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Robert Morris University Athletics

Tony Lee

Men's Basketball

Meyer On Morris: How All This Started

By Paul Meyer

Moon Township, Pa. – Tony Lee did so much while a player at Robert Morris that it's almost impossible to single out one memory that defined him.
 
Try this one, though.
 
It was Jan. 26, 2006, during his sophomore season. The Colonials were about to tip off against Monmouth at the Charles L. Sewall Center. They'd just come back on the court after their pregame briefing from former coach Mark Schmidt.
 
There, at the free-throw line at RMU's first-half basket, stood Monmouth senior guard Chris Kenny shooting a practice free throw.
 
Lee absolutely could not believe it.
 
He walked right up to Kenny, slapped the ball from his hand and strode into the Colonials' huddle.
 
"That's disrespect,'' Lee shouted to his teammates. "Disrespect! We are not going to back down!''
 
And they didn't.
 
The Colonials beat the Hawks, 73-65. Lee had 13 points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists. Fittingly, he sealed the deal by making two free throws with 42 seconds left that gave RMU a seven-point lead.
 
Lee, who rarely even smiled while on the court back then, laughs about that moment now.
 
"The Monmouth players were like, 'Wow, who is this guy?''' Lee said. "Kenny was their me. They were like, 'Wow, and Kenny did nothing?'''
 
Yep. Nothing.
 
"Tony,'' former RMU coach Mike Rice said, "was not afraid of anyone.''
 
It's Tony Lee's toughness that defined him as a Colonial. More than his points, his rebounds, his assists, his steals, and there were lots and lots of all of those, it was his toughness.
 
That's why Saturday at halftime of RMU's game against Bryant he'll be inducted into the Robert Morris Athletic Hall of Fame.
 
There's also this.
 
"He energized the program,'' Rice said. "They'd had some winning seasons, but he put the wind in our sails. That's on Tony Lee's back and his sweat. Nobody has done more for that program than Tony Lee. No one involved in the program -- not a player, not a coach, not an administrator -- has had as big an effect in changing the culture than Tony Lee.''
 
"Tony started it,'' Schmidt said. "When I got there, our RPI was 321 out of (then) 324 Division I programs. He brought personality to our team and was the personality of our program. He really was. He gave everybody courage. He embodied our program. He became the leader of our program.''
 
In the four seasons before Lee arrived at RMU in 2004, the Colonials in the Northeast Conference were 35-41 (.461). They were 43-72 (.374) overall.
 
During his four seasons, the Colonials in the NEC were 46-26 (.639) and 72-48 (.600) overall.
 
In his senior season in 2007-08, when he was voted by the league's coaches as the NEC Player of the Year, Lee led the Colonials to a 16-2 (.889) record and first place in the league and to a 26-8 (.765) mark overall, a program record for victories.
 
"We had such a great leader in Tony Lee,'' Rice said. "They don't make competitors like that anymore. It was just Tony being Tony. After Tony left, they were led by the best because he'd showed them what to do.''
 
Lee's impact on the basketball culture as a player continued after he became an alumnus. In the six seasons following his departure, the Colonials finished 83-23 (.783) in the NEC and 137-73 (.652) overall. They played in two NCAA Tournaments, two National Invitation Tournaments and the Collegeinsider.com Tournament. They won four regular-season NEC championships and had five seasons of 20-plus wins.
 
Quite a legacy.
 
"He's my favorite player of all the players I've coached,'' said Schmidt, who coached RMU for six seasons before moving to St. Bonaventure after the 2006-07 season. "He was not the best player I ever coached, but he's my favorite player. He embodied everything a player should be. He had a great heart. He had a great work ethic. He was a winner.''
 
That he was. He played on three state championship teams at Charlestown High School in Boston. And he added those 72 wins while at Robert Morris.
 
So, yes, Tony Lee was a winner.
 
Saturday he'll be a RMU Athletic Hall of Famer.
 
"I'm still shocked,'' Lee said last week from his home in Boston. "I wasn't really expecting this to happen so soon.''
 
Truth be told, nobody really expected this to happen at all.
 
Lee had no Division I basketball scholarship offers after his senior season in high school. He was prepared to go to Division II Merrimack College, just north of Boston. However, Schmidt saw him play in an AAU event in April.
 
Lee was 6'0" tall, weighed 215 pounds. He was rock solid and brick tough. But …
 
"His skill level was nowhere near what it needed to be,'' Schmidt said.
 
Where would he play? Point guard? Shooting guard? Strong safety?
 
Still, Schmidt saw something.
 
"I liked his toughness,'' he said. "He was just tough. He had that toughness you can't teach. If there was a scramble for a loose ball, Tony got it. Toughness was in his DNA as deep as it could be. He had a full dose.''
 
Schmidt offered Lee a scholarship, and the rest is history. Or would be.
 
There was the matter of what position Lee would play.
 
It wouldn't be point guard. The Colonials had sophomore Derek Coleman, Lee's high school teammate, anchored at that spot.
 
Besides …
 
"His ball handling was horrible,'' Schmidt said. "I'd break out in hives when he got the ball.''
 
And he couldn't shoot well.
 
Rice would say in the years to come: "You took cover when Tony shot a three.''
 
"Everyone thought I did nothing good,'' Lee said. "I couldn't shoot. I couldn't dribble. I was definitely too short to rebound. I was just a person who played hard.''
 
So here's what happened.
 
Over the next four seasons, the guy who couldn't shoot scored 1,489 points, eighth all-time at Robert Morris. He scored in double figures in 84 games, fourth all-time. Of the 23 players on RMU's list of 1,000-point scorers, only six finished 50 percent or better from the field. Lee is second among those six at 51.5 percent. He shot 57.8 percent from inside the three-point line.
 
The guy who couldn't dribble had 487 assists, third all-time. He set the single-season record his senior year in 2007-08 with 217 assists. He's tied for second all-time in assist-per-game average during that season at 6.4.
 
The guy who was too short to rebound wound up with 751 rebounds, tied for first all-time until senior Lucky Jones broke that record, Jan. 16, against St. Francis Brooklyn. In his junior season, he had 95 offensive rebounds, an astonishing number for a guard. In his senior season, he finished fourth in the NEC in rebounding with an average of 6.6 rebounds per game. The three players ahead of him all were at least five inches taller than he was.
 
He had 17 career double-doubles, second all-time. Heck, he even put together back-to-back triple-doubles during his senior season, becoming just the sixth player in NCAA Division I history to accomplish the feat. On Feb. 9, 2008, Lee had 13 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in an 88-82 win over LIU Brooklyn. Five days later, he had 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in an 80-74 victory at Central Connecticut State.
 
Oh, yeah. He also had 275 career steals, which ranks third all-time at Robert Morris.
 
He moved into the starting lineup in the 10th game of his freshman season and never left it. He was named to the 2005 All-NEC Rookie Team. He was an All-NEC Second Team pick as a junior, and he capped his brilliant career by being named 2008 NEC Player of the Year his senior season.
 
How, exactly, did all that happen?
 
"He had a will,'' Schmidt said. "He willed himself to become a good player. He maximized his abilities. He maximized what the Lord gave him. He over-achieved in everything, including academically.''
 
"It was incredible the numbers he put up,'' Rice said. "It was (because of) the amount of toughess he had. No one personified it more -- every single night. He would try to post up a 6'9'' guy. He had a big heart. He was someone who could do everything, and he found ways to make winning plays.''
 
"It was just my hunger,'' Lee said. "My hunger to be good, to be a better player and make the people around me better. And not wanting to lose. Losing tastes too bad. I definitely made myself better. I definitely made people around me better. I held myself accountable and I held those around me accountable, to do better and be better. I pushed them, from the coaches to the last player on the bench. It all boils down to toughness, and it's got to be in your DNA. If you don't have it, you can't get it. I think that's something I had inside me.''
 
So about those rather low expectations people had of him before his freshman season?
 
"I surpassed them, and more,'' Lee said.
 
It wasn't until his sophomore season that Lee really blossomed.
 
"My first year was kind of rocky,'' Lee said. "I came (to RMU) rough around the edges. I was from inner-city Boston. I was just that freshman kid. In my sophomore year, I got more into a leader role. I thought, 'I can be a good fit here.'''
 
By his junior season, Lee had led Robert Morris to a 17-11 (.607) record, the program's most wins since it had an 18-12 (.600) record in 1999-2000. The Colonials seemed poised for an even better season in 2007-08.
 
And then Schmidt, the man who'd brought Lee to RMU, left for St. Bonaventure.
 
Lee was disillusioned. He talked to Schmidt. He even considered transferring to St. Bonaventure. However, he knew he'd have to sit out a season because of NCAA transfer rules. And he'd have only one season of eligibility left after sitting out.
 
Besides …
 
"I thought,'' Lee said, "'I'm home at Robert Morris. Everybody loves me here -- including up to President (Gregory G.) Dell'Omo. Why am I going to leave my house and go to somebody else's house? I can't leave.'''
 
So he stayed. And Robert Morris included him on its search committee for its new coach.
 
"That let me know how much respect they had for me,'' Lee said. "It was an honor.''
 
That committee selected Rice, then an assistant coach at Pitt.
 
"I always tease him, 'You'd better be glad I hired you,''' Lee said with a laugh.
 
Rice was glad.
 
"No coach could have been luckier than to have Tony Lee as his first captain,'' Rice said. "He was the ultimate warrior. He would do anything to win.''
 
However, the Rice-Lee relationship didn't get off to the most harmonious start.
 
They would go at it verbally almost daily.
 
"The first person I challenged was Tony Lee,'' Rice said. "I think he liked that. I challenged him to be a better leader, to be a better player. I didn't think he was getting the most out of himself and the team. But he liked to do things his way.''
 
"At first, I did not (get) his energy and his demands,'' Lee said. "At times, we would bump heads. We had numerous meetings because we had different views.''
 
The situation came to a head one Saturday about two weeks into practice. During a session that Rice estimated lasted "five to seven minutes'' the two reached a meeting of the minds.
 
"We cleared the air,'' Rice said. "If I hadn't listened to him, we wouldn't have been as successful as we were. I had to trust him more and trust the seniors more. I was nit-picking a little bit too much.''
 
"We left on the same page,'' Lee said. "I needed him to show me how to be a leader. He needed me in the locker room to get those guys motivated. I realized that with my energy and his energy, it was like me looking in a mirror and arguing with myself.''
 
"We both had a passion for winning,'' Rice said. "A second after that meeting, it was like we were out for tea and enjoying lunch.''
 
Lee laughed when told what Rice said.
 
"We didn't have tea and lunch,'' he said. "But we'd come to an agreement.''
 
"If I didn't have him, I wouldn't have been as successful,'' Rice said. "Once he was on board, the (other players) had to do it, because Tony wanted to do it.''
 
Rice wanted those Colonials to be tougher, to play stronger defense. That didn't go over real well at first.
 
"But ultimately Tony made them do it,'' Rice said. "He's an old-school leader, a throw-back. They also had a little fear of him. After he believed in what we were doing, it was something to behold. It validated a young, inexperienced coaching staff.''
 
Which, by the way, included current RMU head coach Andrew Toole.
 
Rice, Toole and Lee guided those 2007-08 Colonials to a 25-6 regular-season record. After starting the season 5-4, that team rolled to 20 wins in its next 22 games. It finished second in the NEC in defense.
 
Rice was voted the 2008 NEC Coach of the Year. Lee, as we've said, was the league's player of the year.
 
No word, though, on whether they celebrated by going out for tea and lunch.
 
Tony Lee, however, had definitely left his imprint on the Robert Morris program. He still seems a bit amazed at that.
 
"To be considered one of the best players, one of the best athletes, at Robert Morris is completely mind-blowing,'' he said.
 
"He overcame adversity,'' Schmidt said. "He came from nothing, but he just grew and matured. They say you come in as kids and leave as men. That's what he did. He called me after he found out he was going into the Hall of Fame. He thanked me for what I did for him. I said, "How about what you did for us?' It tells you a lot about him that he called me. It's really a great success story. He's a role model back home now.''
 
Lee currently works as a correction officer in Suffolk County in Boston. Three years ago, he went through a grueling 12-week program at the Correction Officer Training Academy from which only eight percent of applicants graduate.
 
He has a daughter, Ashanti Lee.
 
"She'll be four February 25th,'' Lee said proudly.
 
Lee watches Robert Morris games on television, and he's been to some road games. But he's never seen the Colonials play in the Sewall Center since he graduated.
 
"I can't wait to come back,'' he said.
 
It should be emotional, for Tony Lee and Colonial fans.
 
When he was named NEC Player of the Year in March, 2008, Tony Lee told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "When it's all said and done, I will look at coach Rice and say, 'Thank you.' And I'll also call coach Schmidt and say thank you to him for giving me this opportunity. When it's all said and done, I can look at Robert Morris and say, 'Thank you.'''
 
Now, seven years later, Robert Morris fans on Saturday can look at Tony Lee and say, "No. Thank You!''


 
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Players Mentioned

Lucky Jones

#22 Lucky Jones

G/F
6' 6"
Senior
Sr.

Players Mentioned

Lucky Jones

#22 Lucky Jones

6' 6"
Senior
Sr.
G/F