Moon Township, Pa. – Robert Morris University head men's basketball coach
Andrew Toole announced the program's 2018 recruiting class Thursday, which includes two freshmen and a pair of junior college transfers.
Joining RMU for the 2018-19 campaign are freshman forward
Philmon Gebrewhit (Boston, Mass. / Holderness School), junior guard
Sayveon McEwen (Paducah, Ky. / Paducah Tilghman), junior forward
Yannis Mendy (Metting, France / Lycee St. John Perse) and freshman guard
Cameron Wilbon (Merrillville, Ind. / Merrillville). To read a full bio on each student-athlete to make up the latest recruiting class for the Colonials, please click on the respective name.
"What excites me the most about this recruiting class is that it will create competition up and down our roster," head coach
Andrew Toole. "When guys push each other to get better, that's going to help us get better as a team. I'm looking forward to watching these guys develop."
The recruiting class joins a group of eight returning letterwinners, including four starters, in 2018-19. The Colonials return senior guard
Matty McConnell, sophomore guard
Jon Williams and sophomore forwards
Charles Bain and
Koby Thomas as starters next season.
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Thomas was selected as the 2018 Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year in a vote of league head coaches and averaged 12.0 points and a team-high 6.9 rebounds per game. He became the fourth student-athlete in the last 12 years from Robert Morris and fifth overall in program history to take home the top rookie honor. Thomas finished with 227 rebounds in 2017-18, the second highest total by a freshman in school history.
McConnell enters his final season of eligibility as the program's active leader in games played (94), starts (85), points (784), assists (204) and steals (175). He cracked the top 10 for career steals last season and enters the 2018-19 season ranked ninth all-time while also being tied for 15th in school history for career starts.
Williams produced averages of 6.7 points and 3.5 assists per game while shooting 43.3 percent (58-for-134) from beyond the arc, which ranked fifth in the NEC. Along with Thomas, the duo started each of RMU's 33 games in 2017-18, establishing a freshman record for starts. Bain appeared in all 33 games for the Colonials in 2017-18, including starts in seven of the last eight games of the year. He averaged 5.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.
In addition to returning four starters and nine letterwinners, senior guard
Josh Williams will become eligible for the Colonials after transferring from Akron in April of 2017.
In eight seasons under Toole, Robert Morris has compiled an overall record of 150-123 (.549), including a mark of 91-51 (.641) against Northeast Conference opponents. Toole has guided the Colonials to a pair of NEC regular-season championships (2013, 2014) as the well as the 2015 NEC Tournament title.
Since the beginning of the 2007-08 campaign, Robert Morris has posted an overall record of 223-154 (.592) and has appeared in the NCAA Tournament three times (2009, 2010, 2015), the NIT three times (2008, 2013, 2014) and the 2012 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.
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