Colonials Corner

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – No stats, no rosters, none of that. You know this team by now. Villanova’s numbers are very good, their roster should be familiar to college hoops fans, especially Big East fans.

Instead, we do one last pregame round of links before tipoff at 12:30.

If you do want a sort of preview, check out our preview article in the Beaver County Times. We also have a longer piece on Velton Jones. The redshirt freshman didn’t just sit out last year to focus on academics; he also had to handle the death of his father. Now, a year later, Jones is in the NCAA Tournament.

You can also check out a piece from our other employer this morning over at PaPreps, where we check out the rash of Pennsylvania players playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Other links:

• If you ever wanted to know who outfits the Colonials, here’s the story from the NY Times.
• The Boston Herald’s look at all of the games in Providence today.
• Renowned NY Times basketball writer Pete Thamel makes his NCAA picks.
• Coverage from Mike Sanserino of the Post-Gazette.

There’s a lot more out there, but we’re absolutely bushed. Full day tomorrow. Enjoy the tourney.

PROVIDENCE, RI – Welcome to Rhode Island, the smallest state in the union. I’m holed up in the Ocean State, awaiting the start of the tourney, and I have to say, I’m ready for it to begin.

To kick things off, I did a Q+A with a Villanova blogger, Fact on Villanova Sports, much like we did two years ago with a Syracuse site. You can check out his answers to my questions below, and you can read what I had to say about Bobby Mo on his site.

As for today’s links:

• The Philly News and Pitt Tribune Review team up for a funny article about Mike Rice and Jay Wright’s previous relationship as Philly residents.
• The Trib also picked up a Philly Daily News article on Phil Martelli rooting for his son, assistant coach Jimmy Martelli, and his plans to attend Thursday’s game.
• Think Villanova can’t be upset? American University nearly pulled it off last year. Villanova recovered, but Philly.com says the memory of nearly blowing it lingers.
• Russell Johnson was a Robert Morris student last year, but he wasn’t allowed to practice or play with the team. Now as a redshirt freshman, the Delaware County Times shows how the Chester, Pa. native gets the full experience this time around.
• Tim Keown of ESPN does a humorous look at 64 things about the NCAA tournament, including a bizarre Final Four by a CBS broadcaster.
• Joe Sheehan of Basketball Prospectus has some thoughts on each team in the tourney, including Robert Morris’ chances at pulling the upset.
• The Dunkin Donuts Center, home to 8 games here in Providence, got a facelift prior to the event.

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Some additional news and notes from the day after Selection Sunday. Nice and short, because we have a 9-hour drive to get to the media hotel in Providence:

• Our article from the Beaver County Times, Paul Schofield from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review
• Everyone in Philly is still surprised at Villanova getting the second seed. Coverage from The Inquirer
• SI.com has an article up about Scottie Reynolds looking to finish his career with a bang.
• With the national media coverage also comes the speculation on the future. The NY Times Quad Blog takes a stab at Mike Rice’s future.

It’s that time of year again. With your Robert Morris Colonials in the NCAA Tournament, we’ll be pulling as many media clippings and interesting tidbits about the 15th seeded Colonials taking on the #2 seeded Villanova Wildcats

Once again, tip-off is scheduled at 12:30 on Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island. It is the third earliest game in the entire tournament, as Brigham Young and Florida will kick the tournament off at 12:20 from Oklahoma City, and Notre Dame and Old Dominion will start at 12:25 in New Orleans.

One thing will change from last year: I’ll be going to Providence and providing coverage for the Beaver County Times and this site.

By the way, for those of you watching on CBS, you’re in for a treat. Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery will call all of the Providence games for CBS.

Without further adieu, news and notes:

• Selection Sunday coverage, including my piece from the Beaver County Times, Paul Schofield’s from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and Michael Sanserino’s from the Post-Gazette. The coverage reflects the surprise surrounding Robert Morris’ 15 seed, something that’s echoed across the state. Villanova was surprised to get a 2-seed, as evidenced by the coverage in the Metro, CSN Philly, and from PhillyBurbs.

• If there’s a 15-2 upset this year (the first since 2001 and fourth overall), ESPN voters say that Robert Morris beating Villanova is the most likely. You may have to vote to see the results.

• The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says that ‘Nova guard Scottie Reynolds and Bobby Mo freshman Karon Abraham are players to watch in the South regional.

Coverage will likely kick into high gear tomorrow. We’ll add what we can.

Use this as a catch-all for all topics about the Tournament and the first round matchup pitting No. 15 Robert Morris against No. 2 Villanova on Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island.

Update #1: Tip-off is scheduled at 12:30. It is the third earliest game in the entire tournament, as Brigham Young and Florida will kick the tournament off at 12:20 from Oklahoma City, and Notre Dame and Old Dominion will start at 12:25 in New Orleans.

None of the Pittsburgh area teams will play in the evening. Pitt tips off Friday in Milwaukee against Oakland at 2:45, while West Virginia takes on Morgan State from Buffalo on Friday at 12:15.

Games in Providence following RMU/Villanova: #7 Richmond/#10 St. Mary’s at 2:50, #3 Georgetown/#14 Ohio at 7:15, and #6 Tennessee/#11 San Diego State in the nightcap at 9:45.

Some of you may have noted a few cosmetic changes around here in the links, and may have seen references elsewhere, so it’s time to make the announcement.

Earlier this week, I began my new role as the publisher of PaPreps. It is the Pennsylvania high school section of rivals.com, and I’ll be editing all of the content on the site as well as producing and writing articles on Pennsylvania high school sports.

It’s another step in my career, as I’ll now be writing for a national media company (Rivals is owned by Yahoo! Sports). At the same time, it allows me to continue writing for the Beaver County Times and continue writing here. Naturally it will take some of my time, but it shouldn’t be too drastic of a change. But please keep in mind that the Times and Rivals pay me for the work, whereas I run this site on my free time and out of my own pocket, so they will naturally take priority.

I took down the “Colonials Corner Elsewhere” section because a large chunk of the articles are sadly no longer available. But if you want to read my material elsewhere, you can always check out papreps.rivals.com, timesonline.com, or just look for links on my Twitter feed. Links are also available in the Bio/Contact section.

As always, thank you very much for continuing to read and support the site.

A few things worth sharing from the past couple days since Robert Morris clinched their conference record 7th NEC title and NCAA Tournament.

• Karon Abraham made a short appearance on 1250 ESPN radio the day after as part of The Drive with Scott Paulsen, Mike Logan, and Chris Mack. It’s a short appearance, and Mack and Logan weren’t quite up to speed with RMU, but it’s still the first solo radio appearance for Abraham.

• I linked to Luke Winn’s piece from Sports Illustrated and SI.com in the post-game thread, but here’s another short national piece from Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman, again on Karon Abraham.

• Mike Rice stopped by the new CBS sports radio station in Pittsburgh. He’s actually become somewhat of a regular on the “Vinnie and Cook” show, and he took time to talk about NCAA Tourney bid #2. If you want, you can also listen to another appearance he had back on March 3rd. I highly recommend it, because there’s a highly entertaining surprise guest appearance around the 7 minute mark from someone who comes in on another phone line.

• Finally, a resource for the next couple days. The Bracket Project’s Bracket Matrix has compiled an aggregate of all the bracket projections done by basketball writers and basketball sites across the country. It’s updated regularly, and I’ve relied heavily on it to see how things come down. For now, the prognosticators truly believe Robert Morris will be nothing more than a 16 seed.

RMU guard Mezie Nwigwe is at the center of the Colonials' celebration following their win over Quinnipiac. AP Photo

Entering the season, Mike Rice talked about having six seniors and six freshmen. He was fudging the numbers a bit – Gary Wallace is only a junior – but his point was sound. He had a team that only looked experienced, that needed the seniors to teach the freshmen early and often about how to play Division I basketball. He expected his senior captains, Rob Robinson and Jimmy Langhurst, to shoulder the load.

Wednesday night, a trio of freshmen – with a little help from last year’s hero – handed Robert Morris their second straight Northeast Conference championship with a 52-50 win over Quinnipiac.

Tournament MVP Karon Abraham scored 16 points, Russell Johnson scored 9, and Velton Jones hit a leaner in the lane to give RMU the lead for good. Last year’s hero, Dallas Green, had nine points, blocked a James Feldeine three-pointer with eight seconds left, and hit two free throws down the stretch to give RMU the win. A last second heave by James Johnson fell short for Quinnipiac.

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It’s only happened three times.

The last time? 1993-1994, 16 years ago.

Perhaps its because of parity. Perhaps its because, in small college basketball, the best teams are the ones with top seniors and juniors. Perhaps its because the Northeast Conference is surprisingly vindictive when it comes to taking out the top teams.

Either way, Robert Morris enters Wednesday’s NEC championship game with the opportunity to become the first team since Rider 16 years ago to win back-to-back NEC titles and NCAA Tournament bids.

They also walk into the game with the chance to add to the recent success of the program. Prior to last year’s championship, the Colonials had won all five of their NEC titles in the first 11 years of the conference and had gone 0-for-16 since.

The keys to Wednesday’s game? The two subjects we’ve written about the past two days in the Beaver County Times. After all, since it’s a given that Robert Morris must play solid, intelligent defense against Quinnipiac, the true keys lie elsewhere.

The first is in a balanced offense, best displayed by Dallas Green stepping back for a three-pointer Sunday night. No, Green doesn’t have to become a sharpshooter. But he had space to try that shot in the final minutes because of the balance and flow in RMU’s offense up to that point. Quinnipiac will key on Rob Robinson and Karon Abraham, so early contributions from Velton Jones, Green, Josiah Whitehead, and Gary Wallace will be crucial. Abraham and Robinson will get their points; the key is that at least two others step up to approach double figures.

The second? Mike Rice’s “Ugly Three”. Limiting points off turnovers, second chance points, and free throws will be a huge step towards taking care of Quinnipiac. As the article details, the last two losses to conference opponents have included RMU trailing their opponents in those three categories. They reversed that trend Sunday versus the Mount and they’ll need to do it again Wednesday. After all, Quinnipiac has yet to lose a game at home this season.

Game on.

Records: No. 2 Robert Morris (22-11, 15-3 NEC); No. 1 Quinnipiac (23-8, 15-3 NEC)

Tip off: 7:00pm

Television/Radio: ESPN2 (Bob Wischusen & Tim Welsh) and WPIT 730 AM (Chris Shovlin & Jim Elias)

Web: rmucolonials.com, WPIT’s online media player, and follow the stats via your favorite college hoops site

Projected RMU starters: F Rob Robinson (6′8, 215, Sr.), F Dallas Green (6′8, 190, Sr), F Mezie Nwigwe (6′4, 195, Sr.) G Karon Abraham (5′9, 150, Fr.), G Velton Jones (6′0, 170, rFr)

RMU Leaders: Points – Karon Abraham 13.3/game, Rob Robinson 10.1/game; Rebounds – Rob Robinson 5.4/game, Russell Johnson 5.1/game; Assists – Velton Jones 2.8/game, Mezie Nwigwe 2.5/game; Steals – Jones 1.4/game, Nwigwe 1.3/game

Projected Quinnipiac starters: F Justin Rutty (6′7, 240, Jr.), F Jonathan Cruz (6′7, 210, Sr.), G James Feldeine (6′4, 190, Sr.), G Jeremy Baker (6′2, 210, Sr.), James Johnson (6′0, 183, So.)

Quinnipiac Leaders: Points – James Feldeine 17.1/game, Justin Rutty 15.2/game; Rebounds – Rutty 11/game, Feldeine 6/game; Assists – James Johnson 3.8/game, Feldeine 2.5/game; Steals – Feldeine 1.5/game, Johnson 1.4/game

They fumbled their first two chances at a postseason bid. Now Robert Morris will get a third.

The 80-62 win over Mount St. Mary’s sealed Robert Morris’ return trip to the Northeast Conference championship game, giving them the chance to give the NEC its first repeat champion since Rider in 1993-1994.

You can read more about the victory, including how Mike Rice loosened his team up, by reading the game story in the Beaver County Times.

A surprisingly explosive first half led to an RMU defensive lockdown in the second. Mount St. Mary’s shot 44% in the first half, but just 22% in the second as they made just five field goals. RMU also used a 13-0 run to break the game open.

Some other notes and quotes:

• The two teams combined for just three turnovers in the first half, part of the reason why it was so offensive oriented. They finished with 18 total turnovers, still remarkably low for the two teams.

• Robert Morris still had 25 fouls, but more of them came away from the basket on hand-checks and collisions around the perimeter.

• Four different Colonials scored in double figures, highlighted by Karon Abraham’s 19. Rob Robinson had 14, Dallas Green had 11, and Velton Jones had 10.

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