Familiar Spot: RMU Remembers the Past In Hopes of Advancing
By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
March 7, 2009
Meyer On Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - March 7, 2009 - Robert Morris has been to this point fairly often in recent seasons.
The Colonials Sunday will make their fourth appearance in six years in a Northeast Conference tournament semifinal game.
Thing is, those semifinal games haven't gone so well for RMU. The Colonials have lost in their three previous attempts to reach the championship game for the first time since 1999-2000.
In 2004, when the tournament's first two rounds were played at Wagner College, the Colonials were a fourth seed but not too much was expected of that team that lost four its final five regular-season games.
However, the Colonials beat fifth-seeded Saint Francis (Pa.), 58-43, in the quarterfinals. And because second-seeded St. Francis (N.Y.) was upset by seventh-seeded Central Connecticut State in another quarterfinal game and third-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson lost to CCSU in the first semifinal game, the Colonials faced top-seeded Monmouth with a chance to play the championship game at home.
A heady thought, that.
"I didn't shoot well, but I made the game's first points - a 30-foot 3-pointer,'' former forward Aaron Thomas, a senior at the time, said. "I thought, 'OK, here we go.'''
That heady thought became even more amazing when the Colonials led Monmouth, 22-20, at halftime in their semifinal game.
"At halftime, I thought, 'We're only 20 minutes away from having a home game,''' Thomas said. "That's when it really sunk in for me.''
Thomas realized his teammates were thinking the same way.
"I think we felt it too much,'' Thomas said.
The Colonials, who like Monmouth shot atrociously from the field in the first half, soon fell behind in the second half.
"There was about a 10-minute stretch when we couldn't do anything offensively,'' Thomas recalled.
Thomas, who was just 2-for-8 from beyond the arc in that game, made the final trey of his fine career with 15:12 left to draw the Colonials within a point of the Hawks at 28-27.
However, Robert Morris didn't get another field goal until Derek Coleman made a layup with 8:48 left. That cut Monmouth's lead to 42-30, but the Colonials were finished.
"It was kind of deflating once they got the lead,'' Thomas said. "They knew how to protect a lead. It was kind of demoralizing.''
The Colonials wound up losing, 62-45.
"It was kind of a weird atmosphere,'' Thomas said of playing in Wagner's Spiro Center. "There were probably 20 people there for us - including the players. And it was a half-empty gym. And all the noise there was came from (the Monmouth fans).''
Monmouth would go on to beat CCSU in the championship game, then lose to Mississippi State in the NCAA tournament.
Thomas' career ended that night against Monmouth. He finished with 1,256 points, currently 11th on RMU's career scoring list.
It was an emotional finale for Thomas, who averaged a career-best 13.9 points a game and shot a career-best 45.6 percent from beyond the arc that season.
"Some players max out as sophomores,'' Thomas said. "I thought I was the best I'd ever been my senior year. It was tough feeling like you're at the top of your game and then the next day you're not playing.''
Two seasons later, the Colonials were the fifth seed and played a quarterfinal game at Mount St. Mary's. Jeremy Chappell's three-pointer from the left baseline with 12 seconds left gave the Colonials a 67-66 victory, but three days later they lost in the semifinals at Fairleigh Dickinson 71-55 - after holding a 49-45 lead with 11:48 remaining.
Then came last season's bitter loss to fourth-seeded Mount St. Mary's in the semifinals at the Sewall Center.
The Colonials, the top seed, entered the game with a 14-game winning streak and a gaudy 26-6 record.
Two hours later, after losing, 83-65, they were 26-7 and headed for a game at Syracuse in the National Invitation Tournament. That NIT game was a first for Robert Morris, but it wasn't what the Colonials sought. They'd much rather have played in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1992.
"Last year, we got punched straight in the face by a talented and fierce Mount St. Mary's team,'' RMU coach Mike Rice said. "Hopefully, we've taken the history lesson and learned from that.''
Colonial fans will find out Sunday, beginning at 2 p.m. when Robert Morris tips off against Quinnipiac in a semifinal game at the Sewall Center. Mount St. Mary's entertains Sacred Heart at 7 p.m. in the other semifinal game Sunday night at 7.
The NEC championship game is Wednesday night. If the Colonials beat Quinnipiac, they'll host that title game.
"We're probably a little more balanced than we were last year,'' Rice said. "Both last year's team and this year's team were very successful teams. Both earned the right to play all home games in the conference tournament. The crowd and not traveling hopefully is a positive for us on Sunday.''
It wasn't last year, though.
The Colonials trailed Mount St. Mary's, 38-31, at halftime. They rallied to close the gap to 44-40 just three and-a-half into the second half but then went four and-a-half without a field goal. That dry spell enabled the Mountaineers to build a comfortable lead, and RMU never seriously threatened the rest of the afternoon.
"We didn't follow our formula,'' Rice said after Thursday night's quarterfinal win against St. Francis (N.Y.). "We got away from it. We didn't come with that intensity - that edge - in the semifinals. Hopefully, we do (Sunday). I know I'm going to have the edge and the intensity. I'm going to sit down with some of our leaders and make sure they have the same intensity (in practice).''
Robert Morris (22-10) beat Quinnipiac (15-15) twice during the regular season.
The Colonials won on the road, 75-63, Jan. 8. Rob Robinson had 15 points and five rebounds. Jimmy Langhurst had 14 points. Chappell had only seven points. James Feldeine led the Bobcats with 18 points but was just 5-of-17 from the field. Justin Rutty had 16 points and eight rebounds.
In the rematch at Robert Morris on Valentine's Day, Robinson had a sweetheart game, scoring 22 points and getting 14 rebounds. Chappell had 17 points. Feldeine led all scorers with 25 points. The Colonials did a great defensive job on Rutty, limiting him to three points and five rebounds before he fouled out.
Rutty, who averages 15 points and 9.7 rebounds a game, came up huge in the Bobcats' quarterfinal win at Long Island Thursday night. He had his 12th double-double of the season - 18 points and 16 rebounds. Feldeine, averaging 19 points a game over his past six games, had 22 points against the Blackbirds.
Quinnipiac, beset by injuries this season, endured a four-game losing streak in the final two weeks of January but regrouped and has won seven of its previous 10 games.
In their win at LIU, the Bobcats were 23-of-41 at the free throw line and 5-of-16 from beyond the arc, which was not surprising. They rank 11th in the NEC in free throw shooting (61.6 percent) and ninth in three-point shooting (31.9 percent).
