By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
November 26, 2010 

Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University Colonials have played Pitt's basketball team in almost every season of their 35-year Division I history.

And every time RMU has played Pitt, the Colonials have lost. That's 0-29 including Tuesday night's 74-53 loss.

Robert Morris also has played Duquesne's basketball team frequently during those same 35 years.

And while the Colonials have fared marginally better against the Dukes, RMU's record still isn't all that. Counting last Friday's stirring 69-63 win against Duquesne at the Charles L. Sewall Center, the Colonials are just 6-15 against Duquesne.

So why do the Colonials continue to play these games against Pitt and Duquesne, which are in conferences a notch or two above RMU's Northeast Conference?

"We're all citizens of the same local environment,'' said Dr. Craig Coleman, RMU's athletic director. "The schools have a tradition with each other in many sports. Obviously basketball is the sport where that's especially true. They're Division I schools in our backyard and we want to see how we measure up every year.''

That's basically what it amounts to - using those teams as measuring sticks. Actually beating Duquesne happens only occasionally. And actually beating Pitt? Might not ever happen.

And yet there are benefits to Robert Morris continuing to play their Division I neighbors.

"I'm talking to you now as a coach as well as an athletic director,'' said Coleman, who's also RMU's softball coach. "One of the best ways to make your players better is to play against the best. It does you no good in terms of development of skills to play teams below you in ability, so you want to play the very best teams you can play. Not every night. No, not every night. But a handful of times.

"That forces your team to get better. It accelerates their development. I firmly believe that. We encourage all of our teams in all of our sports to do that.''

Last weekend, RMU's women's ice hockey team played Wisconsin, ranked No. 1 in the nation. In the spring, the softball team will play Florida, one of the top three or four teams in the country.

"And we hope our football team gets to play Appalachian State or one of the (other) top two or three schools in the country when we go into the playoffs,'' Coleman said.

Another benefit of Robert Morris playing Pitt and Duquesne in basketball is that the games generate some publicity for RMU.

"I think that the number of alumni is what sells newspapers in the sports world,'' Coleman said. "I think the newspapers cater to the schools that have the most alumni and will therefore want to buy the paper and read about their schools.

"That's a disadvantage that we have to overcome in terms of competing for exposure with Pitt and Duquesne. So obviously any time we can play those teams it's to our advantage. Our biggest football game of the year this season was not the Duquesne game. It was an important game, but it wasn't the biggest.''

That would have been the home game against Central Connecticut State, Nov. 6, a game won by the Colonials that got them a spot in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs.

"But the Duquesne game is probably the one that got the most media coverage because we were playing Duquesne,'' Coleman noted.

Playing Pitt in basketball definitely gets RMU publicity as well as a chance to play on television. However, the game has always been at Pitt, and almost without doubt always will be, so the Colonials don't get any scheduling help with that game.

Robert Morris does have a home-and-home scheduling arrangement with Duquesne, and that was fortuitous this season because last Friday night's game was one of a very few home games the Colonials have until mid-January.

Partly because this season's NEC schedule has the Colonials playing their first four league games on the road, a rarity but still a reality, Robert Morris plays just three of its first 15 games at home. And it has already played two of those three. The only other home game between now and a home date with NEC member Fairleigh Dickinson, Jan. 13, is against Youngstown State, Dec. 11.

Of RMU's 11 non-conference basketball games, only three will be played at home.

Why the wide disparity?

Simple, Coleman said.

"No one wants to come here and play us,'' he said.

That could change within the next two seasons.

Coleman said there has been some discussion about changing the way RPI rankings are calculated. A team's RPI number can impact a team's seeding in the NCAA Tournament, either positively or negatively.

"I think (the change) is about to be implemented,'' Coleman said. "A team would get three times as much credit for an away win as it does for a home win. That is being put into place for exactly this (scheduling) reason. Schools like ours that have achieved great success at our level have a hard time attracting home games because schools that may be playing in a stronger conference feel like they have nothing to gain from playing us.

"If they beat us, (it's like) 'They're in a stronger conference, everyone back home expected them to.' If they lose to us, it costs them something. It helps their strength of schedule to play a very good team, but they're looking for very good teams that they can beat. People are worried about coming into our building to play us.

"And that's true for our men's basketball team, our women's basketball team and men's lacrosse. We beat Ohio State and Penn State in lacrosse last year. They won't play us home or away now. So non-conference scheduling is a little tricky because there's nothing to force somebody to play here. The RPI calculation change will certainly entice teams to take a bigger risk and go on the road.''

The fact that more teams will be able to get into the NCAA basketball tournament field this season, and perhaps even more in the seasons to come, also might help Robert Morris with its home scheduling. More teams could want to try to bolster their RPIs.

For the present, though?

Probably status quo for a team that in the previous three seasons was 73-31 and developed a reputation for playing cloying, stifling, opponent-irritating defense.

"One of the things that really hurts our scheduling is that (opposing) coaches will say, 'We don't want to play you. Your defense is too good,''' Coleman said. "They don't want to be challenged like that. So this is a case of where have we gone right? We've been successful, and that costs us in terms of being able to schedule.''

Then maybe the solution is to become, uh, not so good.

"Well,'' Coleman said with a grin, "we're opting not to go that way. We'll take the away games and win.''

The Colonials are 0-2 on the road thus far this season, having lost by three points at Kent State and by those 21 points at Pitt, although the game was much closer than that for most of the first 30 minutes.

Sophomore forward Russell Johnson led the Colonials at Pitt with 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Robert Morris played without leading scorer Karon Abraham, who was suspended by coach Andrew Toole for violating a team rule.

"We'll take it day by day,'' Toole said of Abraham's return. "He made a mistake. Hopefully he matures and learns from it and comes back stronger.''

Will Abraham play Monday evening at Cleveland State?

"I'm not sure when Karon's going to be back,'' Toole said. "I'm not sure how it's going to play out.''