By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
November 15, 2010
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - This Robert Morris University team needs a wakeup call.
"What?'' you're thinking. "Wakeup call? What was wrong with the way our guys played against Saint Peter's?''
Well, actually nothing was wrong with the way they played against Saint Peter's.
The Colonials played spectacular defense in their opener Saturday night. RMU established a record for fewest points allowed in a game in a 55-30 clampdown. Robert Morris outrebounded the Peacocks, 44-38. The Colonials gave coach Andrew Toole a victory in his first game as a college head coach.
But this team still needs a wakeup call before its next game.After all, tipoff at Kent State Tuesday is scheduled for 8 a.m. Not 8 p.m., but 8 a.m.
So there will be a group wakeup call.
That call will be made at 5:15 Tuesday morning so the Colonials can get out of their hotel in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and on their way to Kent State to participate in ESPN's 24-hour basketball marathon.
The players will have a light breakfast before leaving the hotel - fruit, bagels - and then make the 30-minute trip to Kent State.
Toole's plan is to have the Colonials dressed in their uniforms by 6:20 a.m.
"We'll try to get the cobwebs out and just move around,'' Toole said.
Toole last Saturday sought the advice of a coach who's had experience with these early-morning games. Saint Peter's coach John Dunne's Peacocks entertained Monmouth in a 6 a.m. game in this hoops marathon last season.
"He said his guys were so jacked up because of the game being on ESPN,'' Toole said.
"To them, it's an event,'' Dunne said.
So Dunne had no trouble getting his players out of their dorm rooms and inside the gym on the early morning a year ago.
He told them to be at the gym at 4:45. When he arrived at 4:15, they were all there.
"Bouncing around, ready to go,'' Dunne said.
Any problem for the coach getting up that morning?
"Not really,'' Dunne said, starting to smile. "There are 6:00 a.m. tee times (in the offseason).''
The RMU players think they'll have no problem with the early wakeup Tuesday.
"I hate getting up early,'' senior Gary Wallace said, "but I have four 8:00 a.m. classes.''
"We've had a couple practices where we go at eight in the morning sometimes, so I think we'll be all right,'' sophomore Velton Jones said.
Were those practices at eight in preparation for the Kent State game?
"No, just (because of) different situations,'' sophomore Karon Abraham said. "It is hard. You might have to come in for treatment - you know, wake up at 6:30 to be here by 6:45 to get treatment for an hour and then be on the court and have to shoot and get warmed up for an 8:00 a.m. practice.''
So just how did the Colonials wind up in this just-after-dawn affair?
Well, they were scheduled to play at Kent State this season - returning a game against Kent State at RMU last season.
Kent State called Toole and asked if he wanted to play the game as part of the ESPN marathon. Toole was amenable to that, then learned from the Kent State people that Toole would have to "sell'' his team to ESPN, which preferred a team from what it perceived as a higher league than the Northeast Conference.
Toole's sales pitch?
"That we should have beaten Villanova (in last season's NCAA tournament),'' Toole said. "That we've won back-to-back NEC championships. That we have the youngest head coach in Division I.''
Which happens to be Toole - age 30.
"And that we have really talented young kids,'' Toole said.
No doubt Toole tossed in that Abraham lit up Villanova for 23 points during that overtime loss in the NCAA event.
"If you can't make a story out of this game, then I don't know what else you're looking for,'' Toole said in winding up his pitch to ESPN.
The network bought Toole's presentation - with one caveat.
"They wanted to make us the 6:00 a.m. game,'' Toole said. "I told them I wouldn't play at six. So then they said we could play the 8:00 a.m. game, and I agreed to it.''
Toole's reasoning on not playing at six?
"I just think you don't necessarily give yourself a chance to win the 6:00 a.m. game,'' Toole said. "Like the Saint Peter's-Monmouth game last year? No one scored over 10 points until the game was halfway over.''
For the record, 10 minutes into the first half of the Monmouth-Saint Peter's game last season, the Peacocks had a 12-7 lead before going on to win 58-34.
And while we're at, the Saint Peter's-RMU game last Saturday - which tipped at 4 p.m. - was no offensive clinic early on. With 11 minutes gone in the first half, the Colonials led 9-3.
But okay. Let's let Toole continue.
"At least at 8:00 a.m., well, these guys have 8:00 a.m. classes,'' Toole said. "We do stuff in the morning. They've been used to functioning somehow at 8:00 a.m. None of them function at 6:00 a.m. I think being on the road and being an 8:00 a.m. game is unique and it can neutralize some of the road aspect of it.''
It might also neutralize the road aspect of it for the Colonials in that Kent State will be playing its fourth game in 87 hours Tuesday morning. Perhaps the Kent players will be a bit tired to begin with.
Kent State played three games beginning Friday in the World Vision Classic at Cleveland State. It beat Iona, 73-72, and NEC member Bryant, 90-49, before losing to Cleveland State 69-66 Sunday, so it will enter the Robert Morris game 2-1.
For their part, the Colonials are pleased with the one victory they have.
And the players were particularly pleased to get Toole an early win as he embarks on his head coaching career.
"People think that because he's so young he probably doesn't know what he's doing,'' Jones said. "But he's a good coach. It was important for us to get him his first win in his first game.''
Toole said getting the win in his first game was "a relief.'' However, he knows how quickly the next game comes for any team.
"Now, I've got to back up this (win),'' he said. "I'm going to enjoy it, but what do we do next? I've got to figure out how we're going to get a rebound at Kent State.''
Maybe by doing the same thing his team did against Saint Peter's - gang rebounding.
That's what Toole emphasized during the preseason. He knows his team is not big. And he knows his team will need help from its guards on the glass.
That's why he was heartened to see his six guards combine for 20 of the Colonials' 44 rebounds against Saint Peter's.
"I couldn't be more excited,'' Toole said. "For all of them to understand how important that is was huge.''
And then there was the stifling defense played by the Colonials. Saint Peter's made just six of its 36 field goal attempts.
"That's what Toole preaches at practice,'' Abraham said. "We have to win on defense. If we do what we did (against Saint Peter's), and there are still things we can improve on in our defense, it's going to be unbelievable what this season can look like.''
"There's so much we can improve on (defensively),'' Jones said. "Like people being in the right places, people being in the right spots at all times. There's so much we can improve on.''
"Why not (be in the right spot) every time instead of eight times out of 10?'' Abraham said. "Make it 10 out of 10.''
"The coaches tell us the key to this season is rebounding,'' Wallace said. "We all know that. When we trust each other in help defense and rebounding and screening - or whatever it is - we're a pretty good team and a tough team to beat.''
The Colonials did not have to convince Dunne, whose team did play without senior guard Wesley Jenkins, its leading returning scorer from last season who's sidelined because of a knee injury.
"I'm not sure if Wesley would have played it would have made any difference,'' Dunne said. "We're usually a gritty, blue-collar team, but we lost what we're good at it. They just out-toughed us. We got a rude awakening.''
