By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
December 17, 2010
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - There's an old bromide that coaches like to trot out near the end of a season concerning the performances of young players.
It goes something like this: "These kids aren't freshmen anymore. They're sophomores now.''
Andrew Toole, the first-year coach at Robert Morris University, is pushing the envelope a bit relative to that bromide. Here it is not yet January and he's trying to turn the Colonial freshmen into sophomores. And, for that matter, the Colonial sophomores into juniors.
"We need to get guys older than they are,'' Toole said recently.
Pretty sound approach for a coach whose team includes just one senior and only one junior.
Toole knows that as the Northeast Conference schedule revs up in early January he'll need his young team to play at a more experienced level than the players' real class standing would indicate that they should.
So Toole and his assistant coaches - Robby Pridgen, Matt Hahn and Michael Byrnes - have encouraged the players to get in some extra work. Uh, make that a lot of extra work.
And it seems to be paying off.
The Colonials are 4-5 as they head into another stretch of road games that includes non-conference stops at Appalachian State Saturday, Arizona (Dec. 22), Morgan State (Dec. 30) and Ohio University (Jan. 2) before the team resumes NEC play at Wagner (Jan. 6) and at Mount St. Mary's (Jan. 8).
"The assistants have been great with getting guys shots, getting guys film and getting guys working on areas of the game where they need to improve in order for us to be successful,'' Toole said.
The full impact of the young Colonials' attention to doing extra stuff really hit Toole early last Saturday afternoon as he sat in his office watching former RMU coach Mike Rice's Rutgers team play Auburn at the Consol Energy Center on television.
He heard noise coming from the locker room, which is directly beneath his office. Mind you this was more than six hours before the Colonials tipped off against Youngstown State.
"It was 12:45 and I hear guys in the locker room,'' Toole said. "Our shootaround's not until 2 o'clock and I look over the railing at 1:15 and there are six dudes out there shooting.''
There was more of that to come.
After the pre-game meal a while later, a few of the players went to the court to put up more practice shots.
Toole was pleased.
"There's no secret to making shots,'' Toole said. "It's figuring out what the right form is, figuring out the mechanics and then just doing it over and over and over and over and over until it's second nature.''
Perhaps it was no coincidence then that when the Colonials finally did tip off against Youngstown State, they proceeded to shoot season-highs from the field (57.4 percent) and from beyond the arc (54.2 percent) en route to a 90-60 blowout.
Sophomore guard - or is that junior guard? - Velton Jones credited the Colonials' success to all the extra work he and his teammates are doing as they quickly age.
"Everybody - before practice, after practice - is putting in a lot of work to get up extra shots,'' Jones said, "and I think it's given us more confidence.''
"And it's game-speed shots instead of just going through the motions,'' sophomore (junior) guard Karon Abraham added.
"Plus everybody's unselfish,'' sophomore (junior) forward Lijah Thompson noted.
"We're making the extra pass,'' Abraham said. "If you have a wide-open look, you should be able to knock it down.''
Speaking of passing, how about Anthony Myers?
The freshman (sophomore) point guard is emerging as a force for the Colonials. He had 10 assists against Youngstown State and is averaging an impressive 7.8 assists per game over the past four games. Myers' 10 assists against YSU were two more than the Penguins had as a team in that game.
"You know what? I haven't seen that very often, to be honest,'' Toole said of a player out-assisting the opponent. "I think it's a credit to Ant's mindset and I think it's also a credit to our defense. I think we did a good job of helping, closing out on shooters, doing the things that we needed to do to slow them down.''
Fewer made baskets by the Penguins logically would result in fewer assists by the Penguins.
Still, a 10-assist game is a 10-assist game. Pretty good stuff - even if Myers took his performance in stride.
"My first priority is assists,'' he said. "I love passing the ball.''
Placing scoring behind passing seems an unusual trait for a first-year player.
"I think it's somewhat unusual for a lot of guys,'' Toole said. "I think that makes him unique. Most guys who play basketball want to put the ball in the basket. That's what everyone gets excited about. That's what everyone cheers for. That's the first thing people look at on the stat sheet - total points.
"I think he adds such a great dimension to our team because it's not that he's incapable of scoring, it's just that he enjoys setting up his teammates for wide-open layups. That makes my life easier, and it makes the entire team's life easier.''
Myers' development at the point has enabled Jones to become more of a shooting guard, and he's responded. Over those same past four games, Jones has averaged 12.3 points per game - about five more points per game than he averaged in the Colonials' first five games this season.
"I think it helps when he doesn't have to handle the ball as much,'' Toole said. "Ant Myers takes some of the load off handling the basketball, and that allows Velton to get more shots in rhythm - step in and shoot as opposed to being the point guard, bringing the ball down the floor and then run offense and now shoot.''
Abraham also has taken note of how much Myers' development has helped Jones.
"Big-time,'' Abraham said. "He's the floor general. That gives (Jones) an opportunity to play on the wing. He's a great player on the wing. That gives us that triple threat.''
And, too, there's the fact that Jones has put up tons of shots during his extra work.
"We kind of tweaked his form when he got here,'' Toole said. "It takes hundreds or thousands or millions of shots to (get to) where it's completely natural all the time and so you still see him every once in a while revert to his former form - especially when he starts to get tired. So we've been working with him on being consistent with his upper body and making sure it's the same mechanics every time.''
But it isn't just Jones - as Jones himself attests.
"My teammates have helped me,'' he said. "Ant's driving and kicking to me. He has confidence in me. And the (forwards) are setting some good screens for me. It's a team effort.''
Then, as Abraham said, there's sophomore Russell Johnson doing what he does and freshman forward Yann Charles doing what he does and ...
"Then you have Lijah coming in (off the bench),'' Abraham said. "He's playing great. He's doing what he has to do. So we're clicking.''
Thompson might be the poster-player for advancing the aging process among the young Colonials.
Over the past five games, he's averaged 11 points a game. Compare that to his freshman average of 1.8 points a game and you have a player who might have crammed two seasons of development into one.
"We know that Lijah's capable of that,'' Toole said. "He's a strong kid. He's a live body. We talked about this before - that Lijah needed to jump-start Lijah. Well, Lijah's been coming in and doing extra work and working with coach Byrnes. He's been getting to practice early. He's been doing the things you need to do to be successful.
"To be successful in Division I basketball, you can't just show up and be talented because everybody shows up and is talented. Now what are you going to do to prepare yourself to play in a game? Are you going to make sure you're getting enough shots up or enough touches around the basket where you're sharp? He's started to do that, and you see the results going in a positive direction.''
"Most of it is the coaches pushing me and telling me to do more for the team,'' Thompson said. "They want me to go to the basket, rebound, play defense and talk more - because I don't communicate that well on the court. They wanted me to do more work and be confident in myself taking shots. They said it wouldn't be bad if I score.''
So is it fun to be more involved offensively?
"Yes, but no,'' Thompson said, "because (playing) defense is what we do to win games.''
That and playing together.
Or aging quickly together.
"As long as we're together, I feel -we feel - we can beat any team,'' Abraham said. "It doesn't matter. As long as we play a full 40 minutes, at the end of the day we're going to be there.''
