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Jan. 26, 2012

Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - Remember the scene in "Hoosiers'' when the Hickory Huskers walk into the Butler Fieldhouse for the first time? And the Huskers seem a bit awestruck by the relatively huge dimensions of the arena?

Gene Hackman measures the distance from the free throw line to the basket, and the team learns it's 15 feet.

Then he measures the distance from the rim to the floor, and the team learns it's 10 feet.

Same dimensions as in the Huskers' tiny gymnasium back in Hickory.

Then, after the team leaves to dress for practice, Hackman looks around and concedes: "It is big.''

Now, think about Robert Morris University's Northeast Conference game against LIU Brooklyn Thursday night at the Charles L. Sewall Center.

When the Colonials run into the floor Thursday night, they might also be thinking: "It is big.''

The game matches the Colonials (15-6, 6-2 in the NEC) against the Blackbirds (14-6, 8-0).

Big, indeed.

But when one considers that this is the only regular season game between RMU and the Blackbirds, the importance grows.

Big is no longer enough. Instead, BIG applies.

It's simple.

For Robert Morris to have a chance to win the NEC regular-season championship and guarantee itself that it will play at home for as long as it remains in the NEC Tournament, it must win Thursday night's game.

If the Colonials lose and fall three games behind the Blackbirds, it's really a four-game deficit because LIU Brooklyn would own the tie-breaker over RMU.

"If we're not successful on Thursday, our chances of them losing four games this year are pretty much slim and none,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said. "So if we really want to compete for a regular-season championship, Thursday night's game is about as big as it gets.''

The challenge for the Colonials Thursday night also is big.

The Blackbirds, who beat RMU, 85-82, in overtime in last season's NEC Tournament championship game in Brooklyn, N.Y., have won 21 consecutive games against NEC opposition. They feature inside standouts Jamal Olasewere and Julian Boyd and guard star Jason Brickman.

"They're terrific,'' Toole said. "They're absolutely relentless. It seems to me they have incredible chemistry as a team. You know, guys (who) really, really play well together. Guys (who) are very, very unselfish. They show up every night and compete.

"Some of the credit goes to their coaching staff. A lot of the credit goes to their guys. They have a lot of guys who love to play the game -- play the game the right way -- and you see that in the results. And they're on a great roll.''

So what are the Colonials to do?

Well, based on last season's results of the games between these teams, the Colonials have to keep the Blackbirds well below their 2011-12 average of 83.4 points per game against NEC teams.

Last season, Robert Morris won at Long Island, 70-69, in an NEC opener. However, the Blackbirds won 83-67 at the Sewall Center Jan. 20 and then won that championship game, 85-82.

"We can't win an 85-82 game. I don't think we can win an 85-82 game,'' Toole said. "I think we have to do a good job of trying to control tempo, trying to slow them down. We can't run with those guys. That's where they want to live. They want to push the ball. They want to throw it ahead. They want to get quick shots. They want to attack the rim.

"That's not who we are. We have to grind you out. That's who we are as a team, and we have to embrace it, love it and try and execute. And I don't know if we always do.''

The Colonials do rank second in the league with an average yield of 62.4 points per game to league foes, but it's difficult to play tough, stifling defense for 40 minutes.

"But that's who we have on our team,'' Toole said. "If we went up and down and just decided to take all the reins off, it would turn into a (mess). We don't have the horses.''

The Colonials do have junior guard Velton Jones, who averages 18.1 points per game in NEC games and who's coming off a 35-point performance at Monmouth last Saturday.

But they don't have a consistent scorer to back up Jones.

Freshman Lucky Jones has improved recently and has his NEC average up to 10.3 points per game. Sophomore Coron Williams, who averages 11 points per game overall, averages just 8.8 against NEC teams. His play against league teams has been wildly erratic - he's scored in double figures in only two games and has scored five or fewer points in three games.

"I think teams have done a good job of taking him out, and I think he's done a poor job of being tough enough to go get his baskets,'' Toole said. "If you're going to be a good player in this league, you can't let teams just take you away and be a complete enigma in one game and then come out and score 20 points in 22 minutes in another game. You have to become someone that we can rely on offensively.''

Sophomore Anthony Myers had a huge game at Monmouth, scoring a career-high 16 points. He didn't miss a shot, going 5-for-5 from the field, including 4-of-4 from deep, and making both his free throw attempts. But Myers has scored in double figures just five times this season.

Toole doesn't expect Myers to get 16 points in each game.

"But if it can be eight (in each game), it helps us out a lot,'' Toole said. "I don't think he's going to go 5-for-5 every night, but if you look at his stats he's shooting a very good percentage (19-for-38 from beyond the arc, for example), probably because he's taking very good shots. But he's got to continue to look for shots on occasion. He's got to look to make offense happen.

"He's worked really hard on his ability to shoot the ball. He's improved it a ton from last year. And so I want him to keep taking really good shots, but I also want him to be thinking about, 'Hey, am I open here or not?' at times. He's another guy who's an enigma. He took two shots in the game at FDU (last) Thursday night, and then he scores 16 in the second half at Monmouth. Kind of hard to figure it out.''

That uncertainty about the offense from game to game seems pretty much team-wide.

"And it's even more confusing from a coaching aspect because there are certain guys who on certain days look terrific,'' Toole said. "I don't want to just have one guy who's the guy that we say, 'OK, this guy has to do something.' I'd like everyone to be trying to do stuff. There are times when some of our post players don't want to post up. There are times when some of our shooters just because they get played a certain way all of a sudden say, 'Aw, this is too hard.' You can't be a solid offensive team that way.''

Don't forget, too, that junior Russell Johnson is still sidelined by a broken right thumb. Johnson scored 22 points against the Blackbirds in last season's NEC Tournament championship game.

So, yes, the Colonials, who have managed to average 70.8 points per game against NEC teams this season, face a formidable challenge against the behemoth based in Brooklyn Thursday night.

The 6'7'' Olasewere, who scored 31 points against the Colonials in last season's championship game, leads the Blackbirds against league opponents with a scoring average of 20.1 points per game and is second in rebounding at 9.1.

"He's so versatile and athletic and can do so many things well that he puts pressure on defenses,'' Blackbird coach Jim Ferry told the Staten Island Advance last Saturday.

Also against NEC foes, Boyd, also 6'7'', averages 16.5 points per game and leads the team in rebounding at 9.6. Brickman averages 12.4 points and 6.5 assists per game.

"They have three all-conference players,'' Wagner coach Dan Hurley said after the Seahawks lost to visiting LIU Brooklyn 73-66 last Saturday. "If you let all three play well on the same night, you're not going to win.''

"In this league, they create even more issues for you because of those two big guys who play on the block,'' Toole said. "Usually in this league there's one good post player (per team), a guy who can score around the rim. They're not necessarily what this league is known for. This is more of a guard league. "They have really talented guards that you have to have a lot of concern for and then all of a sudden they throw it into Boyd or throw it into Olasewere and those guys are beating you up around the basket. It puts a lot of pressure on your defense.''

So that's what's immediately ahead for the Colonials, who won back-to-back NEC Tournament championships before losing at LIU Brooklyn last season.

"This is a huge game for us,'' Velton Jones said. "We owe them. They took what was ours last year. They're two games ahead of us. It's a really, really big game for us. I've been jacked since we lost that game for the championship. The day after, I was anxious to play them again. I think about it all the time -- because it was our game to win and we gave it away and we lost it. (Getting to the NCAA Tournament) is a goal for us to reach for every year, and they took it from us.''

Here's something else to keep in mind Thursday night. The Colonials play St. Francis (N.Y.), which also is 6-2 in the NEC, Saturday night at the Sewall Center and then visit Wagner (6-2) next Thursday night.

That's a rather significant stretch of games in the next eight evenings, although Toole wants his players to have a limited focus Thursday night.

"I hope they are just focusing on LIU because if you don't have success Thursday, then Saturday and Thursday (at Wagner) are pretty much (just) the next games on your schedule,'' Toole said. "They don't have the same significance. So you'd better be sure that you're giving everything you can in the game Thursday night. We need to have the mentality that we're in a single-elimination tournament for the next 10 games and that every game is more vital than the last if you're lucky enough to have success.''

VELTON IS A GRAND GUY: Jones became the 20th player in Colonial history to reach 1,000 career points during the game at Monmouth last Saturday. Needing 11 points to get to 1,000, he reached the milestone with a three-pointer with 11:56 left in the first half on an assist from freshman Brandon Herman.

"I was feeling good,'' Jones said of his quick start against the Hawks.

Did he know that particular shot got him to 1,000?

"Yes. Russell kept telling me (about his progress),'' Jones said with a laugh.

"I'm really happy for him,'' Toole said. "I think he's worked really hard, and he's developed a lot since he's been here at Robert Morris. I don't know if his freshman year people thought he'd be a guy who'd be a 1,000-point scorer, but he's really worked on his game. He's really improved.''

Improvement in one aspect of his game truly helped Jones reach 1,000 points in just 88 games. As a freshman, he was only a 58.9 percent free throw shooter. He boosted that percentage to 70.8 last season and is at 75.7 percent this season.

"It's a credit to the hard work that he's put in,'' Toole said. "We're really happy for him, and it will be a great memory that he'll have for the rest of his life.''

Reaching 1,000 points wasn't necessarily a goal of Jones' when he began his career at Robert Morris.

"I thought about it,'' he said. "I didn't actually think I'd be able to get it. It was just a thought in my head.''

Pretty neat now, though, eh?

"It is. It is,'' Jones said. "I can't lie. It's pretty neat that I actually got it.''