By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
November 11, 2010 

Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - The days and hours and then minutes leading to the season opener are not fun for a head coach.

There are worries. Players' health. Players' focus. Players' grasp of what the team is trying to do.

There are concerns. Is the team ready? Did we as a coaching staff miss anything? Should we have done more drills? Did we cover everything? Did we accomplish anything?

Yep. There are a lot of worries and concerns. So many that the worries tend to swirl around the concerns in a coach's head sort of like this: Worries, concerns, concerns, worries, concerns, worries, more worries.

And that's true for any head coach, no matter how many preseasons he's spent worrying and fretting.

Imagine, then, what the past several weeks have been like for Andy Toole, who Saturday embarks on his first season as a head coach when his Robert Morris University Colonials meet Saint Peter's at the Charles L. Sewall Center at 4:00 p.m.

"I'm running through all the weeks in my head,'' Toole said a couple of days ago. "I'm not second-guessing anything. But you wonder if what you've taught them and drilled into them what is sufficient to carry over to game situations. You just hope it's enough.

"This will be a true test. I'm excited for the game. A lot of eyes will be on me. A lot of eyes will be on the way our team looks when it walks onto the court.''

Toole paused for a moment, perhaps focusing on 4:00 p.m. Saturday.

"Game day is the best day ever,'' he said.

One reason for that? It means the start of learning if all those preseason worries and concerns were groundless. Or well-founded.

"It will let us know right away if we have made strides during the first 12 weeks of preseason and practices and can contend for a (Northeast Conference) championship,'' Toole said.

Toole's pre-opener worries and concerns were heightened because he knows his young Colonials are up against a veteran team in Saint Peter's.

Toole did some figuring several weeks ago and discovered the roster for the Peacocks is loaded with 550 games of Division I college basketball experience. Toole's Colonials, which include five freshman, four sophomores, a junior college transfer and one senior, have about 230 games of Division I college basketball experience.

Quite the gap.

"Exactly right,'' Toole said.

The Colonials' lack of experience has led to inconsistency in the preseason.

"It depends on the day,'' Toole said. "Some days we're sharp and crisp and focused. Other days, it's a struggle. It's a day-to-day thing. Some days there's great energy. Some days you have to prod it out of them.''

Which isn't surprising, considering the number of freshman who have a lot going on in their heads in addition to basketball.

"Maybe they're tired,'' Toole said. "Maybe they're sore. Maybe they had a test. Or they didn't sleep well, and they don't have the mental toughness to push through that.''

Saint Peter's coach John Dunne doesn't have to worry nearly so much about stuff like that.

His team, which has virtually every player back from a 16-14 club last season, includes five seniors and three juniors.

"We don't have experience. They have experience,'' said Gary Wallace, RMU's lone senior. "They know what it's like to be in a tight game.''

The Peacocks finished 11-7 and fourth in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference last season and are picked by the league's coaches to finish third this season behind Fairfield and Siena.

Senior Wesley Jenkins was voted to the All-MAAC Preseason First Team, while seniors Nick Leon and Ryan Bacon were voted to the second team.

Jenkins and Leon already are 1,000-point career scorers. Bacon should pass that plateau early this season.

By contrast, Wallace is the Colonials' top active career scorer with 524 points.

Toole has asked Wallace to step it up offensively this season.

"I know the coaches have been kind of disappointed in me (offensively),'' Wallace said. "But in the other years when I looked at all the scoring options we had, I thought, 'Do I really need to score?'''

This season, he does.

"I've done it before,'' Wallace said. "And coach Toole has seen it before when he recruited me.''

Wallace averaged 10.8 points per game as a senior at Seton Hall Prep in his hometown of Montclair, N.J., which is about 20 minutes away from where Saint Peter's is located in Jersey City, N.J.

Wallace, who was recruited by Saint Peter's before choosing Robert Morris, is very familiar with three Peacocks. He was a high school teammate of senior Jordan Costner and played AAU ball with Bacon and Yvon Raymond.

"It will be fun playing against them,'' Wallace said. "It will give me something to talk about next summer.''

This will be the first meeting between Saint Peter's and Robert Morris.

"We were in dire need of home games,'' Toole said. "We just continued to reach out to teams, and Saint Peter's was willing to come to Pittsburgh.''

The Colonials, who will play at Saint Peter's next season, are scheduled to play only three home games between Saturday and Jan. 13. They also play Duquesne (Nov. 19) and Youngstown State (Dec. 11) at home.

"Last year, we played most of our (non-conference) home games during (school) break,'' Toole said. "One of the big things we were trying to do this season was play home games when we could have a crowd, build interest and remind people that basketball season has started.''

Saturday's game likely won't be a high-scoring affair.

The Peacocks last season averaged 62.1 points per game while holding opponents to 60.3 points per game. Robert Morris last season averaged 68.5 points per game while limiting foes to 65.9 points per game.

Saint Peter's didn't shoot exceptionally well itself last season, but it did hold opponents to 30.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc. And what also caught Toole's eye was that Saint Peter's outrebounded its opponents by just over four rebounds per game. Toole has worried a bunch during this preseason about his relatively small team's ability to rebound.

"This will be a great challenge for our team,'' Toole said. "This could be an ugly game. Saint Peter's is grind-it-out, slow-it-down. This could be a rock fight.''

Before the game, the Colonials will receive the NEC championship/NCAA Tournament rings they earned last season. Among the players returning for that ceremony is Brad Piehl, who transferred to Division II Findlay (Ohio) after last season.

"It will be a special day,'' Wallace said of the ring ceremony, "but that's not what the day's about. It's about trying to win a game. It's not going to be any walk-through.''