By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
Feb. 3, 2011
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University Colonials, with only one victory in their past four Northeast Conference games, must change their fortunes.
Andrew Toole, their coach, might consider some changes to their starting lineup in an effort to accomplish that.
It's like that old sports adage goes: If things aren't shaking out properly, it's time to shake things up adroitly.
Or something like that.
At any rate, Toole definitely has pondered making changes this week - especially after reviewing his team's annoying tendency to start games slowly.
"We've been poor in (how we start games), (so) what has this starting lineup necessarily earned or done to warrant continuing that?'' Toole said. "There are details of the game that those guys aren't taking care of, so maybe shaking things up is exactly what we need to do.''
One change Toole could make is to reward junior Lawrence Bridges for his solid performance in the Colonials' 84-75 loss at Sacred Heart last Saturday and start him.
"I'm thinking about it,'' Toole said.
Bridges played 19 minutes at Sacred Heart and scored 12 points - making six of his seven field goal attempts enroute to his first double-figure game of the season.
"That's the Lawrence Bridges we need,'' Toole said. "He was terrific. He kept it simple. He tried to get every rebound. He caught the ball and made layups. He didn't try to dribble. He just jumped up and laid it in, which is what we've been working on with him. And he was alert defensively. If he can do that, then he can play more minutes.''
The Colonials, 5-5 in the NEC as they prepare to play Bryant Thursday night at the Charles L. Sewall Center, desperately need some scoring inside. Lijah Thompson, who seemed poised to become effective in the paint, has slumped recently. Since scoring 10 points against Fairleigh Dickinson Jan. 13, Thompson has mustered only 27 points in the past five games.
Also telling? Thompson, a 76.5 percent free throw shooter, did not get to the free throw line in RMU's losses at Quinnipiac and SHU last weekend, an indication he wasn't aggressive offensively.
Something else Toole could do is put freshman Yann Charles back in the starting lineup.
Charles scored in double figures in four of the first nine games this season before tailing off some. After the Wagner game Jan. 6, Toole took Charles out of the starting lineup to help him simplify stuff defensively. Since then, Charles hasn't been much of a contributor on offense, having scored just 21 points in the past seven games.
The Colonials need more scoring from Charles, whose 44.7 field goal percentage ranks second on the team to Thompson's (53.6 percent) among those players who have attempted at least 100 shots.
"Yann's just been completely unaggressive offensively,'' Toole said. "We're begging him to shoot the ball because he has a really good shot. He shoots one of the higher percentages on our team, and it's not like he's shooting layups. I don't really know what the answer is, but I wish he would do more offensively. I think if he was more prepared to shoot, he'd get more shots. He'd make shots. He'd help our team. He would soften things up for other guys because now you have to guard him as well. He hasn't exactly done that.''
The Colonials, shooting only 39.6 percent from the field, certainly need an infusion of offense.
Sophomore Russell Johnson could help there.
Johnson scored in double figures in 11 of the first 14 games and averaged 13.6 points per game. He seemed on his way to becoming an All-NEC performer.
However, in the past seven games, he reached double figures just once - 11 points against Long Island Jan. 20 - and scored a total of only 54 points, an average of 7.7 points per game.
What's more, his shooting percentage has been rather sub-par. In those seven games, he was 18-of-63 (28.6 percent) from the field, including 3-of-25 (12 percent) from beyond the arc.
Johnson has help up his end in the rebounding department. Though he scored a total of only 14 points in the two games last weekend, he did have 17 rebounds.
"He can rebound in his sleep,'' Toole said.
But Johnson certainly needs to wake up and score.
"I think what's happened with Russell is that he's getting worn down,'' Toole said, "and he has decided himself that it's way too hard to lead and to put forth all the effort you need to put forth to be really good. He's giving in to fatigue. He's giving in to the length of the season.''
Something else Toole could do Thursday night is sit leading scorer Karon Abraham at the start of the game and use the sophomore guard as an offensive spark off the bench. Maybe Toole could even sit Johnson at the outset.
Seems drastic, but these are tough times for the Colonials.
If Toole does make all those changes, the Colonials could have a starting lineup of freshman Anthony Myers, senior Gary Wallace and sophomore Velton Jones at the guards and Bridges and either Thompson or Charles inside.
It seems likely Bridges will start. And Jones starting is a no-brainer.
"Lawrence and Velton are the two guys who have probably embraced their roles more than anybody else,'' Toole said. "There are other guys who we try to explain what we want them and need them to do and they're either not fully accepting of that or incapable of it.''
Jones has taken up some of the slack offensively recently.
He's scored in double figures in six consecutive games, averaging 15.7 points per game. In his past three games, he's scored 58 points - and made 24 of 28 free throw attempts.
"He's trying to do what he can,'' Toole said. "After the Wagner game, I talked to him about what his strengths and weaknesses are. I think Velton for a while still wanted to believe he's a shooter. That's not who he is, and so I kind of said to him, 'Well, why don't you drive more? You claim that you don't get a shot. You're always allowed to go to the rim and make a layup. I don't know any coach in the country who's going to stop you from driving to the basket to make a layup if you can get there. Now if you get there and you turn it over or you get there and have a charge, well then I'm going to say something to you, but why don't you attack the basket?'
"Very few people in our league can keep him in front when he wants to get to the basket, and I think he's kind of taken that to heart. He's passed up some outside shots to get to the rim and in turn get fouled.''
Last season, Jones seemed to relish driving to the basket and either shooting or kicking the ball out.
"And I think he needed to be reminded of that,'' Toole said. "In practice at times, he settles for an outside shot, and I said, 'Practice is when you practice how you're going to play in the games. If you want to get to the rim, (but) you don't ever work on getting to the rim or getting into the lane in practice, you're not going to do it in the game.' And so in practice he's made a more concerted effort to attack the basket, attack the lane, make plays for himself and make plays for others.''
Bryant has made quite a turnaround from last season, when the Bulldogs were 1-29 overall and 1-17 in the NEC - the win coming late in the season at Wagner (53-51). This season, Bryant is 7-15 overall and 5-5 in the NEC. It's 5-2 in its past seven games, the two defeats having been in overtime, including an 80-75 loss to visiting Wagner last Thursday night.
"I said that this was a game between the two most improved teams in the league, and that's what it was,'' Bryant coach Tim O'Shea said.
Wagner, 5-26 overall and 3-15 in the NEC last season, is currently 10-11 and 6-4.
The Bulldogs, still making the transition to full Division I status from Division II, feature sophomore Frankie Dobbs, fifth-year senior Cecil Gresham, who missed most of last season because of an injury, and freshman Alex Francis.
"Bryant is very good,'' Toole said. "Dobbs is a very good point guard. Alex Francis or (Wagner's) Latif Rivers is going to be the (NEC) Rookie of the Year.''
The 6'6'' Francis has won five NEC Rookie of the Week awards, matching Rivers' total. Francis leads NEC freshmen in scoring average (14.5 points per game), rebounding (8.0), field goal percentage (49.6) and double-doubles (five).
Add sophomores Raphael Jordan and Vladyslav Kondratyev and senior Barry Latham to those three and you have …
"A good NEC team,'' Toole said. "And (freshman) Matt Lee and some of the other guys off the bench are capable of making shots and making plays.''
"From a talent standpoint, we've made a significant jump forward,'' O'Shea said. "Our top eight or nine players are all Division I talents.''
