By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
March 14, 2011
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - The Northeast Conference manufactured some pretty good stuff this season, and the Robert Morris University Colonials figured prominently in that production.
The top four teams combined to win 86 games, matching the league high set in 2007-08. The Colonials, who finished third, had 18 of those 86 victories. That boosted RMU's victory total over the past four seasons to 91, most in the league in that span.
The semifinal games in the Northeast Conference Tournament both went down to the final horn, each decided by only two points - including the Colonials' 64-62 win at Quinnipiac.
And the NEC championship game went past the final horn when the Colonials extended host Long Island to overtime before losing, 85-82. It was the first overtime championship game in the NEC's 30-year history.
Yep, some pretty good stuff.
Going to be pretty hard to top that next season, right?
Well, yeah, pretty hard. But perhaps not impossible.
"I truly believe that this league will be as tough as it's ever been since I've been here,'' said coach Howie Dickenman, who just finished his 14th season at Central Connecticut State. "The competition and the quality of the players and teams in the Northeast Conference next season and the season after that will be the best it's ever been.''
Dickenman isn't the only person who feels that way.
"I couldn't agree more,'' Robert Morris coach Andrew Toole said. "I think when you look at the league, when you look at the players who played major roles for successful teams this year, a lot of them were young.''
Toole cited his team, Long Island, Wagner, Saint Francis (Pa.), Mount St. Mary's, Central Connecticut (which returns the NEC Player of the Year in Ken Horton) and Quinnipiac as members of that group.
"You look up and down the line, and I think (over) the next two years the Northeast Conference is going to be a much better conference than anyone anticipates,'' Toole said. "And it's going to (produce) much better basketball than people have seen from it in the past.''
Robert Morris also should figure prominently in that.
The Colonials, who finished 12-6 in the NEC and 18-14 overall this season, certainly should qualify for the NEC Tournament next season. And playing in a fourth consecutive NEC championship game isn't out of the question.
The Colonials this season had only one senior, guard Gary Wallace, who averaged 5.2 points per game. Everybody else is eligible to return, which means that RMU could return 1,973 of the 2,153 points it scored this season. That's 92 percent of the offense, a rather solid cornerstone.
And Toole will have at least three new players next season, including Mike McFadden, a 6'8'' forward who transferred from Iona and who will become eligible to play in mid-December. McFadden, who will have two and-a-half seasons of Robert Morris eligibility, averaged 15.8 minutes, 4.6 points and 2.3 rebounds per game while playing in 31 games for Iona as a freshman.
Toole should get more inside depth from 6'7'' incoming freshman Keith Armstrong Jr. from Raleigh, N.C. Armstrong's father, Keith Sr., played at Pitt in the early 1980s.
Toole also signed David Appolon, a 6'3'' wing player from Philadelphia.
Toole has one more scholarship available. He hopes that one goes to another "big'' for the middle of the offense, which received a significant boost this season because of the development of sophomore Lijah Thompson.
Thompson, who averaged just 1.8 points per game last season, raised his average to 8.6 points per game. He led the NEC in field goal percentage with a 55.5 mark and improved his free throw shooting percentage from 50.0 to 75.9. Down the stretch, Thompson averaged 13 points a game - a production level he could reach over the entire course of next season.
"Lijah has the most room for growth on our roster,'' Toole said. "The strides he made this year really only scratch the surface of who he can become as a player if he takes this offseason seriously.''
Thompson received increasing help inside as the season moved into the home stretch from junior college transfer Lawrence Bridges, who showed noticeable improvement over the final 12 games. Bridges averaged 6.4 points per game in that span.
Freshman forward Yann Charles, a starter at the beginning of the season, moved into a support role in the second half. He averaged 4.7 points per game, but his soft shooting touch offers promise he can raise that number as well as his 41.3 percentage from the field.
Sophomore wing Russell Johnson, who sometimes demonstrates all-NEC ability but too often doesn't, had an inconsistent season that did end on a high note.
Johnson had three 20-point performances in the Colonials' first 10 games but didn't score more than 14 points in any game thereafter until he lit up Long Island for 22 in the season finale.
"That's the Russell we need,'' Toole said.
The Colonials' backcourt next season could be a real interesting locale.
Sophomore Velton Jones truly became the leader of this team this season and arguably was its Most Valuable Player. His overall scoring average was 12.1 points per game, but he was at his best in the NEC Tournament, scoring a total of 62 points in the three games. Before the season, he vowed to improve his free throw percentage, and he did - going from 58.9 percent as a freshman to 70.8 percent this season.
But the intangibles Jones possesses made him an even more dangerous competitor.
"He has the heart of a warrior,'' Wallace said.
Sophomore Karon Abraham, who had such a sensational freshman season, had a tough second season. He missed nine games for a variety of reasons and most of a 10th game because he partially tore his Achilles tendon. Abraham, who led the team in scoring with an average of 13.9 points per game, should be good to go in late August, meaning he'll be fully ready for the start of next season.
In Abraham's stead, redshirt freshman Coron Williams burst into the guard mix for next season. Williams, who had his struggles defensively, improved in that area and also averaged 15.5 points per game over the final six games. He shot 68 percent from international waters in that stretch, which put him atop the NEC in three-point shooting percentage (46.6) this season.
"I think early in the season Coron was so worried about defending the way we need him to (that) he forgot how talented he was as an offensive player,'' Toole said.
Toole believes it's no coincidence that Williams began to emerge as an offensive threat in the game at Monmouth Feb. 19. That was the night Abraham went down with his Achilles injury five minutes into the game. Williams came off the bench and was five for five from beyond the arc to help the Colonials to a 62-60 win.
"In that game, Coron passed the 500-minute mark,'' Toole said, referring to Williams' minutes-played total. "I believe it takes players, with the exception of some really special ones, about 500 minutes of playing time to feel truly comfortable. After 500 minutes, you get a real picture of who that player will be, and they have a real feel of Division I basketball.''
Timeout here for a bit of a digression, but it seems kind of relevant to Toole's 500-minute theory.
Former major league standout Steve Garvey believed a player needed 1,000 big league at-bats before he had an idea of what kind of hitter he'd become.
In Garvey's first five seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he batted .272 in 964 at-bats. He passed the 1,000 at-bat benchmark early in his sixth season - 1974. That season, he hit .312 with 21 home runs and 111 RBIs. That's the kind of offensive player he was for the next six seasons, batting over .300 in five of them. The season he failed to reach .300, he batted .297 (1977).
OK, back to Coron Williams and the Colonials.
Williams this season averaged 7.1 points per game overall. But his 15.5 average after surpassing "1,000 at-bats'' really fuels intriguing speculation about how good he could be next season.
If Williams truly becomes a 15-point-per-game scorer, what then?
"Competition,'' Toole said succinctly.
And let's not forget Anthony Myers, who averaged 4.2 points per game, set a Colonial record for most assists by a freshman in a season (116) and showed an uncanny ability to rebound for a small guard.
All this potential for the Colonials to have another strong year next season removes some of the sting from their three-point loss in the NEC championship game this season.
And even in that loss, the Colonials showed some resiliency they can take into the offseason.
They trailed by eight points (72-64) with just over two minutes left but rallied to force the overtime.
"What a phenomenal basketball game,'' LIU coach Jim Ferry said. "Talk about representing the Northeast Conference well. Both teams went out and just played with a lot of emotion. There were great plays by both teams.''
If Howie Dickenman and Andrew Toole are correct, that game was a sign of what's to come for the Northeast Conference.
Here's a guess that Robert Morris will figure prominently in that, too.
NOTES: The Colonials played three overtime games this season, their most since the 1999-2000 team played five (and won four) … Robert Morris could open next season with Cleveland State at the Charles L. Sewall Center … The Colonials were 11-2 at home this season, raising their record at home over the past six seasons to 70-17. In the past three seasons, they're 37-7 at the Sewall Center.
