Meyer On Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. – It's one thing for fans to storm the court, as RMU's followers did last March.
 
It's quite another for a team to storm the Storm, as the Colonials did Tuesday night.
 
Behind 38 points from Karvel Anderson and 25 more from Lucky Jones, the visiting Colonials cruised past St. John's, 89-78, leaving the Red Storm red-faced after a first round game in the National Invitation Tournament.
 
Thus, for the second consecutive season, eighth-seeded Robert Morris dispatched a top seed in the NIT, last March it was Kentucky at the Charles L. Sewall Center, and made a seismic change in its self-esteem.
 
You'll recall the Colonials were more than a bit bummed after losing to Mount St. Mary's in the championship game of the Northeast Conference Tournament, March 11. They were in no mood for the NIT.
 
However, after learning they'd play at St. John's of the Big East, their moods brightened.
 
Somewhat, anyway.
 
"Once we found out who our opponent was, I think that really helped us get things into focus and gave us our perspective back again,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said. "It gave us some structure as to where we'd be going, who we'd be playing, putting in a game plan, talking about executing that game plan. I think that allowed them to turn the page and get themselves ready and excited about their next opportunity.''
 
The Red Storm? Maybe not so much. They'd finished 20-12 overall and 10-8 in the Big East, which earned them a three-way tie for third place. They had held out hope for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
 
"I read something that they were frustrated about not being in the NCAA Tournament and they felt they should have made it,'' Jones said. "We knew right there they weren't interested. With us being in a one-bid league in the NEC, we work 365 days. Unfortunately, we lost on the most important day. But we went in like, 'It's the NIT. It's the second-best tournament in the country. It's going to be televised. Everybody's going to be watching.' We went in with a focus of, 'Let's try to do it again. Let's make another memory.' That's what we did.''
 
"You could kind of sense before the game, even in warm ups, that St. John's didn't really want to be there,'' Anderson said. "We didn't think they respected us just (from) the interactions from team to team in warm ups. We took that as motivation and jumped out on them.''
 
Nineteen seconds into the game, sophomore Stephan Hawkins drained a shot from near the top of the key, an unusually long shot for him but two points nevertheless.
 
"Hawk actually is a really good shooter,'' Anderson said. "We do a shooting game at the end of practice where everybody on the team has to make a three. Hawk's always one of the first people to make his. He's a good shooter. He loves that 15-footer. He kind of stretched (that one) out a little further than we're used to, but we weren't going to complain about any shot that was taken (Tuesday) night.''
 
Toole made it clear that Hawkins' jump-start jump shot was an option in the normal offensive flow.
 
"Absolutely,'' he said. "It's a shot he makes, maybe a step or two longer than usual, but he's been working on trying to extend his range. It's a shot he makes at a pretty high percentage, so we were comfortable with him taking it and it was within the context of what we had going on. He got us off to a great start, and things started to roll from there.''
 
Yeah, pretty much.
 
Anderson drained the first of his nine three-pointers 55 seconds into the game.
 
"You know how I am, I feel like every time it's going in,'' Anderson said. "When I shot that one, it felt really good leaving my hand. I had a terrible warm up shooting the ball and in the shoot around, so I'm not really sure where that came from, but when it left my hand it felt good and every one after that felt good. Even the air ball (in the second half).''
 
"I think it was very important,'' Toole said of Anderson making his first attempt. "As good a shooter as he is, the last couple games he struggled because he hadn't gotten good looks, and so he got a couple good looks early and I think he was confident and aggressive in hunting those looks. Once he saw the first two go down, I think it really started to give everybody confidence.''
 
Anderson made two more triples in the next two minutes. Then Jones scored 11 consecutive Robert Morris points, and the Colonials hada 22-6 lead seven and-a-half minutes into the game.
 
That impressive start by the Colonials seemed to sap whatever spunk the Red Storm did have at tipoff.
 
"There was some frustration about not making the NCAA Tournament,'' St. John's sophomore Max Hooper told the New York Daily News. "At the same time, before the game I felt there was good energy, (that) we had turned the page and had a good resolve. RMU made shots, and once they got off to the hot start we saw a dip in our energy and ultimately the game was lost at (that) point already.''
 
"We started going on our own island and doing things we never should have done,'' teammate Jamal Branch told the newspaper. "We should have kept it simple and stuck with each other."
 
As the Colonials did.
 
They built a 43-18 lead with four minutes left in the first half, settled for a 49-27 halftime edge and eventually expanded their advantage to 26 points, 68-42, with nine minutes remaining.
 
Mind-boggling.
 
"Going in we were confident, as always, that we could win the game,'' Anderson said. "I said before we left I felt we could win, that we could play anywhere, and then given the circumstances, especially given how heartbroken we were after the loss in the championship game, we just felt it was a good opportunity to redeem ourselves. You know what happened last year in the NIT. You never know what can happen.''
 
"I knew my team was focused,'' Jones said. "I knew I was very focused. I went in there with the mindset, 'Let's just try to get the job done.' We knew we had a great game plan. We just did what the coaches told us to do, and we came out successful.''
 
Jones did have a flashback during that good start early on. He recalled that the Colonials built nice leads quickly at Alabama, Jan. 4, 9-0 and 19-10 in the first half, but lost, 64-56.
 
"We had a good lead, but we let them come back,'' Jones said. "I'm thinking (at St. John's), 'Let's see how long we can keep this lead.' We held it a long time. We did a great job with it.''
 
For the most part anyway.
 
St. John's made a 24-6 run late that whittled the Colonial lead to eight points, 74-66, with three and-a-half minutes left. However, Anderson buried a three-pointer from the left elbow that blunted the Red Storm momentum, and the Colonials went 12-for-16 from the free throw line in the final 69 seconds to keep the Red Storm out to sea.
 
"I thought Robert Morris came out and beat us to the punch in every phase of the game,'' St. John's coach Steve Lavin told the New York Post. "It wasn't until (late) that we began to play with the necessary aggressiveness and purpose needed to close the gap. Tonight was disappointing because we didn't bring forth the effort or purposeful play that would've allowed us to be competitive. We were just a step slow, a day late, dollar short, whatever that phrase is, and we were going in the wrong direction for the majority of the night. They played extremely well and we played poorly, and as a result they hammered us good.''
 
Which begs this question about first-round NIT games … How much does emotion and intensity, or lack thereof, factor into the results?
 
Teams that don't make the NCAA Tournament can say what they want about how they're looking forward to playing in the NIT.
 
But do they really? Does that impact their approach?
 
"I think that's a big part of it,'' Toole said. "We actually talked to our team a little bit about that on Monday. We referenced some of our other postseason experiences and kind of just reminded them a lot of times early in these tournaments that the teams that want to be there are the teams that have success. We talked about the fact that with all the disappointment we had in losing the championship game the best way to make ourselves feel better was to go out and perform the way we felt we could perform. Not saying we had to do what we did (at St. John's) or even win the game. Just play the way we believe we're capable. We talked to them about the fact you should appreciate your opportunity to still be putting on a uniform at this point in the year because not everyone gets to do that. You have to have a level of respect for the game regardless of what tournament you're in. If you have another chance to play, you have to go out and represent yourself and your team the right way.''
 
Seems the Colonials met that challenge.
 
"In a big way,'' Toole said.
 
"I think a lot of it was that it could very well have been our last time playing together,'' Anderson said. "I know that was a big thing, especially for me, (senior Anthony Myers-Pate) and Lucky. We have so much fun playing together. We love playing together so much. We just wanted to go out and play loose, have fun and play carefree and just live with the result. I told them, 'I'm going to smile the whole time whether we're up 100 or down 100. I'm just going to smile no matter what.'''
 
Anderson had plenty about which to smile. He put up 30-plus points for the fourth time this season. Only Myron Walker (six) has more career 30-point pieces as a Colonial. He was 12-for-20 from the field, including 9-of-15 from deep.
 
Anderson, a senior, ranked the performance as "probably my best.''
 
"Just because I was able to do it and everybody else on my team was able to do it at the same time,'' he said. "I was able to have a big night like that while the team was doing the same thing as well.''
 
Jones contributed his 25 points. Myers-Pate scored 11 points and had eight assists. Hawkins had six points and five rebounds. Freshman point guard Kavon Stewart scored five points and grabbed six rebounds. Sophomore Aaron Tate contributed six rebounds.
 
Jones added nine rebounds, five assists and two steals to his worksheet. He was 6-of-12 from deep.
 
"I went to the basket one time and I got my shot blocked,'' Jones said. "I told myself, 'I'm not going inside this game. I'm just going to rely on my jump shot. I'm not going to even think about it because most times when I miss my jump shots it's because I'm thinking about it. Every time I just let it go, it always goes in. That's what I did, and it started clicking.''
 
Jones had 20 of his 25 points in the first half.
 
"In the second half, I was trying to get other people shots as well,'' Jones said. "You know, if I was wide open, I had to take the shot, (but) we were up big. I thought, 'Let's try to get other people involved.'''
 
The only downer of the evening in New York City for the Colonials was a left foot injury junior Dave Appolon sustained with 1:47 left in the first half. He did not return and is unlikely to play in tonight's second-round game at Belmont.
 
That means the Crazy Eight have morphed into the Magnificent Seven.
 
SEWALL SALUTE: When the Colonials' bus pulled up next to the Sewall Center around noon Wednesday, a group of perhaps 30 fans cheered its arrival, waving signs and thrusting red foam fingers skyward.
 
"It was great,'' Toole said. "I think it shows the kind of campus support we have, the appreciation of what this team has built throughout the campus and in the community. People have rallied around them and taken a liking to the way they've played and the way they carry themselves. I think it's a complement to our team.''
 
A few minutes later, as they entered the Sewall Center, the Colonials were applauded by the RMU women's basketball team and coaches who were practicing for their first-round NCAA game against Notre Dame this weekend.
 
Nice touch.
 
NASHVILLE NEXT: The Colonials (22-13) play at fifth-seeded Belmont (25-9) at 9:30 p.m. eastern time Friday in a game that will be televised on ESPNU. Like the Colonials, the Bruins won their regular-season conference title but lost in the Ohio Valley Conference championship game to Eastern Kentucky.
 
Belmont advanced in the NIT by winning at Green Bay, 80-65, Tuesday night. Sophomore Craig Bradshaw, who averages 15.5 points per game, scored 25 points for the Bruins. Green Bay was without star point guard Keifer Sykes (left ankle), the Horizon League Player of the Year who averaged 20.3 points per game. Green Bay committed 21 turnovers, which led to 23 points for the Bruins
 
"A big win for us,'' Bruin coach Rick Byrd said. "It's a big win because of the stage and the national tournament and a lot of tradition. It's also a big win because of the team and the season Green Bay had this year."
 
NIT PICKS: The announced attendance for RMU's game at St. John's was 1,027 … Belmont in 34 games has attempted 765 shots from international waters and has made 303 (39.6 percent) … J.J. Mann, a 6'6'' senior and the 2014 Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, leads Belmont in scoring with an average of 18.1 points per game … Belmont's Jeff Laidig, a sophomore from Mishawaka, Ind., who plays sparingly, is the brother of Caleb Laidig, against whom Anderson played in high school in Elkhart, Ind. … Bruin freshman Evan Bradds, who averages 9.1 points per game and shoots 64.9 percent from the field, is the grandson of Gary Bradds, who was an All-American at Ohio State in the late 1960s … Belmont's most significant victory this season is an 83-80 win at North Carolina, Nov. 17.