Meyer On Morris: Tough Love

By: By Paul Meyer

Men's Basketball | 1/16/2015 5:30:00 AM

Moon Township, Pa. – This prophetic verbal exchange occurred last season after Robert Morris won at Bryant.

Lucky Jones, who scored nine points and grabbed 11 rebounds in RMU's 71-67 win, chatted with his family.

RMU coach Andrew Toole stood several feet away, talking with one of the program's all-time great basketball players.

After a bit, Jones went over to Toole and the visitor, who'd come down from Boston to watch his alma mater play.

"Do you know who this is?'' Toole asked Jones.

"Yeah,'' Jones said. "I know who he is.''

"He's one of the hardest working dudes you'll ever meet,'' Toole said to Jones. "He has the rebounding record.''

Jones looked at Tony Lee.

"It's over,'' Jones told Lee.

The implication was that Jones planned to break the Robert Morris career rebounding record co-held by Lee and Anthony Dickens, who each finished their illustrious careers with 751 boards.

"No,'' Lee said. "I don't think you're getting it.''

"Listen,'' Jones said, "I'm going to get the rebounding record.''

"You're not going to get it,'' Lee said. "You don't have enough.''

Jones looked at Lee.

"We'll see about that,'' he said to the man who was the Northeast Conference Player of the Year in 2008.

Lee looked at Jones.

"It's hard to play at the Division I level,'' Lee said. "You have to bring it every day.''

Lee recounted how he hustled his way through his standout career and advised Jones to take advantage of every opportunity he had.

"I hope you do get it,'' Lee finished, "but that record's going to be there for a long time because I don't think you're going to get it.''

Jones absorbed this, then had this thought: "You know what? I have to go get this rebounding record.''

It should happen tonight when the Colonials play Saint Francis Brooklyn at the Charles L. Sewall Center.

Jones, a 6'6'' senior, has 750 career rebounds. He needs two more to move to the top of the career list in the Robert Morris record book.

"When I get it,'' Jones said recently, "I'm going to crush it. It's not going to be by one rebound or two rebounds. It's going to be 150 more rebounds.''

Well, we'll all see about that.

For now, Jones' goal is to get the record Friday night in what hopefully will be a Colonial victory. Last season, Jones reached 1,000 career points in a game against Central Connecticut State, which Robert Morris lost.

"I don't want that to happen (again),'' Jones said.

When Jones does hold the rebounding record, it will be yet another milestone he's achieved under Toole's guidance and in a player-coach relationship that is a bit, uh, unusual.

"A lot of people don't understand,'' Jones said. "Our relationship is really different. It's really kind of complicated to understand. If you were to see us in workouts, you'd be like, 'Wow! These guys don't like each other.' But he's looking out for my best interests because of the goals I told him I wanted to achieve. He's pushing me toward that, and he's not going to let me slip and fall because that's how much he cares about me and this program.''

An intermediary relayed Jones' statement to Toole the other day.

"I think it's true,'' Toole said, acknowledging that his relationship with Jones can seem complicated. "Lucky is a guy who at times can be stubborn. Part of his strength is the fact that he believes in his ability. He believes in his skills. At times, that's also part of his curse. I think that's true of everybody. What makes them good is also what they need to be kept in check with. There are times where we'll disagree. If he's not doing what he's supposed to, we tell him, and he doesn't always like to hear it. At the end of the day, he knows we're telling it to him for a reason.

"He spends as much if not more time in the coaches' office and my office as anybody on our roster, and a lot of times that's laughing and joking and carrying on. Then when we get to the court there's work to be done. We're both going to compete. We're both competitive individuals. I'm going to constantly push him and push him. Sometimes that also involves some push-back. The thing that's nice is I know in Lucky's heart he wants to win more than anything. That's what's always allowed us to have some (common ground). We both want to win so badly that we are working together.''

Toole paused, then smiled.

"Even though at times it looks like we might not be in unison,'' he said.

That "tough love'' piece for Jones started very early in his Robert Morris career.

During one of the early practices in Jones' freshman season, Toole told him to leave the court, take off his uniform and exit the Sewall Center.

Maybe not a really big deal, but it just happened to be an afternoon practice before the "Meet The Team'' evening scrimmage. Jones' family was en route from Newark, N.J., to watch him play that night.

Toole indicated to Jones that he would not play that night.

"I wasn't mad,'' Jones said, "but I was a little upset because I didn't understand why, what I did wrong. He took me into his office and he spoke to me. We let out all our differences. It was a wakeup call. It was a humbling experience. I learned from that opportunity.''

Jones did play that night.

"I knew I wanted to play on this court,'' he said. "I knew I was going to do some remarkable things here.''

That he certainly has.

He enters Friday night's game with 1,385 points, 10th on RMU's career list. Just ahead is A.J. Jackson with 1,455 points. Way up ahead is Velton Jones, who's fifth on the all-time list.

"How many points did Velton get?'' Jones asked a listener.

Told Velton Jones finished with 1,588, Lucky Jones said: "I'll pass him.''

Again, we shall see.

Lucky Jones also has done this while at Robert Morris: He's one of just three players in Northeast Conference history to amass at least 1,300 points, 700 rebounds, 150 assists and 150 steals. Lee is one of the other two. The third is LIU Brooklyn's Jamal Olasewere (2009-13).

"That's something I pride myself on, not being one-dimensional,'' Jones said. "A lot of people basketball are one-dimensional. They can shoot or they can handle the ball or they are athletic. But you don't see too many people who are all-around or who can do everything.''

Jones' versatility is what caught Toole's eye when he began recruiting Jones out of famed St. Anthony High School in New Jersey in 2010-11.

"His activity, his toughness, his energy,'' Toole said, citing what he saw in Jones. "He was a guy who was constantly around the ball, positively and negatively. He was just always involved in the action. He was never afraid to stick his nose in anywhere. He obviously had a defensive toughness and competitiveness in him that we really liked. We thought he could be a really versatile forward. We knew he could make shots. We knew he could rebound the ball. We knew he could defend. We thought he could guard multiple positions. He played much bigger than he was.''

Toole and his staff had a willing partner in the recruitment of Jones. A year earlier, Jones and his mother, Vicki, developed an interest in Robert Morris.

"The conversation nobody really knows is, me and my mom were sitting around home, eating and watching basketball,'' Jones said. "It was around tournament time, and Robert Morris was playing at home (on television). My mom was like, 'Look at this school. They play hard. Would you go there if they offered you (a scholarship)?' I was looking at them, and I was like, 'I don't know. I think I would.' At that time, from where I was and the things I had to go through, it was a blessing to have a scholarship. So I was like, 'Yeah, I'd definitely go there. Why wouldn't I play there? It's a Division I school.'''

Jones still had to play his senior season at St. Anthony, which turned out to be a heck of a season. He averaged 10.4 points and 6.3 rebounds a game for a team that finished 33-0 and won the USA Today national high school championship.

A few months later, he signed with Robert Morris.

"It's a privilege to play in Division I,'' Jones said. "It's really a privilege to play here.''

A few months after that, he made his college debut in the Colonials' season opener against Rider. Robert Morris won, 83-57. Jones did not start, but he made quite an impact off the bench. In what would be typical of his career at RMU, he didn't shoot all that well, finishing 3-of-13 from the field, including 0-of-4 from beyond arc, but he contributed six points and 13 rebounds.

"That's one thing that's always going to stick with me,'' Jones said. "No matter how terrible I shoot it, it's not going to stop me from my effort, my rebounding, my defense, my steals, my jumping over tables, my going for loose balls. That's not going to stop.''

"That kind of set the stage for one of his unique skills, and that's rebounding the basketball,'' Toole said. "Lucky has excellent instincts where the ball's going to come off. He anticipates the missed shot well. A lot of it's just effort. We'll sit and watch games where he doesn't rebound as well and you can say, 'OK, maybe you didn't play with the necessary effort.' Then all of a sudden he can go into a game and get 12 rebounds and every time the ball comes off the rim he has his hands on it.''

And so he had 13 rebounds in his first college game. Only 739 more to get and he'd have the Robert Morris record.

"Michael Byrnes was always telling me, 'Heck, you keep this up, you might be the all-time leading rebounder,''' Jones said, referring to the former RMU assistant coach. "From then on, it was like, 'Let's go get it!' That's something I always thought about. I will never forget at Central Connecticut State my sophomore year. We blew them out. Everybody had a great game. I had 10 points and 10 rebounds. There was one rebound I didn't get. Coach Toole said to me, 'That one rebound might not let you get the rebounding record.' And I said, 'Wow!' I always thought I was going to get it anyway. But he was motivating me to try to get more.''

That "tough love'' thing.

"I think to have a record to yourself is pretty special,'' Toole said. "I think especially rebounding. Anybody can be the leading rebounder if you set your mind to go and do it and you want to go ahead and do it. You want to compete. You want to show up. You want to go and fight for rebounds. It's a lot easier to just stop. I heard a thing the other day that said if you want to understand someone's effort, chart rebounding and deflections because you can't cheat those. I think when you look at Lucky becoming the all-time leading rebounder in school history, people who have watched him play know that he doesn't cheat his effort on the backboards, and I think that's a unique, unique thing. It's a skill that he has. You don't see a lot of people his size, or even in today's game, who can rebound the ball the way he does.''

Jones said he'd like to have the ball that he grabs that will give him the record.

"I want the ball just because it's special to know that you lived up to who you are, and that's being an all-around player,'' he said. "Points? Everybody can score points. Steals? Not too many people can do steals. But to do all three -- points, steals and rebounds? You lived up to who you are.''

The rebounding record will mean a ton to Jones. It will be yet another thing he can cross off his to-do list.

But there's something else he wants before he ends his career as a Colonial.

As a high schooler, Jones had a list of goals on the wall of his room.

"State championship as a high school player. Got that,'' Jones said. "National championship as a high school player. Got that. Division I scholarship. Got that. NCAA Tournament. That's the only thing I'm missing. No matter what accolades I have, that's the only thing I'm missing. That's what I so desperately need in my life. Once I get that, then I'll feel like, 'All right.'''

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