Learning Curve: School Is Always In Session
By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
Dec. 3, 2011
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - The Robert Morris University Colonials Thursday night schooled Fairleigh Dickinson so well in the first half that they were able to get in some valuable schooling for themselves in the second half.
In the second 20 minutes, the Colonials received lessons in how to finish off a game in which they had a big lead and how to handle an opponents' full-court press.
They did OK with that first lesson. They did well enough with the second lesson.
"I don't think we did a good job in the second half of maintaining our focus or urgency,'' RMU coach Andrew Toole said after his team dispatched FDU, 66-54, in the Northeast Conference opener for each team.
Toole's Colonials could have another chance to get back into the classroom for both lessons as soon as Saturday evening when Monmouth visits the Charles L. Sewall Center for another NEC game.
Monmouth is 0-7 - without having had the luxury of playing a home game - after losing, 71-49, at Saint Francis (Pa.) in its NEC opener Thursday night.
In fairness, the Hawks' schedule hasn't been the easiest. They've played heavyweights Villanova, Virginia Tech, George Mason and Vanderbilt thus far. But the results don't indicate a lot of progress for first-year head coach King Rice.
The Hawks' average halftime deficit is 16 points per game. They're averaging 28.6 points per game in the first half. Their margin of defeat is an average of 28.7 points per game.
"Our team has to understand we have to be more together,'' said Rice, a standout point guard at North Carolina from 1988 through 1991. "We have to try harder for longer stretches. Until we do that, we will not get better.''
If Toole's team can postpone Monmouth's improvement for another evening, it should have the opportunity for a performance tonight that reprises Thursday night's display.
The Colonials dominated defensively in the first half while building a 36-14 intermission lead.
"I don't know if in my career I've seen a defensive half of that caliber,'' Knights head coach Greg Vetrone said. "They took us out of the game in that first half. There's no way to simulate that (defensive pressure) in practice. It's impossible to simulate that in practice. You don't have players that can emulate that. You try to explain (RMU's defense) to your players, you try to get them prepared, and then when it hits you, it's like, 'Boom!' It's like running up against the Green Bay Packers' defense at times.''
Or as Colonial guard Velton Jones put it: "We played defense the way we're supposed to in the first half.''
In the opening, and decisive, first half, FDU was 6-of-24 from the field, including 1-of-6 from three-point range. The Knights had 14 turnovers, meaning they had as many turnovers as points.
Meanwhile, the Colonials played efficiently offensively in that half, producing 11 assists on their 13 field goals. Coron Williams scored 15 of his team-high 19 points on 5-of-6 accuracy from beyond the arc in that half.
"(The Knights) were zoning up and I'm a shooter. That's what I'm supposed to do,'' Williams said. "We were moving the ball around and making them work and that's how I got open shots. All the credit goes to my teammates.''
The Colonials also did well on the glass. One spectacular possession stood out.
With 1:55 left, Russell Johnson missed a shot. Velton Jones got the rebound, then missed a three-point try. He followed his shot, ran down the rebound and fed Lucky Jones. The freshman missed a three-point try, but he also followed his shot, grabbed the rebound and passed the ball to Velton, who swung the ball to Williams.
Williams buried a three-ball, boosting the RMU lead to 33-14.
"Everybody got on the offensive boards and we finally found C-Ron and he finally made the shot,'' Velton Jones said. "It was just great effort on our part.''
"The ball was going everywhere,'' Williams said. "I'm like, 'This has to come to me,' and it did. When you get as many offensive rebounds like that, you have to finish.''
Thirty-three seconds later, after a steal by Velton Jones, Williams swished another deep ball, and the game was finished.
Except for the second half.
The Colonials didn't come for the second 20 minutes with nearly as much freneticism as they had in the first 20 minutes.
"I think we got happy (that) we were up, and we just relaxed,'' Williams said. "We relaxed too much.''
When the Knights applied full-court pressure about six minutes into that half, the game deteriorated a bit. As did the Colonials' lead.
Not that there were really any anxious moments for the Colonials, but Toole wasn't too pleased by what he saw.
"I'm not happy with the way we finished the game,'' he said. "I think we got sloppy. I think we got a little bit relaxed. We're working on improving and being able to win against the best teams, and I don't think we did a good job in the second half of maintaining our focus or urgency.
"You try to make them understand that each possession is important even when you're up by 20. It might not be important for this game, but it might be important for Saturday's or it might be important for a game in January or a game in February.''
At times in the second half, Toole rested Velton Jones and employed sophomore Anthony "Ant'' Myers and freshman Brandon Herman as press-breakers. Or press-managers.
That didn't always go well.
"When you have a lead, you want to get some guys in there who are going to learn and get acclimated to NEC play and Division I college basketball,'' Toole said. "It's only the seventh game of some of these guys' careers and you're giving them opportunities to get out there and play and figure things out. They have to be able to be a little more focused and prepared and understand what it takes.
"Ant's got to do a better job of managing the game, and I told him that. If all of a sudden Velton goes out of the game, Ant's left in charge of organizing people and getting them in the right spots, and he's brain-dead. He has to start to think some more. He has to start to figure out what's going on on the floor some more. We have to continue to work with him watching film and talking to him about different situations because you never know. If Velton gets in foul trouble one night or something else happens, Ant's going to have to be able to steer the ship. He has to improve on that throughout the course of this season.''
And Herman, who didn't play in the first half?
"It's not an easy position for Brandon to be in by any stretch of the imagination because he'd been sitting there for a while,'' Toole said. "He's not really in the flow. But unfortunately when you're a freshman and you're trying to work your way into the rotation and carve out a niche you have to be ready whenever your opportunity is presented. If you're not, maybe that opportunity doesn't come around again.
"One of the things the young guys have to understand is that the way you prepare in practice is how you get minutes in the games. In conference play, it's not time to start experimenting and say, 'Oh, hopefully they figure it out when the game starts.' You have to prove that you're capable in practice.''
In the end, the Colonials proved capable enough on this night.
"When we're up 14 with a minute and a half to go, I had basically my starters in the game,'' Toole said. "I said to them, 'You know what? If nothing else in this game, let's figure out how to close out a game.' We went to our delay game a little bit. We were able to execute. That's stuff maybe we can learn from and grow from."
If nothing else, the Colonials had to like their view at the bottom line.
"We should have finished the game better,'' Velton Jones said, "but a win is a win in conference. That's what counts the most.''
Other things worth mentioning from the opener:
* FDU guard Melquan Bolding, the Duquesne transfer, didn't play Thursday night because of a violation of team rules. Through the Knights' first five games, Bolding was their second-leading scorer at 16.3 points per game.
"Anytime you play without your (second-leading) scorer, it's going to be difficult,'' Vetrone said. "Are we going to win the game because Melquan Bolding's in the game? I don't know. (Robert Morris) is a good team. I picked them to win the league.''
In the NEC coaches' preseason poll, defending champion Long Island was picked first and received 10 first-place votes. Robert Morris, picked second, got the other two first-place votes, one of which apparently was Vetrone's.
"One, I think it's tough to defend (a championship),'' Vetrone said. "Two, I think (Robert Morris) is the toughest team that anybody's going to face all year. They may lose games, but not because they have any lack of effort. It's a well-coached, tough team. They're going to do well this year.''
* Velton Jones had 18 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals.
"He's a special player,'' Vetrone said. "He's tough. That kid can play at any level.''
* Lucky Jones' shooting problems continued, although he did make his first collegiate three-point field goal, after 12 misses, with 8:22 left in the first half.
"I told him, 'It's about time, Lucky. It's about time,''' Velton Jones said, grinning. "If he's open, you just have to try to reward him. He plays so hard. He goes for rebounds and loose balls. And he works on his shot every day. They'll start falling.''
Lucky Jones did make two layups and a couple free throws in the second half and finished with a season-high nine points - to go with a team-high six rebounds and a team-high four steals.
Williams viewed the two layups and free throws as positives for Jones.
"Get into the paint, get a couple layups, get to the free throw line,'' he said. "They'll start falling for him.''
That can only help the Colonials.
"He's like a roller coaster. He's an absolute roller coaster,'' Toole said of Jones. "He's always involved in the action. He's always on the floor. Some of it's positive. Some of it's negative. Probably more positive than negative. I'm happy with his effort. I'm happy with the activity that he brings to the floor. We have to tighten up the some of the shooting to help him along as the season goes.''
Jones is just 8-for-43 from the field through seven games. Does Toole think part of Jones' shooting slump might be mental?
"A little bit,'' he said, "but I think the way you get it out of your head is by getting in the gym and getting a couple hundred shots up, a couple hundred makes up, doing it at game speed so you start to build that confidence and you start to break that thought process (of) 'Aw, man, I'm going to miss this next shot.'
"It's going to be important for him when we get into our full slate of NEC play to complement (Williams) a little bit and be a shooter. (Williams) is clearly our best long-range threat, but he's one of our only guys. Velton sometimes is up and down. Ant's up and down. Russell's up and down. We need to develop a secondary guy who can come in and be a consistent long-range shooter or else we're going to see a lot of zones and we're going to see a lot of situations where they take (Williams) away and say, 'OK. What else you got?'''
UP NEXT: Monmouth allowed Saint Francis (Pa.) to shoot 60.5 percent from the field in its loss in Loretto Thursday night.
"That's our defense,'' Rice said. "Everybody shoots that on us, so it's not surprising that it happened again.''
The Hawks' field goal defense percentage of 56.1 is 12th in the NEC and among the worst in all of Division I. So is their per-game yield of 85.4 points. Opponents are shooting 47 percent from beyond the arc against Monmouth.
Offensively, Monmouth is 11th in the NEC in points per game (56.7) and last in field goal percentage (35.8), free throw percentage (57.2) and three-point percentage (24.4). The Hawks were 4-of-20 from deep against the Red Flash.
NEC NUGGETS: Saint Francis (Pa.) will be without junior guard Umar Shannon for the rest of the season. He tore his ACL after scoring 26 points in the Red Flash's season-opening, 63-57 loss to Virginia Commonwealth ... Long Island opened defense of its NEC championship with a 78-73 win against visiting Wagner Thursday. Jamal Olasewere had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Blackbirds. Wagner guard Latif Rivers was 5-of-20 from the field and had 12 points ... Ken Horton led Central Connecticut State to an 83-51 win at Bryant. Horton scored 32 points (13-of-19 from the floor, including 6-of-10 from three-point range) in his 35 minutes. Bryant was 5-of-25 from deep ... Led by Shane Gibson's 21 points, Sacred Heart won at Quinnipiac, 68-55. Ike Azotam (18 points, 16 rebounds) and James Johnson (15 points) accounted for most of Quinnipiac's offense ... St. Francis (N.Y.) won, 64-54, at Mount St. Mary's, which was 4-of-15 from the free throw line.
