By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
Jan. 20, 2011 

Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - At halftime last Saturday night, Robert Morris University trailed Monmouth, 31-25.

Jesse Steele, the Hawks' diminutive, dangerous sophomore guard, had played a big role in helping Monmouth gain that lead.

Steele hammered the Colonials with 15 first-half points, getting 12 of those on 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc.

What were the Colonials to do about Steele?

Velton Jones, RMU's own sophomore guard, had an idea.

"I wanted to guard him, try to slow him down a little bit,'' Jones said. ''He couldn't miss.''

Jones' teammates were not surprised that Jones wanted the stop-Steele assignment.

"That's what leaders do, man,'' senior Gary Wallace said.

In the second half, helped greatly by Jones' clampdown on Steele, the Colonials outscored Monmouth, 35-26, and forged a 60-57 Northeast Conference victory.

That's victory as in V.

"When V gets into people, it's like, 'Aw, man, V's playing D,''' Wallace said. "It just flows down to everybody else. V is our emotional leader.''

In that second half, Steele scored six points. He was 2-of-6 from the field, including 0-for-3 from deep.

Mission accomplished.

"I was just trying to be a leader any way I could for my team,'' Jones said. "Me slowing him down was leading the team because he was hot.''

Jones was hot, too. As in steamed. As in focused. As in intense.

"I think V looks scary when he gets intense,'' Wallace said. "That probably shook (Steele) up a little bit.''

"When V wants to play defense, he can play defense - especially when he gets mad,'' sophomore Karon Abraham said.

"I got mad a lot (against Monmouth),'' Jones said. "We messed up a lot, and I got a little upset a couple times.''

His teammates took note of that.

"Once he gets to that point … ,'' Abraham began.

"He's in a zone,'' Wallace finished.

"There's no turning back,'' Abraham said. "It's time to grind it and get it done. There's no more (playing) around.''

"His emotions kind of like ooze onto everybody else,'' Wallace said.

Those emotions specifically?

"Heart,'' Wallace said. "Desire.''

And an absolute abhorrence of losing.

"I always want to win,'' Jones said. "When somebody's not doing their job or not trying their hardest to win, I get a little upset.''

Which is just fine with RMU coach Andrew Toole.

"He constantly is demanding that guys do more, that they try harder, that they learn more, that they understand what's going on, that they play hard,'' Toole said. "He holds our team accountable. Daily in practice he holds our team accountable to what we're trying to accomplish.''

By yelling?

"Not always,'' Toole said. "It's a mix. Sometimes it's getting after guys and yelling at them and firing them up. Sometimes it's grabbing guys. Sometimes it's after guys do things well, he just encourages them. That can give guys confidence because now they've gotten his approval because they know that 99 percent of the time he's going to be competing as hard as he can. He's going to be fighting. He's going to be doing whatever he can for his team to win.''

Seems a little strange that a sophomore can engender that kind of respect among his teammates. However, this is a young Robert Morris team. Wallace is the only senior. Lawrence Bridges is the only junior, and he's a transfer so this is his first season as a Colonial.

Everybody else is a freshman or sophomore.

Perhaps Jones being a redshirt sophomore gives him an "elder statesman'' status. This is, after all, his third season in the Robert Morris program.

"That's definitely part of it,'' Toole said. "I also just think it's his personality. He has leadership characteristics. One, intelligence. Two, an ability to communicate to our guys what we're trying to do. In terms of his ability to understand what our game plan is, understand what our formula is, understand how to relate that to our guys, no one on our team is better at doing that.

"And I think they see that he competes and he's tough and he gives up his body and does little things to help us win games. I think all those things combined kind of allow guys to gravitate toward him when they have questions or when they're unsure of what's going on. He provides a lot of toughness for our guys.''

It's been like this for Jones since high school in Philadelphia. Maybe even before that.

"I've heard that my whole life, that I always look mean for some reason,'' Jones said. "I don't see it, but that's what everybody says. And then the team says my energy goes through the team. I've heard that a lot.''

Jones' leadership ability was one of the attributes that attracted the Robert Morris coaches to him when they recruited him out of Philadelphia's Northeast High School.

"He definitely had a pit bull mentality,'' Toole said. "He's had to mature since he's come here in terms of he was a pit bull on game day, but he was never a pit bull in practice. A lot of kids when they get to the college level don't understand what practice is all about. His practice habits have improved tenfold since he's been here. I think that's allowed him to build more credibility with the guys.

"There were times even last year where he would say the right things in games, but I'm not always sure that guys received the message as well because there were days that he would take off in practice. Now very rarely - if ever - does he take a day off, and if he does you can usually get him fired up pretty quickly to get back on task. I think the guys see that and it just allows him to speak his mind more freely, and (for) guys to say, 'OK, well, if he's doing it, I can do it.'''

Jones does not hesitate to speak his mind if he sees a teammate not doing what should be done.

"But then again if they do something right, I'm the first to tell them they did something right,'' Jones said. "I think it's a respect level. I think they respect me as a player and as their leader.''

Again, this is all fine and dandy with Toole.

"Absolutely,'' he said. "We definitely rely on him to kind of have a pulse of the team, to fire certain individuals up. He has a pretty good understanding of when guys are going to play well and when they're not - not maybe necessarily from a productivity standpoint, but if guys aren't focused, if guys aren't as sharp as they need to be. We absolutely rely on that. We rely on his ability to lead and his ability to communicate during the game maybe as much as we rely on Russell (Johnson's) ability to rebound, Karon's ability to score, Anthony Myers' ability to make plays.''

All of this is not to say that everything works perfectly with Jones as the Colonials' leader.

"Sometimes he's a little bit of a roller coaster,'' Toole said. "You can see sometimes the ebbs and flows in his facial expressions, body language, energy. When he's in a good place, our team's in a good place. When he's in a bad place, we're usually fighting an uphill battle.''

That is not lost on Jones.

"I'm sensing that,'' he said. "I don't want to believe that, but, yeah, I'm starting to sense that. Like when I'm not in the right state of mind, the team is not in the right state of mind. But when I am, it seems like the team is a little more focused. When I'm not always into it and I don't have all the energy in the world like I usually have, we lose games.

"So I think it's real important for me to do that every game and every practice for this team to be successful. Sometimes, it's hard to do it, but if they see me playing hard, it just carries on through the team.''

Case in point?

The Colonials' NEC opener at Long Island, Dec. 2.

Abraham didn't play because he'd been suspended for violating team rules. Wallace broke a finger just 26 seconds after tipoff. The Colonials were mightily short-handed.

Jones rose to the occasion.

He played 34 minutes. Scored a career-high 20 points. Had four assists and only one turnover.

The Colonials won, 70-69.

Robert Morris plays NEC-leading Long Island again Thursday night at the Charles L. Sewall Center.

And, again, the Colonials will rely on Jones. Perhaps not to score 20 points again. After all, Abraham, their leading scorer, is back. So is Wallace.

But the Colonials will rely on Jones to provide his leadership. His grit. His refusal to allow his teammates to give anything less than their best.

And his acceptance that, yes, it's difficult to be in this position, but he is, so let's get it done.

"I like it,'' Jones said of his role. "But it can get hard at times. Like it's hard to come into practice or come into games every single day and be that emotional guy who gives energy to people. It's hard, but I like doing it. It's a lot of pressure, but it's just something I have to do for my team to be successful.''

NOTES: According to the NEC office, the Colonials' non-conference strength of schedule ranks 20th in Division I. RMU played four highly-ranked teams relative to their RPI - Pitt (fifth), West Virginia (ninth), Cleveland State (27th) and Arizona (28th) … With one nonconference game left, N.J.I.T at Fairleigh Dickinson, Feb. 1, the NEC has improved its nonconference record significantly this season. Last season, NEC teams were 38-104 against non-NEC teams. This season, the league's record is 53-82 … Myers has 72 assists this season and has a chance to set an RMU record for assists by a freshman. Samba Johnson had 106 in 1992-93 … Over its past three games, Long Island has shot 61.9 percent (52 of 84) from the field in the second half.