By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
March 15, 2010 

Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - Just getting to the NCAA Tournament once is a huge task for a Northeast Conference team.

There's the grind of the 18-game regular season, then the gut-wrenching week during which a team has to win three more games in the NEC Tournament to get the league's one bid to the NCAA Tournament.

But the really tough task for an NEC team is to get BACK to the NCAA Tournament the next season.

Before this season, only four teams had gone back-to-back in the 29-year history of the league: Robert Morris University in 1982 and 1983, Marist in 1986 and 1987, the Colonials again in 1989 and 1990 and then Rider in 1993 and 1994.

That was it. No team had repeated in 15 seasons.

So how did the current Colonials achieve this?

"We glued up together,'' senior guard Mezie Nwigwe said. "Everybody came together. I knew it was going to be hard at the beginning of the year. But we were unselfish. Nobody's averaging 20 (points) a game. The stats are pretty similar. We played together. That's the only reason we made it here again.''

The Colonials (23-11), who lost to second-seeded Michigan State, 77-62, in the first round of last season's NCAA Tournament, play second-seeded Villanova (24-7) Thursday at 12:30 in Providence in the first round of this season's Dance.

While their road to the NCAA Tournament was a bit easier last season, the Colonials did play all three NEC tournament games at home, their journey this season contained a few potholes.

For one thing, they lost NEC Player of the Year Jeremy Chappell. They lost NEC Defensive Player of the Year Bateko Francisco. They began the season with an unwieldy roster prirmaily consisting of five seniors, one junior and six freshmen.

Then, just after Christmas, one of those seniors , co-captain Jimmy Langhurst, went down with a season-ending knee injury.

That meant that for most of the season the Colonials played with two freshmen starting at the guard positions. Two starting freshman guards in a league usually dominated by seniors and juniors.

However, shooting guard Karon Abraham developed into the NEC Rookie of the Year. And point guard Velton Jones became a reliable leader on the court.

"A lot of my coaching buddies understand,'' coach Mike Rice said. "Coaches know how hard it is. These are two first-year players. It was difficult at times to get them to buy in completely. Whether it was Velton or Karon, they wouldn't understand why we're yelling at this or doing this drill or doing something, but to their credit they both came around.

"They're so coachable. They understand what it takes and how hard it is. The first thing I said to my freshmen when we came in (in August) was, 'Do you know how hard it is to win a Division I basketball game?' And then you go from there putting them through the rigors.''

Along the way, Nwigwe became the NEC Defensive Player of the Year. That helped immensely.

Still, the Colonials had to win at Quinnipiac, which at the time was 14-0 at home, to win the championship game of the NEC Tournament. Jones made the final go-ahead basket with just over a minute left in the Colonials' 52-50 victory. Abraham had a team-high 16 points. Russell Johnson, another freshman, scored eight points in the first half and finished with nine points and five rebounds.

"Seriously, you shake your head (about) how mentally tough they were for 40 minutes,'' Rice said.

In a close game throughout. And in front of a crowd of 3,607.

Afterward, Abraham told Rice: "The chaos didn't bother me.''

Rice didn't seem surprised at that.

"We put those players through some uncomfortable moments, whether it's conditioning, whether it's lifting, whether it's practice,'' he said. "We kind of live in chaos here sometimes at practice, or games. And they were okay with that. They're comfortable with that. They don't get rattled. They don't get flustered. They've been through a lot. And it's a credit to them.

"At times, individually, they'll want to pull apart and not accept some of it because it's difficult at times to always be driven that hard. But I think (Abraham) said it perfectly - 'I was comfortable in the chaos.' As a coach, one of the reasons you do some difficult things that they may not always understand is to get them comfortable with that type of intensity and mentality.''

"It was hard,'' Abraham conceded. "Six freshmen. It's hard to build chemistry with newcomers. We had to learn the program and what goes on. But I think we picked it up pretty fast and pretty well and came together as a group and grinded it out through the season and got into the NCAA tournament.''

Again.

"I thank Rice for recruiting the players he did and putting us all together,'' Nwigwe said. "At the beginning of the season, it was kind of hard because we had six freshmen and the seniors, but over time we just came together, and I just thank Rice and his staff for that.''

Senior forward Dallas Green also is thankful.

"I was really thinking about leaving after my freshman year because me and the coach didn't see eye to eye,'' Green said. "But I'm happy I stayed and got two championship rings.''

Green, Nwigwe and Langhurst are the three seniors who played four seasons for Robert Morris. As a group, they've won a program-record 90 games. That included a 17-11 record in their first season.

"Me and Dallas and Jimmy talk about our freshman year all the time,'' Nwigwe said. "We went from being an average team and now these last two years dominating the league. It just feels good. All the hard work we put in, all the 10-and-10s we ran, it just feels good to know that we actually get to finish our careers on a positive note like this.''

Same, too, for seniors Rob Robinson and Josiah Whitehead, junior college transfers who joined the program before last season.

"Nothing like it,'' Robinson said. "You dream about this kind of stuff while you're coming up playing basketball in the Boys and Girls Club. You take it for what it's worth and live for the moment.''

Abraham has listened to the veterans talk about their NCAA experience last season.

"They told me it was one of the best experiences of their lives,'' he said. "I highly doubt that it wasn't, so I'm looking forward to going and trying to do what they did and have fun and experience what they experienced last year. It's a big rush.''

And it's happened quickly for Abraham, Jones, Johnson and the other freshmen.

"It's a great feeling,'' Abraham said. "To be a big part of the team is wonderful. It's excellent. It's a dream come true. It's like my motto … 'A boy, a ball, a dream.' That's what it feels like.''

It's been an amazing three-run for Rice and his Colonials.

They've won 73 games, more than any other NEC has won in a three-year span. They're 53-9 against NEC teams. Again, no NEC team has ever had a run like that. They've won outright or shared the NEC regular-season championship each season. They went to the National Invitation Tournament in his first season and lost by only six points (87-81) at Syracuse.

And now they'll play in the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season.

"It definitely establishes the program,'' Rice said. "It's not like just you had a great run with some seniors. It's a program. Now you have freshmen coming in - with Russell Johnson carrying us in the first half of the Quinnipiac game or Velton being our floor leader or Karon Abraham being the Rookie of the Year. You now have built a program that is sustainable.

"There's the level of demand (here that) it's not OK to just be good. You have to compete for championships and win championships. That's what the best programs strive to do. Did I think (when Rice succeeded Mark Schmidt) we would be three-for-three in postseasons and win more games (in a three-year stretch) in the history of the NEC? No. But we did have a high level of demand for the guys, and I give my staff and my players tremendous credit for buying in. And they thrive on it.

"What we've done in the last three years speaks volumes about where this program is - and where we're heading.''

TOURNEY TIDBITS: Langhurst, who had his knee surgery Feb. 1, could decide to dress for the Villanova game but probably won't. "It would be like teasing (himself),'' Langhurst said. Langhurst can file for a medical redshirt as soon as RMU's season ends and says he definitely would like to return for a final season. He'll know the status of his redshirt application in late May or early June … Villanova is 23-7 all-time in its first games of NCAA tournaments … Seven of the Colonials' 13 non-conference opponents won at least 20 games this season - Syracuse (28-4), Morgan State (27-9), Pitt (24-8), Kent State (23-9), Appalachian State (22-12), Ohio University (21-14) and Detroit (20-14). Syracuse, Morgan State, Pitt and Ohio University are in the NCAA tournament. Quinnipiac (23-9) also won at least 20 games ... Kent State and Quinnipiac are in the National Invitation Tournament ... Quinnipiac was guaranteed an NIT spot because it was the No. 1 seed in the NEC tournament. The Bobcats play at Virginia Tech Wednesday in the first round of the NIT ... If the Bobcats win at Virginia Tech, which is 15-1 at home this season, they could play Connecticut in the second round … Greg Vetrone, who had the title of interim head coach at Fairleigh Dickinson this season, had "interim'' dropped from his title last week and will return for a second season.