Men's Basketball | 3/12/2015 3:28:00 PM
Moon Township, Pa. – It has been a season of head-shaking, brow-furrowing adversity, some of it self-inflicted, but the Robert Morris Colonials Tuesday night proved far tougher than anybody had a right to think three weeks ago by winning the Northeast Conference Tournament championship.
"We've been through so much, ups and downs,'' senior
Lucky Jones said. "It's been a struggle to get over this hump, but we finally did it. We've been playing a long time for moments like this. We fought like crazy. We put aside our differences, and we just did it for each other. That's what it took. It's a great feeling.''
And a great season, especially when viewed through the prism of what went on and on and on with this team.
Suspensions, which continued to happen right through the NEC championship game in Brooklyn Tuesday night, injuries and defections resulted in only two players,
Rodney Pryor and
Marcquise Reed, playing in each of the 33 games the Colonials have played.
When they took the floor at St. Francis Brooklyn Tuesday night, the Colonials had only one senior (Jones) dressed. They had five players dressed who had never played in an NEC championship game --
Elijah Minnie,
Andre Frederick,
Lionel Gomis, Pryor and Reed. They had only eight players dressed total because junior
Stephan Bennett had been suspended Sunday.
With this group, stuff happening simply never ends.
And yet out they went against the top-seeded Terriers, winners of 23 of 28 games after an 0-5 start, in a raucous road environment and overcame a six-point halftime deficit to win, 66-63, and claim their league-best eighth NEC championship.
"Our guys being able to come out and take over the game in the second half and execute offensively as well as defensively is a great tribute to them and their toughness,'' RMU coach
Andrew Toole said. "We've always known we had the talent to get to this point, but we needed to form that team. In the last three weeks, that team has developed the way we've wanted it to.''
To emphasize the toughness they'd need against the Terriers, the Colonials in the days leading to the game shared a gold-painted basketball.
"We talked about how the ball is gold and (to) value the ball,'' assistant coach
Joe Gallo said. "We told them, 'Treat this thing like gold. Treat this thing like your most prized possession.' We carried that ball everywhere we went. Lucky had it the other night at dinner, and guys brought it to every film session. If that thing's rolling on the ground, somebody pick it up because the ball is gold, and that was our theme. We came up with some big, big rebounds and some big loose balls in that second half, and that was the difference.''
The win that sends the Colonials to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in seven seasons continued a golden era of Robert Morris basketball.
In the past eight seasons, the Colonials are 182-95 overall, which is just fine in itself, but they've been incredibly dominant against NEC opposition. They're 128-36 against NEC teams, including a 17-5 mark in the NEC Tournament.
"One of our huge (recruiting) sells is how much this program has won over the years,'' Gallo said. "We say, 'It's not going to be easy, but if you guys come in and work like the group before you we can guarantee that we're going to at least give ourselves an opportunity to get in the NCAA Tournament.' Marcquise just came by and said, 'You guys said we'd get one. I didn't know it would happen this soon.' Here we are eight months into his freshman season (and) we're going to an NCAA Tournament.''
Toole, in his fifth season as the Colonials' head coach, guided three previous teams to the NEC Championship game. None won.
Now this team has been there and done it.
"A lot of my friends have called me Marv Levy, not being able to win the big game,'' Toole said with a smile, citing the former Buffalo Bills coach whose teams lost four consecutive Super Bowls in the early 1990s. "So it's nice that I can finally call them back and tell them we've won one.''
"We've won some big games over Kentucky, over St. John's,'' Gallo said, referencing recent wins in the National Invitation Tournament, "but there's nothing like going to the Big Dance. Coach deserved it. Now he's finally over the hump. What a year.''
"It breaks your heart to have some teams that have gotten so close and not be able to get over the hump,'' Toole said. "That's why we push and push to be able to play in this type of atmosphere and (on) this kind of stage. I know these guys will be excited on Sunday when they hear their names called. It's one of the most exciting feelings in sports, and I'm glad they're able to experience it.''
Terrier coach Glenn Braica praised the Colonials.
"Give credit to Robert Morris,'' he said. "I thought they (played) a great game. They did a great job. I'm happy for them.''
The Colonials' zone defense was especially troublesome for the Terriers. Jalen Cannon and Brent Jones, both All-NEC First Team selections, combined to score only 17 points, 13 under their combined average.
That proved significant in RMU winning for the second time this season at St. Francis Brooklyn. The Colonials also won in the Pope Center Jan. 24, 67-65.
"(Their zone) is not a great matchup for us, to be honest with you,'' Braica said. "They do a really good job in their zone. They've done a really good job the last two games (in Brooklyn) of adjusting and giving us trouble getting the ball inside to Jalen. They've done a great job of taking away our inside game, and that's our strength.''
"Jalen was the (NEC) Player of the Year and what we tried to do with Jalen was make sure we kept a body on him,'' Toole said. "When he would catch it in the post, just wall up and be strong. A lot of his points come when people go for shot fakes, so we wanted to make sure that when he caught it in the post we were squared up with him and he would have to make a shot over the top of us.''
Cannon did produce his 21st double-double of the season with his 10 points and 12 rebounds. However, those figures were below what he averaged in his five previous double-doubles -- 22 points and 14 rebounds.
Jones, the Terriers' outstanding point guard, managed seven points and five assists, but he also had four turnovers.
"They keyed on Brent,'' Braica said. "I could see whenever Brent got the ball, they jumped to him, and they did a good job on the ball screens that we run against the zone.''
"We just wanted to make sure that we stayed in front of him and we didn't want to give him anything in transition,'' Toole said of defensing Jones. "We didn't give him many opportunities to get out in transition where he was able to create for himself or shoot some pull-up threes.''
Perhaps, too, the Colonials got into Jones' head.
"Five assists, four turnovers,'' Jones said. "As a point guard, a senior, you're not supposed to do that. I wasn't aggressive against the zone. I thought too much. This game had to have been the worst game where I was thinking too much. I wasn't myself. Just thinking about trying not to turn the ball over.''
Despite their excellent defensive work, the Colonials trailed at halftime, 35-29, after being crushed on the glass. The Terriers in the first half outrebounded RMU, 26-11, and retrieved 13 offensive rebounds.
"The game wasn't over at halftime,''
Lucky Jones said. "We stuck with it. We stuck to our plan. We knew we had a fresh 20 minutes to come back. We played our brand of basketball.''
The Colonials in the second half shot 55 percent from the field (11-of-20), including 5-of-10 from deep.
"The way we executed shooting 55 percent in the second half against a defensive team like St. Francis is something that I think is really a tribute to these guys,'' Toole said.
Pryor made two quick threes and Jones added another trey early in the second half which sent the Colonials ahead, 39-37. Another Pryor three capped a 28-12 run RMU constructed after intermission, giving it a 57-47 lead with just under seven minutes remaining.
"I thought a big part of the game was at the beginning of the second half,'' Braica said. "Pryor came out and hit two threes.
Lucky Jones hit one. It just changed the momentum of the game. If we had gotten a little more separation right there, it would've helped because we did have trouble scoring against the zone.''
Pryor did not have a productive first half. He was 2-of-7 from the field.
"I just wanted to stay aggressive,'' he said. "I knew my shots weren't falling in the first half. (But) my team relies on me to score the ball, so I came out aggressive.''
Pryor finished with 17 points and was named the NEC Tournament Most Valuable Player.
Lucky Jones joined Pryor on the NEC's All-Tournament Team, the second straight season he's been voted that honor.
Jones made two free throws with two seconds remaining that accounted for the final score and gave Jones 12 points for the evening.
Free throw shooting, however, was neither team's strength in this game. The Colonials made 16 of their 25 opportunities. The Terriers made only nine of their 22 free throws.
"We missed a bunch,'' Braica said. "I don't know what that's due to. We've done a good job lately in the other playoff games with that, and (Tuesday night) we didn't hit them. If we hit them, we probably would've won that game. But that happens. It happens to every team in the country from time to time and (Tuesday night) it was us unfortunately.''
Minnie came up large in his first NEC Tournament championship game with 14 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots.
"Elijah has stepped up and been tremendous for us,'' Toole said.
Over his past 10 games, Minnie has averaged 9.3 points and 6.8 rebounds and shot 56.4 percent from the floor.
"I just want to thank the coaches for playing me -- especially these past couple weeks,'' Minnie said. "I've just been playing within myself. I've just been playing Robert Morris basketball. Tough basketball. My teammates picked me up.''
This entire team has picked itself up over the past three weeks. The Colonials will take a six-game winning streak into the NCAA Tournament.
The Terriers, meanwhile, head for the NIT, an opportunity they earned by winning the NEC regular-season championship.
"I can't tell you how much we respect Glenn, his staff and their team and program and all they do, the way they go about their business and the way he gets guys to buy into and play their roles,'' Toole said. "Every time we've played them since Glenn has been the head coach, the games have been absolute wars. I can't tell you how much we respect St. Francis and how they play basketball.''
