Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. – Ah, February.
Snow. Valentines Day.
Snow. Presidents Day.
Snow. More snow.
It's almost March.
Oh, more snow.
Plus conference basketball, which is at its most frenetic and most meaningful.
"It's the most exciting month at whatever level you're at," Wagner coach Bashir Mason recently told the
Staten Island Advance. "You see the games get closer, the upsets and the buzzer-beaters.''
In other words, it's crunch time. No, not that crunch you hear when you step outside and walk on the snow and salt on your sidewalk.
Let's differentiate. It's Crunch Time!
For Robert Morris, which leads the Northeast Conference with an 11-1 record, this part of February means four more games on the final two weekends of the regular season. The Colonials already own a spot in the NEC Tournament. Their focus now is on clinching the NEC regular-season championship and securing home court throughout the NEC event.
"We have four more tough opponents,'' junior
Lucky Jones said. "We can't take anyone lightly. We are one of the best teams in this conference. At the same time, we can't just go out there and think we're going to win because we're Robert Morris. We have to go out there and feed off our defense, get stops. We have to finish the regular season strong.''
The Colonials, who won the regular season championship last season, begin ending this regular season Thursday night against LIU Brooklyn in the Charles L. Sewall Center. The Blackbirds won the previous three NEC championships, but injuries this season have put them in a desperate situation. LIU Brooklyn, led by standout senior point guard Jason Brickman, brings a 3-8 NEC record into Thursday night's game. That leaves the Blackbirds currently ninth in a 10-team league in which eight teams qualify for the conference tournament.
Robert Morris has had its share of personnel problems, too, but the Colonials have overcome them by playing tight zone defense and rebounding well.
Yes, the Colonials had that hiccup Feb. 1 at home against Central Connecticut State, which entered that game 1-6 in the NEC and without injured star Kyle Vinales. Robert Morris led by 18 points in the second half, but the Blue Devils came back and won, 74-73.
After that, though, the Colonials reeled off four consecutive wins, including a 65-56 victory at LIU Brooklyn Feb. 6, and seemed to have regained their killer instinct.
"I feel like we've always had it,'' senior guard
Karvel Anderson said. "That (CCSU) game, we didn't really respect our opponent too much, and it bit us in the behind. We've had (the killer instinct). It's just been a little more enforced since then so we don't have it happen again.''
The Colonials in their four-game winning streak have held their opponents to an average of just 56.8 points per game, limiting them to 38.2 percent shooting from the field, including 26.1 percent from beyond the arc.
Perhaps that indicates that the Colonials, who switched from a man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone Dec. 7, have become increasingly more comfortable and tenacious playing their zone.
"I think guys are starting to get more comfortable playing it,'' RMU coach
Andrew Toole said. "It's hard as a coach to watch all those shots go up and just hope that they're not going to go in. A lot of them are contested shots. Some are deeper than where guys would traditionally shoot them from.''
RMU assistant coach
Robby Pridgen plays against the Colonial zone during practices.
"Robby was a pretty good scorer (in college) a long time ago,'' Toole said, "and he's said sometimes it's really hard for him to find a comfortable, step-in shot because there's activity. There are hands (in front of him). Guys are trading off, so you don't always have that rhythm that you would necessarily have. I hope it's our defense doing a good job, and I hope it continues.''
The Robert Morris zone was seriously tested last Saturday during RMU's game against Mount St. Mary's. The Mountaineers lead the NEC in three-point attempts (26.8 per game), and they launched them with regularity last Saturday. However, they made just 7-of-27 casts in a game RMU won, 69-61.
"Some of that is because we defended well,'' Toole said. "Mount's a team that came in averaging 80-plus (points per game), and we defended well. I think they missed some good looks, but I think a lot of the looks were contested. We know how dangerous they are offensively and that at any point in time they can get going. Fortunately, the clock kind of ran out before they could really get it going because they had those three there late. Our defense was on high alert all afternoon and really stepped up when it needed to.
"(The Mountaineers) put four shooters on the floor, two in each corner and then two up high, so you just have really long runs at times (to get to the shooter). It's part of their personnel. They have five guys on their roster who on our scouting report are high-alert three-point shooters. There are other teams in the NEC that have one, maybe two. They really stretch you, and it makes it difficult. The angles they play and some of the spacing they have makes it difficult, and it allows that corner pass. That forward has to be really active and alert in order to contest those shots.''
The Colonials outrebounded Mount St. Mary's, 40-28, continuing their strong work on the glass in the NEC. Robert Morris has outrebounded its opponent in 10 of its 12 league games, including each of the past four.
"I thought we did an excellent job on the glass -- the defensive glass as well as the offensive glass,'' Toole said of the effort against the Mountaineers. "They're going to shoot so many threes, long shots, long rebounds, and I thought we did a great job rebounding outside of our area. I thought Stephan Hawkins and
Aaron Tate did a great job getting some really strong rebounds in the paint. Everybody got on the glass. You have to do that because if you give them another opportunity they're so good at hurting you when the defense is scrambling and breaking down. You're going to get in trouble if they start getting more rebounds and having more opportunities to score.''
Robert Morris also has played well with a lead in this four-game winning streak -- something it absolutely did not do against Central Connecticut State.
"I think we've been more aggressive,'' Toole said. "We've stayed more aggressive, which I think is the key. We'll see if that can continue going forward because hopefully we're in situations where we have some leads and (can) figure out how to play with them.''
One other note about the Mount St. Mary's game concerns freshman point guard
Kavon Stewart, who offers relief for senior point guard
Anthony Myers-Pate. Stewart handled the Mountaineer pressure with mixed results. He had five assists but also three turnovers in his 21 minutes and was just 1-of-6 from the field. He did contribute four rebounds, though.
"He's a guy who's earned the right to be on the floor,'' Toole said. " Ant needs a blow at times, and Kavon has to be in there. We trust Kavon to make plays. He does at times get sped up, but he's a freshman. He's handling more pressure than he's ever seen and guys running at him in different situations and so it's definitely something he can learn from. In the second half, he didn't make any of the layups he took, but the way he created those layups gave us a lot of offensive rebound opportunities. I think we scored on three or four of the breaks he was on where he just kind of got something up on the rim and we were able to get some put-backs and cheap buckets that way. He's probably not going to get an assist, but those are important plays for us to be able to figure out ways to score.''
OUTSIDE-THE-BOX THINKING: Mount St. Mary's was scheduled to play Bryant at home last Thursday night, but that game, along with three other NEC games that evening, was postponed because of winter storm Pax, which dumped 14 inches of snow in Emmitsburg, Md.
Mount St. Mary's officials originally offered to play the game Wednesday night because Bryant had flown in that day and was at its hotel in nearby Gettysburg, but that idea didn't, uh, fly.
Then Mount St. Mary's officials suggested bussing both teams to the Sewall Center and playing there Thursday night because Pax was far less severe in this area. Again, no. Finally, Mount St. Mary's floated the idea of playing the game at Saint Francis University, where Robert Morris did play the Red Flash in Loretto last Thursday night, as part of an NEC doubleheader. According to Mount St. Mary's officials, Saint Francis supported that idea, playing the game after the Colonials and Red Flash played, but Bryant declined.
Pretty creative "outside-of-the-gym'' thinking, though, by Mount St. Mary's.
FIRST OF THE MAKEUPS: Central Connecticut State (5-7) moved into seventh place Tuesday night with a 73-71 win at Saint Francis Brooklyn (6-6). Two big shots by Vinales helped the Blue Devils. With CCSU trailing, 40-32, late in the first half, Vinales whistled in a three with two seconds left to cut the Terrier lead to five at the break. With six seconds left in the game, Vinales drained another three to give the Blue Devils their fourth win in five games.
"Every game we play is a big game,'' CCSU coach Howie Dickenman told the
New Britain Herald. "We're trying to improve. We're trying to get a win here and a win there, and maybe somewhere along the line we can get maybe near the middle of the pack. That would be fine with us.''
The stretch drive won't be easy for CCSU. It plays Mount St. Mary's at home Thursday night, then finishes with three on the road at Bryant, LIU Brooklyn and Sacred Heart.
Vinales scored 23 points for CCSU, which had 14 steals in the game. Ben Mockford scored 18 points for the Terriers, hitting six of his nine three-point attempts. Jalen Cannon added 16 points and 12 rebounds for Saint Francis Brooklyn, which has lost three straight.
NEC NUGGETS: The other three postponed games will be made up next week -- Wagner at Fairleigh Dickinson Monday at 7 p.m., Bryant at Mount St. Mary's Monday at 8:30 p.m. and LIU Brooklyn at Sacred Heart Tuesday at 7 p.m. … Brickman is one of 23 finalists for the Bob Cousy award, which recognizes the top point guard in Division I. Among the other finalists are Arizona's T.J. McConnell (from Chartiers Valley High School) and Iowa State's DeAndre Kane (from Pittsburgh's Schenley High School) … Brickman, who had 14 assists last Sunday against Saint Francis Brooklyn, has 961 career assists, which ranks sixth on the NCAA's all-time list. Former Maryland star Steve Blake is just ahead of Brickman at 972. Duke great Bobby Hurley holds the NCAA career record with 1,076 assists.
