By Paul Meyer
www.rmucolonials.com
March 19, 2010
Meyer on Morris Link
Moon Township, Pa. - By all rights, the Robert Morris University Colonials would have spent Friday in Providence preparing to play St. Mary's Saturday in an NCAA Tournament second-round game.
By all rights, the Colonials would have basked in the satisfaction of having upset Villanova Thursday and joining Richmond, Santa Clara, Coppin State and Hampton as the only teams to beat a No. 2 seed since 1986.
Would have joined seven other teams that did pull off upsets on the first day of this year's Dance.
However, as Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan noted after sitting courtside in the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence Thursday: "Sometimes in sports, justice has nothing to do with anything.''
And so it was that the Colonials, who led Villanova for 33 minutes, 49 seconds in regulation, spent Friday at home reflecting on their 73-70 loss in overtime.
"I'm never going to forget us playing Villanova, almost beating Villanova, up by six with two minutes left in the game,'' senior Dallas Green said. "I'll never forget that experience.''
"I'm just hurt,'' senior Mezie Nwigwe said. "We gave it all we had. We battled. We felt we did everything we could. But we just couldn't finish it off.''
The result of that?
"My inside just got torn out,'' head coach Mike Rice said.
And yet, as time salves the hurt, the Colonials will realize that they earned a ton of respect Thursday in Providence.
As they walked disconsolately off the flour, the crowd gave them a standing ovation.
"I did, too,'' Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "I'm glad we had the will to overcome their will, which was outstanding.''
"That respect is going to take us a long way,'' RMU assistant coach Jimmy Martelli told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Hopefully it takes Robert Morris as a university even a step further.''
Rice, his assistants and his players acknowledged the ovation and the support they received from Colonial fans who made the trip to Providence.
"You appreciate what the fans gave us - including the three buses of students that left at 9 p.m. (Wednesday) to drive all night so we could be represented,'' Rice said. "I was proud of them and proud of the program.''
Wright was effusive in his praise of the Colonials' performance, which he alluded to as soon as he was asked to make some opening remarks in the postgame media conference.
"I'm going to start by saying how impressed I was with Robert Morris, man,'' Wright said. "What a great team. Great effort. I love their guards. Mike Rice does an outstanding job with that team. They were tough defensively. They battled us on the boards. They were smart. I think we might have had a little more depth. I don't know if we had better players. They deserve so much credit.
"They're very sound. Most teams, when you break down their defense the first time (and) you make a pass out, you're going to be open. They recover so quickly -- they're so quick -- they force you to make two or three extra passes, which we weren't doing.
"When we got the ball inside, we were effective. But they were quicker than our forwards and they were just using their quickness to prevent the ball from going inside. They had good length and quickness. And the guys that aren't long get up in you. They're very well coached. That's actually harder to play against than great athletes that are undisciplined.''
Still, even though the Colonials led for a consecutive 32 minutes, 49 seconds, they didn't win.
That, too, might hurt less in the coming days and weeks. And years.
"We talked about believing,'' Rice said. "We talked about laying it all on the floor. They truly did that. They were just there for one another. Whether it was on the offensive or defensive end, they played for one another. I give these guys tremendous credit. They really believed not just in each other, but in the system and what we do and the game plan. It showed a lot about (who they are) as individuals and a lot about this team. I'm proud to coach them.
"(We had) tremendous perseverance through some interesting times we had playing the last four minutes without a point guard.''
Ah, yes, there's that memory, too, that the Colonials will carry with them.
Freshman point guard Velton Jones fouled out with 3:57 left in regulation. Backup point guard Gary Wallace, a junior, fouled out 51 seconds later. That meant the Colonials played the final three minutes of regulation and the five minutes of overtime with Nwigwe running the offense - something that very rarely happened in the first 34 games.
"You'd like to have a floor general on the floor, but that wasn't the case,'' Rice said. "I just didn't like the flow of our offense (in terms of) getting what we needed, and that's (because of) not having a point guard on the floor.''
Senior forward Rob Robinson fouled out later, meaning the Colonials, who had a total of 22 foul-outs in their first 34 games, had three players foul out in their final game.
Another stat in that regard: The Colonials were called for 726 fouls in those first 34 games, an average of 21.4 per game. Against Villanova, they had 31 fouls called against them.
Two more: In the final 3:57 of regulation, which Robert Morris began with a 55-47 lead, Villanova was 9-of-10 from the free throw line. The Colonials were 1-of-2.
Colonial seniors Josiah Whitehead, Robinson, Nwigwe and Green combined to score 35 of RMU's 70 points. Nwigwe and Green, the only four-year seniors in that group, helped the Colonials to 90 victories in their careers, making this the winningest class in RMU history. Guard Jimmy Langhurst, who went down with a season-ending knee injury just after Christmas, also is in that group.
Rice was asked to talk about his seniors.
"You're going to get me all emotional,'' Rice said, "but I'm so proud of my senior class. I'm not easy to deal with. They're not easy to deal with. We're all emotional. They don't want to come and play as hard as they can every second. And it's just something you have to do at Robert Morris in our program. My staff demands it. I demand it. At times there's some give and take.
"Three years ago, you know, you just never would have thought (about) how poised they've become. It's incredible to me. Just the perseverance in them. Before, (if) something bad happened, you'd lose them for practice. You'd lose them for the games. They have an ability now to get in here and fight through things. I'm proud of my senior class.''
There also are the underclassmen, who combined to score the other 35 RMU points Thursday.
Freshman Karon Abraham wowed the crowd with some spectacular three-pointers - and one acrobatic layup. Maybe his most impressive basket was a three-point shot off the glass on which he was fouled and turned into a four-point play with 11:09 left in the second half.
Abraham finished with a game-high 23 points, raising his season total to 477, an RMU record for most points in a season by a freshman.
"He just plays with such heart and such toughness,'' Rice said. "He out-works everybody. In the summer, he's doing pull-ups and he's doing his ball handling. He's doing his shooting. It's funny - the people who work the hardest usually get the most. He's done everything we've asked him to do. He was our leading scorer - I give his teammates a lot of credit, too, because they allowed him to do that - and he's a tremendous defender.''
Abraham will have the memory of scoring 23 points against Villanova to take with him into the offseason - and into next season.
"It's a big confidence-builder,'' he said. "There's nothing to be afraid of because they put on the jersey just like I put on the jersey. You just go out there and give everything you've got.''
Which is what these Colonials did.
"We were going to do whatever we had to do -- fight, scratch and claw -- to win this game,'' Abraham said. "We got the short end of the stick, but we'll keep our heads high and look ahead.''
