Men's Basketball 2/10/2015 7:49:00 AM By Paul Meyer

Meyer On Morris: Showing Glimpses

Moon Township, Pa. – Robert Morris has played two-thirds of its Northeast Conference schedule.

The Colonials have won two-thirds of their Northeast Conference games.

RMU has six NEC games remaining in the regular season. Two-thirds of those are at home.

At 8-4 in the NEC, Robert Morris is tied with Bryant for second place.

Armed with this voluminous data, a visitor popped into Andrew Toole's office the other day.

"Ready for a pop quiz?'' the visitor asked the RMU coach.

Toole's head popped right up.

"Sounds good,'' he said.

Here was the set-up: The visitor would read a list of six words. Toole would select the word that best matched his feeling about his often-inconsistent team at this juncture.

"And, please,'' the visitor said, "don't answer until you've heard all six words.''

Toole was ready. Here are the words.

Hopeful.

Puzzled.

Happy.

Surprised.

Tickled.

Exasperated.

Toole did not hesitate with his answer.

"Hopeful,'' he said. "With a little bit of puzzled mixed in there. I'm hopeful we can figure this out. We still have more games to play, big games to play, finishing out our conference year and then whatever we're fortunate to have after that. I'm hopeful that guys are starting to get it. You see glimpses now and then. I'm a little puzzled as to why it's not more consistent.''

Maybe puzzled, too, about why there haven't been more "glimpses'' and why those "glimpses'' haven't turned into long looks by now.

"Yes and no,'' Toole said. "I would hope to see more glimpses for sure, but I also understand a little bit about who we are and the progress we've made. Our progress has been a little bit slower than I would have liked, but like I said I'm still hopeful. Each and every game you kind of see one or two guys that you think are turning the corner. It's just making sure they're all doing it together and can all be doing it at the same time.''

There's the rub, though.

These Colonials have had a difficult time having their whole team together at any point. Frequently they've played with a short roster because of injuries and/or team rules violations.

Take last weekend, for example.

Last Thursday, the Colonials played at LIU Brooklyn and lost, 72-65, with seniors Lucky Jones and Dave Appolon sidelined because of injuries.

Last Saturday, with Jones back in the lineup, the Colonials played at Fairleigh Dickinson and won, 76-62, with freshmen Elijah Minnie and Andre Frederick sidelined because of a violation of team rules.

So … a split on the road, but a fluctuating roster can't be good.

"It makes it harder to game plan,'' Toole conceded. "It makes it harder to organize. You have some odd lineups out there at times like we did Thursday. We have some guys who struggle to learn one position and now we're asking them to play a different position. It makes it hard, but that's all part of it.''

This short-rotation situation is reminiscent of what Toole and the Colonials faced last season. For various reasons, they were left with only eight scholarship players on their roster for the final 17 games of the season. Yet they zipped to an NEC regular-season championship and played two games in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).

The difference between last season and this season was that those eight scholarship players were available for virtually all of those 17 games. Toole knew who he had.

This season, too often, he hasn't.

Last Thursday night, the Colonials were top-heavy with guards and short on front-court players.

"I thought from an overall offensive perspective last Thursday we were out of sorts,'' Toole said. "Some of it was personnel. Some of it was (LIU Brooklyn's) aggressiveness. It was a tough game to have odd lineups out there when they're going to be so aggressive and switch everything and you're kind of forced to make some basketball plays. When we did we kind of did those without enough poise and found ourselves in tough spots.''

In that game, guards Marcquise Reed (nine) and Kavon Stewart (five) had a combined 14 of RMU's 17 turnovers.

With Jones back at FDU, the Colonials were able to run a more normal offense.

"Having Lucky and Rodney (Pryor) in there, those guys can kind of float between some of the guard spots and some of the forward spots, so that makes it a little bit easier,'' Toole said. "Having Lucky kind of softens that blow because he's so versatile.''

The Colonials shot 61.2 percent from the field at Fairleigh Dickinson.

"We just couldn't stop Robert Morris in any one-on-one situations,'' FDU coach Greg Herenda said. "It truly seemed like they didn't miss a shot all game.''

It made one wonder if the Colonials might be a pretty good team when/if they have all their players available.

"We should,'' Toole said, "but it doesn't always work out that way. If we ever do get all of our people sometimes it's hard because then there's no flow. Each time that someone's out or someone's missing the rotation changes. Then they come back and then the rotation changes again. There's just not enough continuity.''

The Colonials play LIU Brooklyn again Thursday night in the Charles L. Sewall Center. The young Blackbirds built some momentum last weekend with their wins over RMU and St. Francis University and have won four of their past five games to climb to 6-6 in the NEC.

"They're playing better. Playing harder. Playing together,'' Toole said. "A lot of their young guys are getting better. Those guys are excited about the weekend they had and the direction they're going. (Coach) Jack Parri's doing a good job of having those guys grow as the year's gone on. Early in conference, they had some games they probably could have and should have won that didn't go their way, and those guys have learned from those experiences and have rebounded well. That's what you want to see out of a young team.''

The Blackbirds feature 6'6'' freshman twins Trevon and Trevin Woods. That might pose a problem with scouting reports.

"A little bit,'' Toole said. "When we were quizzing (our players) about the scouting report we asked them about Trevon and they basically answered about both. A lot of the things (the Woods twins) do are similar, so, yeah, a little bit of confusion.''

The Woods twins are cousins of former West Virginia University quarterback Geno Smith.

PUT MARCQUISE ON THE MARQUEE: Reed won yet another NEC Rookie of the Week award Monday after scoring a total of 37 points and making 16 of his 24 field goal attempts last weekend.

It's Reed's sixth Rookie of the Week award, a Colonial record. Reed had been tied with Jeremy Chappell with five.

It also ties Reed for fifth place for most Rookie of the Week awards in NEC history. All four players ahead of him won eight: Kyle Vinales of Central Connecticut State (2011-12), Darshan Luckey of St. Francis University (2002-03), Charles Smith of Rider (1993-94) and Alex Blackwell of Monmouth (1989-90).

Reed, a strong candidate to win the NEC Rookie of the Year award, is averaging 16.7 points a game against NEC opposition and shooting 56.2 percent from the field, including a league-best 57.1 percent from beyond the arc.

He has eight 20-point games this season, matching the RMU record for a freshman set by Myron Walker in 1990-91.

NOTES: The Colonials also play at home Saturday against Central Connecticut State in a brunch-like noon tip … RMU's next win clinches a spot in the NEC Tournament for the Colonials … Jones, who had 24 points against FDU, has 1,493 career points and could become the 69th player in NEC history to reach 1,500 points Thursday night. Lee passed Hall of Famer Tony Lee on RMU's career scoring list last Saturday and stands eighth. Just ahead are Forest Grant (1,494) and Maurice Carter (1,506) … Jones, who holds the Colonial career rebounding record with 803, ranks 21st on the NEC career rebounding chart … Robert Morris against NEC foes leads the league in field goal percentage (48.4) and three-point field goal percentage (40.5).

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Players Mentioned

#22 Lucky Jones: G/F; 6' 6"; Senior; Sr.

#3 Kavon Stewart: G; 6' 0"; Sophomore; So.

#2 Marcquise Reed: G; 6' 3"; Freshman; Fr.

#5 Elijah Minnie: F; 6' 8"; Freshman; Fr.

#33 Andre Frederick: F; 6' 8"; Freshman; Fr.

Players Mentioned

#22 Lucky Jones
: 6' 6"; Senior; Sr.
: G/F

#3 Kavon Stewart
: 6' 0"; Sophomore; So.
: G

#2 Marcquise Reed
: 6' 3"; Freshman; Fr.
: G

#5 Elijah Minnie
: 6' 8"; Freshman; Fr.
: F

#33 Andre Frederick
: 6' 8"; Freshman; Fr.
: F