By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
March 8, 2010 

Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - After his Robert Morris University squad produced uninspired play in its victory over Central Connecticut State last Thursday night in the 2010 NEC Tournament quarterfinals, head coach Mike Rice thought about bawling out his team the next day.

Kerry Rice had a different idea.

"Go bowling,'' she suggested to her husband.

Rice looked at her, stupefied.

"What are you talking about?'' he asked. "They need to work on 3,000 things.''

Make that 3,001.

"We went bowling,'' Rice said.

Amazing what knocking down a few pins will do for a team.

"I hated my team after the Central Connecticut game,'' Mike Rice said. "But we went bowling and actually liked each other again. It was fun. We had kind of a light moment - and, gosh, did we need that. We came back that night kind of focused and watched some film, and the next day had a great practice.

"It's funny when you step away and do something just to connect again. I credit my wife.''

So give Kerry Rice some credit for the Colonials' surprisingly comfortable 80-62 victory against visiting Mount St. Mary's last Sunday night in a Northeast Conference tournament semifinal game.

"That was probably as consistent an effort from all aspects (that the Colonials have had this season),'' Rice said. "The bench, the starters, offense, defense, passing, taking care of the ball, just doing the details.''

The Colonials received 22 points from their bench, shot 53.7 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc, had only eight turnovers, owned a 36-31 rebounding advantage and held Mount St. Mary's to 34.7 percent shooting from the field, including 28.6 percent from deep.

Robert Morris, which beat Mount St. Mary's, 48-46, in last season's NEC championship game at the Sewall Center, almost matched that point total in the first half Sunday. The Colonials led, 47-40, at the break. The Mountaineers hadn't allowed that many points to an NEC team in a half since the Colonials scored 49 against them in the second half Jan. 5, 2009 in a 77-70 win in Emmitsburg, Md.

And those 80 points the Colonials scored Sunday? That was the most points permitted to an NEC team by Mount St. Mary's since it lost at Sacred Heart, 80-75, Dec. 4, 2008.

Bowling, anyone?

The win sends the second-seeded Colonials (22-11) to Hamden, Conn., to play top-seeded Quinnipiac (23-8) Wednesday evening in the NEC championship game. The winner goes from there to the NCAA Tournament.

There seems little question that Robert Morris will enter the game at Quinnipiac in a much better frame of mind than it had going into the Central Connecticut State game in its NEC tournament opener.

"Before Central, we weren't focused at all,'' junior guard Gary Wallace said. "We were making silly mistakes (in practice) - mistakes we were making early in the year.''

After the Central Connecticut State game?

"Rice, as usual, got on us,'' Wallace said. "He said, 'We have to re-focus because if we play like we did against Central Connecticut we're going to get blown out of the water' (by Mount St. Mary's).' So we had to re-focus (and) get ready for an all-out 40-minute war, and that's what we did.''

That's the kind of focus the Colonials will take to Quinnipiac as they try to become the first repeat NEC champion since Rider in 1993 and 1994.

And that was the kind of focus that impressed Mount St. Mary's coach Milan Brown, who took note of RMU's 53.7 percent shooting and 80 points.

"That's kind of tough to swallow because we hang our hat on being a good defensive team,'' Brown said. "To see in a big (game) our defense not be able to accomplish what it had to get us to this point, obviously that hurt.''

While winning its previous 11 games, Mount St. Mary's held opponents to an average of 52.4 points per game and 37.4 percent accuracy from the field.

There were indications early on in Sunday's game that that defense might receive a huge test.

"With them being at home, they had a little more confidence on the offensive end,'' said Jeremy Goode, the Mountaineers' standout guard who led his team with 20 points in his final college game. "They hit a couple shots early on, and a couple of reserve players came in and hit some early shots for them as well.''

For example, RMU freshman guard Karon Abraham drained a three-pointer 19 seconds into the game. Freshman point guard Velton Jones made a basket two and-a-half minutes into the game. Wallace, who doesn't start, made a shot from deep 5:49 into the game that gave RMU a 15-5 lead. Josiah Whitehead, another key contributor off the bench, made his first basket less than two minutes later.

"It just kind of gave them the confidence they needed,'' Goode said. "They're all young, for the most part. But when you hit shots, you get confidence, and their confidence stayed with them a lot of the game. It wasn't like it came late in the game. Once they hit those shots at the beginning of the game, it kind of stuck with them, and they believed that they could make shots.

"I tip my hat to them. They did what they were supposed to do. They made shots when they needed to make shots. Us being a veteran team, we were hoping that we could minimize those shots and transfer that into a little offense for us. You know, get stops on the defensive end because we tend to play defense which leads to offense. They just hit those shots, and it kind of took the air out of what we were trying to do on the offensive end.''

"I credit bowling,'' Rice said kiddingly. "There was an unselfishness (Sunday night). Instead of just dribbling the ball, dribbling the ball, there was definitely an unselfishness. When we're doing the details of our offense, we have a nice flow. It's hard to stop us.''

The low turnover total absolutely helped RMU's offense flow. And the attention to that detail most likely was an offshoot of the Colonials' keener focus against Mount St. Mary's.

"It was the next step,'' senior Mezie Nwigwe said. "It was the semifinal game, so we had to bring it up a notch. Plus it was Mount St. Mary's, a rival game. They took away the regular season championship (from RMU), so we tried to come out harder and make sure we didn't give them any breaks at all.

"We had a great practice (Saturday). Everybody was together. It was intense. I had a feeling this was going to be a good game.''

In the regular-season finale Feb. 27, Robert Morris played at Mount St. Mary's. Had RMU won, it would have won the regular-season championship outright and gained the top seed in the NEC Tournament.

The Colonials in that game led by 13 points early in the second half, led by 12 points with 12:28 remaining and still led 60-53 with 3:28 left. Yet, they lost 63-61.

There was little danger of that happening again Sunday night.

The Colonials expanded their seven-point halftime lead to a 64-48 advantage with 9:19 left. The Mountaineers, who shot just 22.7 percent from the field in the second half, never got closer than 12 points thereafter.

"Last week, we were in the same situation,'' Wallace said of RMU being in control at Mount St. Mary's, "and we kind of shut down. We knew Mount St. Mary's, with the way they attack, can get hot real fast, so we knew we had to keep doing what we do and play defense for a full 40 minutes, and that's what did (Sunday night).''

The Mountaineers had only five field goals in the second half Sunday.

"Our help (on defense) was there,'' Rice said. "Our help was quicker and our recoveries. Running offense against us is difficult at times because of all of our switching, and when they did have a mismatch they took advantage of it down at the Mount. Tonight when they had a mismatch, our help was there quicker. I thought that was the difference. We were early in everything we did tonight. Our decision-making was as good as it's been.''

"It looked like in the second half we just ran out of gas,'' Brown said. "We didn't make some shots that we had made in the first half. We gave up some opportunities that we normally hadn't given up defensively in the second half and they took advantage of it. The guys fought, but I think our tank's on 'E' right now.''

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN (SORT OF): Last season, RMU forward Dallas Green had the Colonials' last field goal in the Sewall Center, making that memorable 12-foot jump shot from the left baseline that gave Robert Morris its 48-46 victory over Mount St. Mary's.

Sunday night, Green again made the Colonials' last field goal of the season in the Sewall Center - and this one was memorable in its own right.

Green, a senior, drained a three-pointer from the right baseline with 57 seconds remaining that made the score 80-60.

It was Green's first, and perhaps last, three-point attempt as a collegian.

"We have set plays for everybody except Dallas,'' Rice said. "He's talked about having a set play for him. I may do it. That corner jumper looked pretty good.''

"He's going to want a play for him to shoot the three,'' Nwigwe said. "He's going to tell coach. Watch.''

"He's been working on that all season,'' senior forward Rob Robinson said. "He's been talking about that all season -- how he can shoot it. He knocked it down. I knew he could hit a wide-open one. I know we're not going to hear the end of it. He'll be talking about that for the rest of the year.''

TOURNEY TIDBITS: Abraham led the Colonials with 19 points, making 3-of-6 from deep. Abraham has 438 points, extending his RMU record for most points by a freshman in a season … Abraham has 79 three-pointers this season, the fourth-best season total in RMU history … Green's three-pointer pushed his game total to 11 points. It was Green's 16th career double-figure game. The Colonials are 15-1 in those 16 games and have won 14 straight when Green scores at least 10 points in a game … Robert Morris has won 28 NEC tournament games, more than any other team in the league … There were 43 fouls called in Sunday's game. "Most of the time, both of us are over-zealous to try to prove whatever point it is that we're trying to prove to each other, so there's a lot of tugging and holding and grabbing,'' Brown said … Mountaineer junior guard Jean Cajou was 1-of-24 from the field against RMU this season, including 1-of-14 from deep. He'd missed 27 consecutive field goal attempts against the Colonials dating to last season until he made a three with 4:10 left in the first half Sunday … Goode finished his career with 1,716 points, which ranks 18th all-time in NEC history … Goode and Cajou combined this season were 11-of-55 from the field in three games against RMU … Robert Morris is 10-5 against Mount St. Mary's over the past five seasons, including 3-2 in NEC Tournament games.