By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
May 6, 2013
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - One wonders if Andrew Toole thought of this the other day when Robert Morris University announced it had extended his contract to coach the Colonial basketball team through 2017-18.
Toole, raised on the Jersey Shore and who likes a Bruce Springsteen tune about as much as he enjoys having his team up 15 with three minutes to play, might have thought about that fairly recent Springsteen hit, "We Take Care Of Our Own.''
RMU president Gregory Dell'Omo and RMU Director of Athletics Craig Coleman certainly had taken care of Toole.
One wonders, too, if Dell'Omo and Coleman envision "Better Days'' – another Springsteen favorite of Toole's – ahead for the Colonials. Make that even better days. Perhaps even the best days.
However, before we look too far down the Robert Morris road here – say, oh, six years down the road – let's take a look back down the road.
Say six years ago. Oh, heck, let's go even farther back down the road. For example, six years before that.
For a six-season stretch beginning in 2001-02, the Robert Morris basketball program wasn't necessarily – and we'll give another nod to Springsteen – the "Badlands.'' It was more like the "Blah Lands.''
In those six seasons, the Colonials were 82-90 overall and 58-52 in the Northeast Conference. They won two of the seven games they played in the NEC Tournament. They never played beyond the league tournament.
But then Mark Schmidt took the St. Bonaventure job and in came Mike Rice, along with Toole as his assistant.
"Better Days'' ahead back then?
"Six years ago,'' Toole said, "expectations were in the middle of the road.''
Not for long. Immediately, expectations zipped into the fast lane.
In Rice's three seasons as head coach, the Colonials were 73-31 overall and 46-8 in the NEC. They played in the National Invitation Tournament in Rice's first season and in the NCAA Tournament in his next two.
Then Rice left for Rutgers. Toole became the Colonials' head coach.
Over the next three seasons, it was a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same.
In those three seasons, the Colonials were 68-36 overall and 39-15 in the NEC. They played in two more NEC Tournament championship games. They played in the CollegeInsider.com tournament, winning two games. They played in the NIT again.
And they beat Kentucky in that NIT. In the Charles L. Sewall Center. On ESPN. In front of 3,444 raucous spectators. Felt like and sounded like a Springsteen crowd.
"A phenomenal win,'' Dell'Omo said. "The energy in that room (the Sewall Center) was unbelievable. People came out of the woodwork. It was a game-changer for the program.''
In the short run, it was a game-changer for sure. In the long run? We'll have to see.
After all, how much better can the Colonials be than they've been in the six seasons Toole has been the key tool in the box?
In Toole's six seasons on campus, the Colonials are 141-67 overall. Those 141 victories tie them for eighth among mid-major programs in that span. The Colonials are 85-23 in the NEC in regular-season games. They're 12-4 in the NEC Tournament. They're 3-5 in postseason tournaments.
"Glory Days'' indeed.
So, really, how much better can they get? How much better can these days become?
"I don't think you would want to put a cap on something like that,'' Toole said. "I think you want to continue to work as hard as you can every day, bring in the best players you can and see where it goes. When we got here six years ago, if you'd said the cap was to do what we've done I don't know if everybody would have thought that would be possible. And so to kind of pigeon-hole ourselves and put a cap on it is something I don't think makes sense. I think we're going to just try to do the best job we can and then see what happens with the results.''
When one begins looking ahead into the extended Toole era, of course the first thing one sees is next season.
It's likely that only six players from the 2012-13 team will return, plus inside presence Lijah Thompson, who missed all of that 12-13 season because of a knee injury. The top two scorers return – guard Karvel Anderson (12.5 points per game) and swing man Lucky Jones (11.6). But guard Coron Williams (9.1), who would have been the third-highest returning scorer, has transferred to Wake Forest for his final season
of eligibility.
So there's still some work to do in recruiting.
That milestone Kentucky win should help in that regard.
"I don't know if it's the equivalent of an NCAA win, but I think it's pretty close,'' Toole said. "Obviously it was a huge attention-grab for everything. It's a great starting point for conversation. It gives everybody a great frame of reference about what Robert Morris basketball is all about. Some of the conversations we're having with junior college kids from around the country – not (just) from the northeast – (tell us people) watched that game. They know. You ask them, 'What do you know about Robert Morris?' They say, 'I know you beat Kentucky.' That's the response we get from kids who normally wouldn't be in the know when it comes to Robert Morris basketball.''
That's also true with high school coaches and AAU coaches.
"The way they view our program is different,'' Toole said. "Coach (Joe) Gallo was out watching two juniors, and the coach rattled off three or four schools that these kids were interested in. Coach Gallo said, 'Well, some of those schools are supposedly higher level' and the guy replied, 'Higher level? You guys beat Kentucky. What's higher level than that?' Now it doesn't mean we're going to get those kids, but it at least allows us to be in the conversation. And if you can be in enough of those conversations, eventually one is going to go in your favor.
"You can have tons of success like we've had, but you need something that grabs everyone's attention, and I think that's what that (win over Kentucky) did.''
One certain thing about next season is that Robert Morris will play Kentucky again, this time at Rupp Arena in an exempt-tournament game in mid-November. It's probable that rematch will be on ESPN.
"There's a chance,'' Toole said. "It's not been decided yet, but I think they did want it to be around a certain date so that ESPN would have more opportunity to air it. ESPN has interest in picking it up nationally.''
So there's next season.
What about beyond next season? What about beyond wins and losses and NEC Tournaments and maybe more trips to the NCAA Tournament?
What else can happen as Toole and the Colonials move forward?
A larger gym? Better facilities? Bigger crowds? More revenue?
"Our president and our AD share a vision of where they want our program to be, and they give support to it as much as they possibly can,'' Toole said. "That's what they're continuing to do. I know if they had it, they'd love to give even more support. That's part of this whole (extension), whether it's improved resources in the future, different ways we can generate funds to be able to do things to improve the student-athletes experience, upgrade facilities. Those are all things I know they would like to do sooner rather than later.''
"This is a legitimate program with consistency and stability,'' Dell'Omo said. "We've had an amazing level of success the last six years. Really impressive. Yet, we're still in the baby steps as far as improving this program.''
Somebody wondered if perhaps during the next few years Robert Morris might leave the NEC and move to a higher level league. Might that be part of a "Better Days'' plan? It's worth noting that Monmouth and Quinnipiac left the NEC after this past season and will begin play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) next season.
"I guess you can't say that you can't envision it because you have to look out for your university and your program and what's going on,'' Toole said. "I think the Northeast Conference with the 10 teams that are in it is extremely stable. I think that in order for you to ever do something like (moving up) that you have to make sure your infrastructure is at the top of or better than your league because this is an arms race. And so when you move to another league or another level and you're working on a new arena and they have their new arena and they're building a new practice facility and by the time you get your practice facility done they're working on a new student dorm … I think unless your infrastructure's at a certain place and you can fund it properly and you have the resources to do it correctly I'm not sure that it makes sense to do that.''
Bottom line?
Nobody knows for certain what's ahead for the Robert Morris program. What is known is that theoretically Andrew Toole will be the driving force of the program for at least the next five years.
That's pretty good.
"He's intelligent, poised, articulate,'' Coleman said
"He's a wonderful ambassador for Robert Morris,'' Dell'Omo said.
The players seem to like Toole, too.
"The first thing that comes to my mind when people ask me about coach Toole is 'Loyal,'" said Velton Jones, who just finished the final year of his truly great RMU career. "He's a very loyal guy. If he's with you, he's going to be with you. Loyal. That's the first thing that comes to my mind when people ask me about coach Toole. He's a real loyal guy.''
Can he coach?
"He's OK,'' Jones said, laughing. "No, he's a great coach. Intelligent. Knows what he's doing. I could go on and on about coach Toole and what kind of coach he is. He gets the maximum effort out of you day in and day out. No matter if you're hurting, sick, he's still going to try to get whatever he can out of you. I think that's the great thing about coach Toole – he's always pushing you to try to make you a better player. But he's also always trying to make you a better person.''
"He's a hard worker,'' Lucky Jones said. "He demands the best. If you don't bring it every day, he's going to bring it out of you. I know that from previous situations. You have to come in and be ready to work hard and work toward our goals, which is winning the NEC regular-season championship and going to the NCAA Tournament and bringing more fans to the games and having that good support behind us.''
In short, the years of "Waitin' On a Sunny Day'' are over for the Colonials. The sunny days are here now. And have been.
The question is, how much brighter will they become?
NOTES: Williams isn't the only well-known player to transfer from an NEC school this spring. Sophomore guard Kyle Vinales has left Central Connnecticut State, hoping to transfer to a higher-profile program. Vinales last season scored 649 points and tied Sacred Heart's Shane Gibson for the NEC scoring title with an average of 21.6 points per game … In that exempt tournament with Kentucky, the Colonials also will play at Eastern Michigan and Cleveland State and play Texas-Arlington at the Sewall Center … Speculation is that the Colonials will open at home against Savannah State in November. Last season, RMU lost at Savannah State, 61-52, Nov. 26. Savannah State finished 19-15 last season.
