thursday is going to be a very good game. (Coach) Rob Krimmel's doing a very nice job with his team. He has guys playing with confidence. He has them playing extremely well together. We have to be prepared for another difficult road test.''

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