By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
November 2, 2010 

Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - There are a couple of neat sidelights to Robert Morris University playing an exhibition game against Montreal's McGill University at the Charles L. Sewall Center tonight.

For one thing, this game might not be happening at all were it not for a certain former McGill student named James Naismith.

Perhaps you've heard of the man. He invented the game of basketball.

Naismith, born in Canada, graduated from McGill in 1888. A few years later, he left Montreal and became the physical education teacher at the YMCA in Springfield, Mass. There, he devised basketball so his students would have something to play during the harsh northeastern winters.

OK, enough history.

Let's move on to the second neat sidelight about Tuesday night's game.

Colonial freshman Yann Charles is from Montreal - and, yes, he's seen Mario Lemieux play.

It's doubtful, though, that Lemieux has seen Charles play, although he could do that now on some Penguin off night.

Charles, a 6'5'' forward, figures to play a lot for Robert Morris - beginning this season.

And, really, beginning Tuesday night.

Expect Charles to be in the starting lineup for the Colonials against McGill.

"I wouldn't start him just because it's McGill,'' RMU coach Andy Toole said. "Do I think he has a chance to start the game? Yeah. But I wouldn't start him just because it's McGill.''

Toole would start Charles because he thinks the young man has a chance to help the Colonials win games.

And make no mistake about this. The Colonials need Charles and his frontcourt mates to play well this season.

"We have to work with our frontcourt big-time,'' sophomore guard Karon Abraham said, "because that's going to determine how far we go.''

The Colonials lost 19 rebounds per game from last season because of the loss of five seniors, most notably Rob Robinson and Dallas Green, who together averaged 10.5 rebounds a game.

So Charles, sophomore Lijah Thompson, junior college transfer Lawrence Bridges and freshman Deion Turman, from Mt. Lebanon, will have to help cover that loss.

This McGill tussle is a welcome opportunity for Toole to watch his young team compete against somebody other than itself before the Colonials open the season against Saint Peter's at home Nov. 13.

"With the number of young guys we have, we need to give them every opportunity to be in a situation where it's game-like,'' Toole said. "As hard as you try to make practice game-like, it's just not the same.''

That the Colonials are playing McGill and not a local Division II team is because of John D'Angelis.

D'Angelis coached Charles in prep school in Montreal, then moved to McGill after last season to become an assistant coach. D'Angelis asked Toole if he wanted to play McGill, and Toole said that would be dandy.

Voila!

"It will definitely be fun, knowing it's a team from back home,'' Charles said. "And it will definitely be great to see (D'Angelis) again.''

Charles earned some good marks from Toole during a recent intrasquad scrimmage.

"He was very good offensively,'' Toole said. "He needs to improve defensively, but he showed more of his total game that we saw when we recruited him. I think during practices he's still trying to find his way a little bit, but in a (scrimmage) situation he did some things that we need him to do more of.

"He's a versatile inside-outside forward who can step out and make shots, who can put it on the floor for one or two dribbles, who's physically strong. We were fortunate to have him come visit and to get him.''

Charles visited Robert Morris in April and liked everything immediately.

"The campus. The coaching staff. The team chemistry,'' Charles said. "It was the right fit right away.''

Charles' classmate, Turman, who helped Mt. Lebanon win the WPIAL Quad A championship last season, signed late with the Colonials, who had to reshuffle their recruiting class after coach Mike Rice left for Rutgers.

Turman, at 6'8'' the tallest Colonial on the roster, was headed to prep school, but the Colonials began recruiting him in July.

"He had a lot of other schools starting to pick up his recruiting,'' Toole said. "In the 2011 class there aren't a lot of big men. We needed some depth in our frontcourt. We felt if he'd gone to prep school we might not have been able to recruit him. He really runs. He has decent hands. He has a good body. Those things would lead a lot of schools to take pretty serious looks at Deion (had he gone to prep school).''

Now that won't matter.

Turman liked what he heard from the new RMU coaching staff.

"They were very up-front,'' he said. "They were honest and real.''

And staying close to home to go to college has its benefits.

"I don't think it hurts to be able to get a homemade meal,'' Turman said, smiling.

Turman might not play a lot early this season.

"He needs to get stronger in his lower body,'' Toole said. "He has a strong upper body, but he has a poor base. Guys can drive him off the block.''

Still …

"He has great potential,'' Toole said. "And in the eight weeks he's been here, he's improved a lot.''

Colonial fans attending Tuesday night's game probably will pay some attention to RMU's starting lineup, thinking that whoever starts against McGill most likely will comprise the starting lineup this season.

But should they think that?

"I don't know if they should pay attention to it,'' Toole said. "I think who starts against McGill is going to be the guys who we think give us the best chance to win that game. There will be other games where other guys might give us a better chance to win that game based on size and based on matchups.''