Meyer on Morris Link

Moon Township, Pa. - This was before Velton Jones Tuesday was voted by the leagues' coaches to the All-Northeast Conference first team as a junior.

It was before Jones, who in the words of Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore ''put on his Superman cape and (tried) to will them to a win'' last Saturday, dropped 29 points on the Bobcats, albeit in a loss.

It was just after Jones buried a barely-beat-the-buzzer three-pointer that lifted Robert Morris University to a 55-53 win at Sacred Heart last Thursday night.

Someone wondered aloud to Robert Morris coach Andrew Toole moments after game if Jones already could be considered one of the Colonials' all-time great basketball players.

Toole indicated that, yes, Jones could be considered just that.

Then Toole added: "And hopefully he's got some more chapters to write before it's all said and done.''

Toole hopes that begins Thursday night at the Charles L. Sewall Center when the Colonials host Monmouth in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Northeast Conference Tournament.

If the Colonials are to continue their recent success in this event, they're 8-1 in the past three NEC Tournaments, it will help if Jones has at least a couple co-authors with him on the floor.

The Colonials finished the regular season 22-9 overall and 13-5 in the league, good for the third seed. They somehow accomplished that with only one player who averaged in double figures in conference play - Jones at 16.7 points per game. No other NEC team can make that, uh, claim.

It probably should be noted here that freshman Lucky Jones, a member of the NEC All-Rookie Team, just missed averaging in double figures, finishing league play at 9.9 points per game. The Colonials had four other players who averaged 7.4 points or more against NEC teams.

Still, one double figure scorer is one double figure scorer. Which means opposing coaches don't have to spend a lot of time deciding where to focus their defense.

That would seem to be a concern for Toole.

"I think for 31 games we've been walking this tightrope,'' he said. "Would I love to have a couple more guys who I knew were going to get you 10 or 12 (points) on a regular basis? Absolutely. But I think it's kind of who we are. I think we have to defend and we have to play together and we have to find good shots for our team and not necessarily good shots for an individual.''

Point taken.

The Colonials usually don't have to score a lot of points to win a game. They lead the Northeast Conference in team defense, allowing only 62.8 points per game.

Remember Williams? He's the sophomore guard who opened the season so auspiciously with a 28-point masterpiece against Rider way back on Nov. 11. The sophomore guard who through the first seven games of the season had an average of 15 points a game.

And the sophomore guard whose overall scoring average now stands at 10.2 points per game, which is sort of deceptive. His scoring average against NEC teams is just 8.7 points per game. Even that's a bit deceptive because in the past four games Williams has scored a TOTAL of 10 points.

It isn't so much that Williams is in a shooting slump, although he is just 3-for-16 from the field in those four games. He's in a shot slump. He just isn't getting or taking many shots.

"Could we run more things for him to try to produce shots for him? Probably,'' Toole said. "But good scorers and good shooters are always hunting shots, and I think there are times where he does not do that aggressively enough. I think sometimes he allows himself to be taken out by the defense too easily.''

Or just takes himself out.

"He's (had games where) he's missed a couple (shots early) and then I think unlike some other shooters he's not been as aggressive as he needs to,'' Toole said. "Shooters have to be aggressive. If you miss your first couple, then you have to shoot some more.''

When Williams began the season as a more productive offensive player, he found ways to score that went beyond simply shooting threes. He shot mid-range shots. He penetrated the lane some.

But then?

"I think he settled in a little bit to being (just) a three-point shooter,'' Toole said, "and he needs to just be a scorer.''

Bottom line?

"We've probably done a poor job of helping him get open and he's done a poor job of getting himself open,'' Toole said. "We've got to try to figure out a way to get him open a little bit more.''

Russell Johnson, the junior wing player of which so much is always expected, has helped recently after getting through a couple injuries. He scored in double figures in three of the final five regular season games, including providing an efficient 15 points at Quinnipiac last Saturday.

He should be another key player for the Colonials Thursday night.

"I think we all know Russell's talent,'' Toole said. "I think the big key with Russell is his energy and effort. When he plays with great energy and effort, he's terrific. Aside from some of the shots he's made in the past six games, his defensive energy and effort's been so much better. That just makes our team that much better. As long as he's playing with effort I love having him out there, and I think he really helps our team. And he's going to have to be a guy who can be somewhat of a consistent scorer for us in the tournament for us to have a real chance.''

While the Colonials' individual scoring has been the most inconsistent aspect of their season, another aspect has been pretty much a constant - their toughness.

Quinnipiac's Moore acknowledged that again last Saturday.

"Traditionally, Robert Morris has been the toughest team mentally and physically that you have to play in this league,'' Moore told the New Haven Register. "(Against them) you have to maintain your toughness playing a lot of minutes.

"I hope it continues to stay that way,'' Toole said when informed of Moore's statement. "That's obviously a compliment to this program, and I think that was one of our goals when we tried to build this program starting five years ago until today - to be one of the toughest teams both mentally and physically. It's something we have to continue because (somebody) just outlined how we don't have very many guys who necessarily are going to score or do certain things, and so you need to have that toughness. That might have to be our X factor.''

First-year Monmouth coach King Rice has seen that toughness firsthand twice this season.

After the Colonials beat Rice's Hawks 69-51 Dec. 3 at the Sewall Center - a loss that dropped the Hawks to 0-8 - Rice seemed impressed with Robert Morris.

"There are some great teams in this league,'' Rice said. "There are some great coaches in this league, and this is one of them. Time and time again, they've had success, so, yes, we are striving to be where they are. They are a very physical team. They're so unselfish. They move the ball. They keep passing it until they get the shot. Andy does a great job because to get kids to pass up shots and to take the right shots most of the time is an amazing coaching job. And their bigs continue to screen hard (even though) they know the guards are going to be the ones who get the majority of the shots.

"You don't like to sit over there and watch and think, 'Man, these guys are good,' but we are coming.''

The Hawks seemed to have arrived.

In mid-January, they were 3-16. However, on Jan. 19 they beat visiting Saint Francis (Pa.), 68-50. Two nights later, they seemed poised to add a second straight victory against the visiting Colonials when they built a 53-38 lead with 12 minutes remaining. That's when Velton Jones and Anthony Myers led a Robert Morris comeback that carried the Colonials to an 81-73 win in overtime.

You might recall that was the evening when Jones passed the 1,000-point mark for his career and finished with 35 points and combined with Myers to produce 34 points after halftime.

Since that game, though, Monmouth has won eight of 10 games. The Hawks are as dangerous a sixth seed as there's been in the NEC Tournament in a while.

"I think the one thing that has remained consistent throughout the entire year with them is they play as hard as anyone in our league for 40 minutes.'' Toole said. "They probably take the fewest number of possessions off of any team in our league. You watch their games -- regardless of score, regardless of time, regardless of personnel on the floor -- their guys play so incredibly hard. It's terrific.

"Where I think they've improved is they have a really good balance offensively about the tempo they want to play. I think early in the year they were really trying to play super fast and then I think starting actually with our game here they started to run some more sets and slow their offensive tempo down a little bit. They're still very aggressive offensively, but I think they've kind of found a good balance on the offensive end that combined with their improved emphasis defensively has allowed them to get better. I think they've kind of figured out what coach Rice is trying to get them to do.''