By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
Jan. 6, 2011
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - Playing 10 of its first 13 games on the road, including having just one home game in a 54-day span, is not the ideal template for a team trying to build a decent won-lost record.
Case in point? The Robert Morris University Colonials.
RMU has a 5-8 record after those 13 games, including a 2-8 mark on the road, where it has played in upper-tier venues such as Pitt, West Virginia and Arizona.
"It hasn't been easy on the road,'' senior Gary Wallace said. "It's been tough.''
But there are silver linings.
"I'm glad I have (the road) experience,'' freshman guard Anthony Myers said. "I feel like I have more confidence for the next game. It's kind of on-going.''
"I think it helps us in the long run just to go on the road and play against the competition (we played) against,'' sophomore guard Velton Jones said. "Some of the schools we played have great atmospheres, like Arizona. It's going to help us in the long run when we have to play at Quinnipiac or any of the schools in our conference. The atmospheres are crazy, so I think it's helping us in the long run to be a better team.''
The road-tested Colonials will begin learning Thursday evening how much their odyssey helped them when they visit Wagner for what promises to be a tough Northeast Conference game.
RMU's game against the surprising Seahawks - Wagner is 2-0 after winning only three conference games last season - is the first of 16 consecutive NEC games that will determine the success of the Colonials' season.
"Every game matters because they keep score and you want to compete,'' RMU head coach Andrew Toole said, "but we understand that we live and die with the Northeast Conference.''
The Colonials lived the high life in the NEC in the three previous seasons, winning outright or sharing the regular-season championship in each of those seasons and winning the league championship the past two seasons.
Wallace has been a contributing factor in all three of those seasons, and he certainly like to finish his career on top again.
"I was talking to my parents and my sister (recently) about how it's all conference from here on out,'' Wallace said. "Like they say, this is it.''
Most of the run-up to the Wagner game, as well as to the regular-season finish of those 16 consecutive league games, was sort of a "that was it'' for the Colonials.
With the exception of the first two league games in early December, Robert Morris has played the bulk of its schedule against teams from conferences ranked higher than the NEC. And while that didn't do much for the won-loss record, again there are those silver linings.
"There's such an intense level in terms of everything you do -- getting the ball on the wing, driving the ball, reversing the basketball,'' Toole said. "It takes a lot of effort. You're constantly playing against high-level teams that are very good defensively and very physical. Now you face a situation (where) you can almost breathe. You have freedom. And the weight of the world's lifted off your shoulders because it's not a fist fight to do every single thing you're trying to do offensively.
"That would be the benefits of playing those games, of putting yourselves in situations where you're uncomfortable. Now you're in a situation like this where you're more comfortable. It becomes a little bit easier.''
Toole's team is coming off one of its best performances of the season. The Colonials had four players score in double figures in their 79-76 overtime victory at Ohio University last Sunday.
"I think we have enough offensive punch,'' Toole said. "When guys are all on the same page and moving, we're hard to guard interior and exterior. It's just a matter of are we going to stand around or are we going to execute with pace? Are we going to run the stuff the way we're capable of running it? If we do that, then I think we have a pretty good balance.''
And if that does prove to be the case, the Colonials should be in decent shape in the NEC, where balance is the rule.
"I think it's a really balanced league,'' Toole said. "I think a lot of teams are going to beat a lot of teams. Sacred Heart can get hot one night. Monmouth can get hot one night. There's some definite parity across the league, and I think it will be interesting to see how teams handle it. We didn't handle the first road conference weekend well enough.''
The Colonials played at Long Island and St. Francis (N.Y.) Dec. 2 and 4, respectively, using lineups almost entirely comprised of freshmen and sophomores. They won at LIU, 70-69, but lost at St. Francis (N.Y.), 65-63, after holding a four-point lead with 1:11 remaining.
"The St. Francis game hurt badly because for a team like ours to go on the road, play without a junior or a senior all weekend and come out of New York with the possibility to go 2-0, that would have been monumental,'' Toole said. "A lot of people probably would say it's great to get a split, but at the same time when you're that close to going 2-0 and then not have it happen it's disappointing. Hopefully we've learned from that.''
Wagner, which also won an NEC game at Sacred Heart, 73-68, Dec. 4, has two road wins in the league already, including the stunner last Monday at Quinnipiac, the coaches' preseason pick to finish first.
"The kids did a great job, and they deserved it,'' first-year Wagner coach Dan Hurley told the Staten Island Advance. "This shows that if you fight real hard and have toughness you can overcome things.''
"Danny's doing an outstanding job in building something,'' Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said. "They had a lot of belief in their purpose and their game plan. Throughout the shot clock, Wagner has very good patience offensively. They execute their offense for 35 seconds and we did not have enough focus and desire in our team defense for the entire shot clock. They usually scored inside 10 seconds.''
Wagner trailed, 65-61, with 3:43 left but outscored the Bobcats, 12-3, thereafter.
"Their offensive execution and patience the last five minutes trumped our defensive toughness,'' Moore said, "and I didn't think that would happen. But all the credit goes to them. They outwilled us down the stretch.''
Junior guard Tyler Murray led the Seahawks with 28 points, raising his team-leading average to 16.9 points per game.
Two freshmen also have been productive for Wagner.
Guard Latif Rivers averages 13.8 points per game and is 50 of 54 from the free throw line. And 6'11'' center Naofall Folahan has 24 blocked shots. Folahan is a bit foul prone, however. He's been called for 48 personal fouls and averages just 16.4 minutes per game.
Murray (50.9 percent), Rivers (38.4) and junior guard Chris Martin (38.0) all shoot well from beyond the arc. And the Seahawks as a team also shoot well from the free throw line (77.1 percent).
It would seem, then, that the Colonials face yet another tough road test Thursday evening.
"But I think if we can build off the Ohio (University) win, we'll be all right,'' Wallace said.
