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Moon Township, Pa. - According to a poll of league head coaches, the Robert Morris University men's basketball team has been picked to finish tied for third in the Northeast Conference in 2009-10. RMU shares the third spot in the preseason poll with Quinnipiac.

It marks the fourth straight year the Colonials have been picked to finish in the top three in the league, as Robert Morris was tabbed second in the 2006 and 2007 polls and third last year.

RMU received a pair of first-place votes, with nine going to preseason favorite Mount St. Mary's and one to Long Island, which was picked to finish second in the NEC in 2009-10.

Rounding out the 2009-10 NEC preseason poll are Central Connecticut State, which was picked to finish fifth, Sacred Heart, St. Francis (N.Y.), Fairleigh Dickinson, Monmouth, Wagner, Bryant and Saint Francis (Pa.).

The Colonials return three starters and seven letterwinners from a 2008-09 squad that posted an overall record of 24-11 (.686) and a league mark of 15-3 (.833).

RMU is the two-time defending NEC regular-season champion, and in 2009 the Colonials added their sixth NEC Tournament championship and subsequent bid to the NCAA Tournament. In the 2009 NCAA Tournament, Robert Morris was seeded 15th in the Midwest Regional, where it fell to No. 2 seed and eventual national runner-up Michigan State, 77-62, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn.

Returning as starters in 2009-10 are senior forwards Rob Robinson (Waldorf, Md. / Globe Institute of Technology) and Dallas Green (Indianapolis, Indiana / Northwest) and senior guard Jimmy Langhurst (Willard, Ohio / Willard).

Robinson is RMU's top returning scorer and rebounder, having posted averages of 11.2 points and 5.6 rebounds last season while shooting 51.7 percent from the floor. Against NEC opponents, those numbers improved to 12.9 points and 6.1 rebounds a contest. 

Langhurst enters his final season of eligibility with 697 career points, the most on the active roster. He averaged 9.9 points and 2.3 assists per game last season and on his career ranks second at RMU in free-throw percentage (84.9 percent) and eighth in three-point field goals (138). 

Green averaged 6.6 points and 4.4 rebounds a game in 2008-09 and etched his name into program lore when he hit the game-winning jumper with 2.5 seconds to play to give the Colonials a 48-46 win over Mount St. Mary's (3/11/09) in the 2009 NEC Tournament championship game. 

Robert Morris is led by third-year head coach Mike Rice, who has led the Colonials to an overall record of 50-19 (.725) the last two seasons, including a 31-5 (.861) mark against NEC foes.

The 50 wins are the most by an NEC program in back-to-back years, and Rice is the two-time reigning NEC Jim Phelan Coach of the Year honoree. Robert Morris also owns the best record in the NEC over the last five seasons, having gone 96-59 (.619) overall and 61-29 (.678) against league opponents.

RMU opens its 2009-10 season by hosting Division II Shippensburg for an exhibition game at the Charles L. Sewall Center Thursday, Nov. 5. The Colonials will open regular-season action by taking part in the 2K Sports Classic, benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer, when they travel to Syracuse for a 7:00 p.m. tip against the Orange at the Carrier Dome.

2009-10 NEC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches Poll

(first-place votes in parenthesis)

1. Mount St. Mary's (9)

2. Long Island (1)

3. Robert Morris (2)

Quinnipiac

5. Central Connecticut State

6. Sacred Heart

7. St. Francis (N.Y.)

8. Fairleigh Dickinson

9. Monmouth

10. Wagner

11. Bryant

12. Saint Francis (Pa.)