By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
Jan. 18, 2011
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - Just after dancing around a potential toe-stubber last Saturday, the Robert Morris University Colonials Thursday take their first steps onto a troublesome path of Northeast Conference games.
The Colonials, 4-2 in the NEC, play league-leader Long Island (5-1) and St. Francis (N.Y.) (3-3) at home, then play at Quinnipiac (4-2), three teams that are a combined 12-6 in league play.
Perhaps it will be a positive for the young Colonials that they could have learned a lesson while escaping their game against Monmouth last Saturday with a ragged 60-57 victory.
"We weren't at our best and we were still able to win the game,'' RMU head coach Andrew Toole said. "Some of that has to be attributed to (Monmouth). Some of that has to be attributed to us. But we were still able to win the game and do what it took to win, and I think coming down the stretch in a lot of these NEC games there are going to be a lot of opportunities where we're going to have to do whatever it takes to win the game where we might not always be at our best.''
Or as sophomore guard Velton Jones said … "You have to do that sometimes in the league. Grind games out.''
For various reasons, the Monmouth game was a grind for the Colonials.
The crowd at the Charles L. Sewall Center, at least at the start of the game, was smallish. And a lot of the fans who were there seemed pre-occupied with the progress of the Steelers' playoff game against Baltimore.
"That had nothing to do with the way we played,'' senior guard Gary Wallace said. "We base our program on coming out and just jumping people from the start, creating our own energy. We've had games in the past where we had maybe 200 people in the gym, but we created our own energy.
"And if we don't do that, no matter how many people are in the gym, it still shouldn't affect the way we play. Yes, it's good to have that sixth man in the gym with the crowd jumping and yada, yada, yada. But we know that we determine what happens on the floor. Not the crowd. Not anything else. We determine what goes on, and that energy has to come from us.''
One could argue that the Colonials did indeed jump on Monmouth at the start. After all, they did lead, 7-2. However, they then went seven minutes without a field goal, and the game definitely became a grind for them.
They trailed, 26-16, with 4:31 left in the first half before cutting their halftime deficit to 31-25.
Against a team that entered the game 5-12 overall and 1-4 in the NEC. Against a team that was without four players sitting out because of academic suspensions. Against a team that two nights earlier lost, 70-54, at Saint Francis (Pa.).
"I told the guys before the game that this was going to be a great test of their maturity,'' Toole said. "This was going to be a great test of their ability to focus. This was going to be a great test of how good leaders we had because if you look at Monmouth on paper, and this is in no way, shape or form discrediting their program, but they have four guys suspended, three of whom played a lot of minutes. They lost a tough game at Saint Francis (Pa.). They're struggling in the league so far.
"All those things point to you saying, 'Oh, this is going to be an easy night.' So, are we mature enough and do we have good enough leadership to say, 'OK, people expect us to go out and win this game and now we have to go out and perform to those expectations.' In the first half, we didn't. We didn't have that energy.
"I was really just disappointed in our energy in the first half. I was really disappointed in some of our defensive effort in the first half. I thought we looked slow. I thought we looked sluggish. I didn't think we had an excitement to play the game. That's disappointing as a coach.''
Toss in that Monmouth, because it plays a sometimes stifling matchup zone, usually can make a good team appear average, and you had a set of tough circumstances for the Colonials.
"It's a pretty hard zone to play against,'' Jones said.
"They play at a different pace,'' Wallace said. "They keep you on your toes because they're constantly moving. They're never standing still. It doesn't put us at a disadvantage, but they make you work for everything. They switch everything. You just have to be able to read and react.
"Sometimes that can create difficulty for some teams, (and) in the first half we fell right into their trap. We were shooting quick shots. We weren't moving the ball.''
"That matchup zone they play is a very effective zone,'' sophomore guard Karon Abraham said. "If you're not a team that's poised, they can really knock you out of your offense and have you discombobulated.''
"You have to be really good at reading and reacting (against Monmouth's zone),'' Toole said. "That's not one of our strengths. It's easier sometimes playing against a man-to-man or playing against a regular traditional zone where you can tell guys, 'OK, when this happens, this is going to happen. When this happens, this is how the defense is going to react.'
"Against Monmouth, each possession, you have to kind of figure it out on the fly because they're constantly switching. They're constantly passing guys off. There are times when you drive and you get (defensive) help from Player A, and then the next time you drive there's help from Player B. So you really just have to be able to think and react as the game's going on. We can't say, 'Run play one and this is where you're going to be wide open.' So it makes it difficult. As you can see at certain times when our guys have to think, sometimes they slow down.
"When you have to read, it takes you longer to react. If you can't read it quickly, you're never going to be able to react in time and so then you freeze and you're looking for a certain situation to happen. Sometimes our best offense was putting our head down and driving and just seeing what would happen. There are only split-second openings. There are only split-second times when you're going to be able to catch the ball in a certain spot and then that spot's gone. So if your timing's not instantaneous, you missed it and now you have to move on to the next play.''
At halftime Saturday, the Colonials seemed in much the same shape against Monmouth as they were in the quarterfinals of the 2008 NEC Tournament.
In that game, the top-seeded Colonials trailed eighth-seeded Monmouth for almost the entire first half before inching ahead, 24-23, by halftime. And for most of the second half, RMU continued to struggle before pulling away in the final four minutes to win, 64-50.
Back to last Saturday.
"When you allow a team like that to stay around in the first half, they get confidence and then in the second half they just keep fighting,'' Abraham said. "They won't quit. That's exactly what it was. We let them get confidence, didn't come out right away and jump on them, and that's what made this game so hard.''
"We had 20 minutes to give it everything we've got,'' Wallace said.
And the Colonials did.
They tied the game at 31 within the first two minutes of the second half. They eventually built a 40-34 lead only to have the Hawks hang tough and regain a slim lead. Finally with 1:48 left, Jones drove along the right baseline and found Russell Johnson alone underneath on the left side. Johnson's layup put the Colonials ahead by two points, and they closed out the win by going 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the last 32 seconds.
"I thought we acted immaturely in the first half,'' Toole said, "but I did like the way we responded in the second half, especially defensively.''
"Hopefully we can keep that switch on and not have to switch it on, switch it off, switch it on,'' Wallace said. "If we do that (constant switching), we're going to be in battles every game. We've had times this season where one game we'll look phenomenal and the next game we look like we have no idea what we're doing. We have the talent to play with anybody and be effective if we can play sharp for 40 minutes.''
Their next three games - especially - will give the Colonials the opportunity to see if they can do that.
NEXT UP: Long Island, whose only league loss was to Robert Morris, 70-69, Dec. 2, claimed sole possession of the NEC lead by routing visiting Wagner, 84-54, Saturday. The Blackbirds, who have won seven straight, had six players score in double figures and none getting more than 14 points.
The Seahawks provided so little of a test that it didn't matter that Long Island was just 17-of-29 from the free throw line.
"They're the best team we've played in the league,'' Wagner coach Dan Hurley told the Staten Island Advance. "They're athletic, skilled and tough.''
BULLDOGS BARK: Bryant, which was 1-29 overall and 1-17 in the NEC last season, won its third consecutive game by cruising at Sacred Heart, 72-59. The Bulldogs, who are not eligible for the NEC Tournament, play their next four games at home.
Bryant (5-13, 3-3) shot 55.6 percent from the field at Sacred Heart and received a career-high 22 points from sophomore guard Frankie Dobbs, a transfer from Ohio University. Freshman Alex Francis contributed 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Sacred Heart was just 20-of-73 (27.4 percent) from the field.
Two days earlier, Bryant won, 69-61, at Quinnipiac, the NEC coaches' preseason favorite to win the league championship.
"To go on the road and beat a team like Quinnipiac I think is an indicator that we're in the process of making a big jump as a program,'' Bryant coach Tim O'Shea told the Providence Journal.
NEC NUGGETS: In the past two games, the Colonials are a combined 22-of-24 from the free throw line after getting into the one-and-one in the second half … Saint Francis (Pa.) trailed visiting Fairleigh Dickinson, 51-47, with 6:29 left Saturday but won, 69-55. Umar Shannon scored 24 points for the Red Flash … In the LIU's win over Wagner, Tyler Murray of the Seahawks played all 40 minutes and scored 19 points … Quinnipiac, once again playing without standout center Justin Rutty (elbow), defeated visiting Central Connecticut State, 73-68. Deontay Twyman led the Bobcats with 23 points … Junior Chris Baskerville had 16 points and 14 rebounds for CCSU, which attempted only five three-pointers and made one … Lamar Trice scored 22 points to lead Mount St. Mary's to a 70-61 victory at St. Francis (N.Y.). The Terriers made only 7-of-16 free throw attempts.
