Colonials Corner

Tony Lee is at it again. The senior guard snagged his second NEC Player of the Week award of the season after impressive performances the past two weeks against Youngstown State, Canisius, Duquesne, and Lafayette. From the official release:

Lee takes home Choice Hotels NEC Player of the Week accolades for the second time this season and fifth time in his career after helping lead the Colonials to a 3-1 record over the last two weeks. He averaged 15.8 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 9.0 apg and 3.8 spg, while shooting 59.1 percent from the floor. On December 17, he nearly secured his first career triple-double with 16 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and four steals in a 74-71 win at Youngstown State. Just two days later, Lee recorded his second double-double of the week and fourth of the year with 14 points, six rebounds, ten assists and five steals as the Colonials rolled to a 91-73 win over Canisius. Last Friday, the Boston, MA native finished with 17 points, six rebounds, seven assists and three steals in an 86-70 setback to local rival Duquesne. Robert Morris bounced back on Sunday with an 88-76 triumph over Lafayette as Lee finished with 16 points, six boards, nine assists and three steals to lift the Colonials’ record to 8-5 on the season. In the midst of one of the great all-around seasons in NEC history, Lee leads the NEC and ranks in the top-10 nationally with 7.7 apg and 3.2 spg. He also ranks second in rebounding (7.1 rpg), third in field goal percentage (.534), seven in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.61:1) and 10th in scoring (14.4 ppg).

Meanwhile, Lee’s star counterpart for the Lady Colonials, Chinata Nesbit, received the same award for leading her club to a 2-1 record the past two weeks. That stretch included a double-digit upset of Tulane and a close loss to Virginia Tech, all followed up by a win over Vermont yesterday. From the official release:

Robert Morris Unviersity women’s basketball senior forward Chinata Nesbit was named the Choice Hotels Northeast Conference Player of the Week for the second time this season.

Nesbit average 18.3 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per contest during a three-game stretch that included a double-digit road win at Conference USA preseason favorite Tulane. Nesbit tallied 23 points and 11 boards to power the Colonials past the host Green Wave in the opening round of the Tulane Double Tree Classic. The performance was Nesbit’s league-leading fourth double-double of the season. A day after Robert Morris sent Tulane (9-3) to its third loss of the season, the senior forward nearly led her team to an upset of Virginia Tech in the championship round. Nesbit scored 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting.

Nesbit helped Robert Morris to remain perfect at home, coming up one rebound shy of another double-double in a 12-point victory over Vermont. She netted 18 points and secured nine caroms. Nesbit shot 18-of-40 from the field during the three-game stretch. Nesbit is averaging 14.4 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per contest this season. She is second on the team with 35 assists, 28 steals and 10 blocks as well. The Colonials, 5-7 on the season, next play at NEC rival Quinnipiac this Saturday, January 5, in a 1:00 p.m. game.

A few bits and pieces of news as we close the book on 2007 and move into 2008 and the NEC schedule.

- Tony Lee will return home when the Colonials play Boston College on January 7th, but it almost didn’t happen. Lee had been after Mark Schmidt to get a game in his hometown, and once Mike Rice arrived, Lee kept up his request. With Lee hanging out in the office constantly, with calls either being rejected or not returned by the likes of Boston University, Northeastern, and others, Rice finally got a response from Boston College. With Pitt not on the schedule, the Colonials were willing to go to an ACC school for the right price – a common practice for smaller schools. The Eagles will just have to hope that the only thing they pay for is the game, and that the Colonials don’t sneak out of Massachusetts with an upset victory. With a turbo-charged Tony Lee playing in front of at least 70 new RMU fans, they may have a heck of a challenge from Rice’s squad.

- A win against BC may complicate Rice’s goal of scheduling other hometown teams for his players. Next up, he said, is trying to get close games for Jeremy Chappell and Jimmy Langhurst. Rice quipped, “We can’t go to Willard for Jimmy…” but said that Xavier and Cincinnati will definitely be on the list of potential games for RMU and the two Ohioans. The quest then becomes what to do for Paris, France native Bateko Francisco. “I want to go to Paris for Bateko. I don’t know how, but I want to do it,” said Rice. The response to that was to “compromise” by playing the University of Paris as part of the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands…if a trip to the Caribbean in winter can be considered a compromise.

- Prior to last night’s game, several Colonials rank among the national leaders in statistical categories. Most of the credentials belong to Tony Lee. The senior guard is 5th in the nation in total assists, but his 7.6 apg average is good for 3rd. Lee is also 3rd in the nation with 39 total steals, while his 3.4 spg average places him 4th. Jeremy Chappell’s four steals tonight will boost his totals to 33 steals, placing him 18th in the nation, and his 3.0 spg average will place him 10th.

- The Colonials also rank nationally with some team categories as well. Keep in mind that there are 341 Division 1 teams playing this year. Robert Morris is 74th in field goal percentage prior to last night’s game, making 47.1% of their shots. While the Colonials have put up the 61st most 3-pointers in the nation, they do not rank in the Top 100 for 3-point percentage. Whatever the percentages, the Colonials do have one of the best offenses in the nation, coming in at 78 with a 76.4 ppg average.

Jeremy Chappell didn’t even know he hit the milestone. Neither did the rest of his teammates or Coach Mike Rice until well after the game. But with a three pointer towards the end of the game, the junior guard passed 1,000 points for his career. The milestone gives the Colonials with three 1,000 point scorers in the starting lineup – Chappell, AJ Jackson, and Tony Lee.

Even better for Chappell, it came in a win, as the Colonials worked out the kinks from a shaky first half to beat Lafayette 88-76 at the Sewall Center.

The Colonials have one non-conference game left, and that’s a buy game at Boston College on January 7th.

With a struggling Monmouth coming in to the Sewall Center on Thursday, the Colonials have a chance to make a run at the NEC crown. But to do that, they’ll need to find a consistent focus and effort that Rice says is currently missing at times.

Bemoaning his team’s inconsistency and occasional sloppy play, Rice knows his team has a chance to do something special, especially with the scorers he has available. But he wants more intelligent decisions and crisper, more efficient play – especially from Tony Lee and AJ Jackson. Lee, for one, seemed to get the message. He had three turnovers in the first half and after Rice accosted him in the locker room at half time and told him to take care of the ball, Lee created multiple opportunities for the Colonials offense and they put up 54 in the 2nd half.

He did it without turning the ball over once.

Chappell earned significant praise from Rice after the game, with the head coach bluntly saying “Between the lines, on the basketball court, he’s done everything I’ve asked of him.” Chappell contributed defensively and on the boards as well, snagging four steals and six rebounds.

Jackson, meanwhile, continues to struggle. While he was relieved and wise-cracking with his teammates after the game, he looked down at the score sheet and was disappointed in two things – his shooting percentage (5 of 12, and this includes an efficient 3 of 4 from beyond the arc) and his lone rebound. Rice commented afterwards that if he can get Jackson to get his easy shots – his layups and short shots – to fall and look better, then they’ll be that much better off.

Seems simple. But the Colonials know that nothing is simple, and while their 8-4 record in non-conference play may be solid considering who they’ve played, that’s not the record that matters. The conference record matters, and right now the Colonials are 0-1.

That has to be improved on beginning Thursday night.

Lots of whistles. Lots of turnovers. Metaphorical punches thrown left and right, with equally impressive counter-punches responding.

And then the Duquesne Dukes and 6′1 guard Gary Tucker delivered the knockout blow. After the Colonials fought and scrapped their way to a slim lead midway through the 2nd half, Tucker soared above the defense and slammed home an alley-oop pass that capped a 17-5 Dukes run. The Colonials never recovered and fell 86-70 at the AJ Palumbo Center.

Jeremy Chappell and Tony Lee led the Colonials with 17 points.

Three things happened tonight on the Robert Morris side of the ball that turned the game, and two of them were rarities.

The first was one that’s plagued RMU all season – the lack of an inside presence. AJ Jackson had nothing tonight, and to be honest, didn’t even look interested at times. It’s becoming clear that this is no longer AJ’s team, a fact that’s been swirling around in the heads of onlookers since midway through last season. He hasn’t shaken the funk he got into after the Pitt game last year. That said, not one big man did anything off the bench. Really, no one off the bench provided anything…

Which leads to number two – no bench. First time, really, all season that’s been the case. The bench gave Mike Rice no effort, no intelligence, and nothing to work with. The starters just did not have the energy in a physical, demanding game to play 35 minutes each.

Coach Rice was baffled after the game, “Our bench wasn’t very good. When you’re playing [the starters] that many minutes, their decision making wasn’t as disciplined as I would have liked, and when your bench goes in and gives up so many unforced turnovers, then you’re playing [the starters] too many minutes.”

And number three – ball control. I’ve never seen so many unforced ball control errors by Robert Morris. While they have a high turnover rate on the season, it’s always been because of pushing the envelope and playing an up-tempo game. Not so tonight. The tempo wasn’t even there half the time, probably because the team didn’t have a handle on the basketball.

Rice saw it, too, saying afterwards that there were “too many gifts. I know this is the holiday season, but we shouldn’t be that free with all of the turnovers and everything else like that. I credit them, but we have to figure some stuff out…There’s got to be some composure and some poise about you.”

“I just couldn’t find a disciplined group to settle us down. A very disappointing last nine minutes of the game.”

Robert Morris returns to the Sewall Center to play Lafayette on Sunday at 7pm.

A barrage of articles surrounding Friday’s matchup between the 7-4 Robert Morris Colonials and the 7-3 Duquesne Dukes.

A reminder that the game is at 7:00pm at the AJ Palumbo Center on the campus of Duquesne University in downtown Pittsburgh. I will be there with full coverage. If you can’t make it, listen live on the usual spots – WPIT 730 AM and Yahoo Sports. There should also be a live stats feature on CSTV.com since Duquesne is part of the CSTV Network.

Articles:
Post-Gazette feature on Mike Rice Jr. and Sr.
Post-Gazette game preview talking about the Dukes being a slight favorite for once in a game.
Tribune-Review game preview talks about NEC/A-10 differences.

We’ll see you after the game tomorrow night with a full, detailed recap from courtside.

Sal Buscaglia’s Lady Colonials are playing in the Tulane Doubletree Tournament in New Orleans and they’ve just finished an upset of the hosts.

Tulane, a Conference USA team, was 7-2 coming into the game.

Robert Morris won 82-71. Defense won the game, it would appear, as the Colonials held Tulane to some pretty poor shooting.

Robert Morris will play the winner of Virginia Tech/Texas-San Antonio for the championship.

Without knowing Canisius’ coach Tom Parotta’s music preference, its still possible to believe that as he watched Jimmy Langhurst drain three after three Wednesday night, the angry punk rock anthem “St. Jimmy” by Green Day ran through his head.

Over and over again. Maybe even just the lines: “It’s comedy and tragedy/It’s St. Jimmy/And that’s my name…and don’t wear it out”

Langhurst was part of a Sewall Center record shooting night for the Colonials as they dumped Canisius 91-73. Langhurst’s 7 of 10 shooting from beyond the arc tied Derek Coleman for the most made three pointers at home, and the Colonials’ 34 attempts were a new record for shots from beyond the arc. The sixteen made shots tied the previous record.

Langhurst said after the game that it was the most threes he had ever made in a basketball game. “Even when I scored 55 [in high school] I only had like five threes.”

Cansius stayed in a zone defense for much of the game, enabling the team to have open outside shots. The Griffins also shot well from beyond the arc in the first half, but couldn’t close a gap after the Colonials came out even hotter after halftime.

Jeremy Chappell added 19, AJ Jackson added 15, and Tony Lee added 14. Lee and Langhurst earned a heaping amount of praise from Mike Rice after the game, as the Colonials coach said “Tony Lee’s awesome. If tony would cut down on some of his jump passes and some of the little things that he does, you know he made lead the country in assists or whatever but he’s up there in turnovers too. I’d take less assists for two less turnovers from tony. But when you’re on the perimeter, and you’re open, Tony’s going to find you.”

“Jimmy, again, he’s our hardest worker on the team. The kid’s five-foot-whatever he is, his arms are short, his legs aren’t very fast. He’s the constant overachiever, but he understands that and works his tail off…He has been such a surprise to me and it’s been a pleasant surprise.”

Rice and the Colonials face crosstown rival Duquesne on December 28th at the AJ Palumbo Center. Tipoff is 7pm, and Rice is excited for the match-up.

“We got better as a team tonight. We kind of fulfilled some of the potential and now it’s on to the next step.”

This is it until next Friday. Colonials Corner is off for Christmas.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! BE SAFE! We’ll see you for Duquesne!

Interesting article in the Post-Gazette about Joe Walton’s tenure at Robert Morris.

You can read it here.

“As long as they want me, I’ll coach.”

The article serves basically as a refresher course on Walton’s background and the path he’s taken so far as a coach in professional and college football.

There’s an additional article in the Tribune-Review covering the same topic.

Suddenly, it was 1979 again for the Colonials. Almost.

Tony Lee turned a virtuoso performance against Youngstown State, coming up one assist shy of a triple double with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists. Had Lee completed the feat, it would have been the first by a Robert Morris athlete since 1979. Hosea Champine has the only two known in school history, the first against Delaware State on December 6, 1978 and followed up later in the season against East Tennessee State on February 15, 1979.

The Colonials led from the start against the Penguins, but a late run by YSU ended the game at 74-71. Lee’s 16 points led the Colonials, while Jeremy Chappell returned from his two-game suspension to add 13 points and 9 rebounds. All five starters scored in double digits for Robert Morris, with Jimmy Langhurst and Bateko Francisco scoring 12 points each and AJ Jackson adding ten.

Perhaps the most important performance, though, was Bas Rozendaal’s. The redshirt freshman played just eight minutes, but seven and a half of those were of high quality. Rozendaal scored 4 points, including two on a nifty Kareem Abdul-Jabbar style hook shot, and was credited with one block. Rozendaal did collect four fouls in just 8 minutes, but two of them were plays that would have been a block and steal respectively on a neutral court.

Because of the up-tempo performance by Youngstown State, Mike Rice stayed with a four-guard system for much of the night, limiting the play of Rozendaal, Freddie Harris, and Dallas Green. Iffy Ehirim and Will Royal did not play.

Robert Morris returns home to the Sewall Center to play Canisius on Wednesday. Tip off is at 7pm. Listen live on Yahoo Sports or 730 WPIT.

I apologize in advance for the length of the following entry, but it is not a topic that can be dealt with in brevity.

Joe Walton is a legend. By my definition, he should be in the college football Hall of Fame. To take a program from its infancy and make it into an immediate, consistent contender with little resources is a thing rendered to the silver screen or an epic novel, not to reality. Yet it happened, and it happened in the tiny Western Pennsylvania college town just outside of Pittsburgh. The Walton-led Robert Morris Colonials found a niche in non-scholarship, I-AA football. They found a comfortable all-sports home in the Northeast Conference. And they found the perfect players, recruited and polished to small college stardom by Walton and his staff. Tim Levick. Sam Dorsett. Robb Butler. Hank Fraley. James Noel. Tyjuan Massey. Matt Brunck. Chad Wengert. Mario Hines.

And most of all, Tim Hall.

Robert Morris owns a lot to the departed Hall. Walton created the program, but it was Hall’s running ability to put them on the map. The first and only player to be drafted by a team in the NFL. The first player to get significant playing time. And perhaps the highest profile player to have his career and life end far too soon.

Hall would be pleased to see that Robert Morris is offering scholarships now, that the Northeast Conference is on the verge of possibly being granted an automatic bid to the I-AA/FCS playoffs.

I’m not so sure that Joe Walton is. While Coach Walton remains an impressive, knowledgeable, and generally well-liked figure in Western Pennsylvania, he’s begun to cut a Paterno-like shadow. Enough quality seasons, intriguing players, and general excitement to maintain his job and legacy, but enough hiccups to wonder if it’s time for fresh blood. The rumblings emit from fans, alumni, and even players themselves.

This season was wrought with confusion. The team stumbled out of the gate with a poor performance against Dayton, only to rally around their grief-stricken coach for three tremendous performances against Monmouth, St. Francis PA, and Morehead State. Whether or not its true, when the devastating news came across that Ginger Walton had passed, this team, this department, this university appeared unified.

And then, with two losses to VMI and Wagner, the unification was over. So Coach Walton made a change. He benched incumbent starter Erik Cwalinski, a junior quarterback with a cannon arm and a stocky build that took away the starting job as a freshman from oft-injured senior Drew Geyer. In his place, he started Camdin Crouse, a smaller, shiftier quarterback with confidence and running ability.

Crouse was told that it was his job now, that he had the opportunity to do something with it.

That lasted for one quarter. Crouse threw a touchdown and an interception while passing just four times against Central Connecticut State. Crouse had one series after the interception kicked off the second quarter, and then Walton put Cwalinski back in. Walton gave the impression in interviews after the game that he wanted to jumpstart his junior quarterback, to give him a different perspective.

That goal did not get to the other players. They saw one of their comrades be given a chance to prove himself, perform adequately if a little inconsistent, and then have his chance taken away.

The split on the 2007 Robert Morris Colonials was complete. The team would not win until senior day, the final game of the season, when they played a struggling Sacred Heart program.

Players talk openly about looking to transfer, but as several graduating seniors have pointed out to me in the past couple of days, where will they go? Many with complaints about the program or their treatment, specifically under Walton, are going to be juniors or even seniors next year. They will have few years of eligibility left to play Division I football. So do they sacrifice an established life and education at RMU to go and play football at a D-2 or D-3 school? The freshmen have a better chance at landing elsewhere, but even they know that they are at a I-AA school for a reason – most I-A schools didn’t see them as football players.

So the question becomes not the past year of Robert Morris football, but the future. The university has adapted an interesting philosophy in the past two to three years regarding athletics; they’ve attracted and established determined, driven, hard-nosed coaches who can bond with their players while pushing them in practice and taking them to quality competition sites throughout Division I athletics.

Sal Buscaglia resurrected a women’s basketball program from the dregs of college hoops and took them to the NCAA Tournament, now traveling to games against Florida, Nebraska, and tournaments at Florida Atlantic and Tulane. Nate Handrahan took over a fledgling women’s hockey program, and after he adjusted from the men’s game to the less physical women’s game, he has the program over .500 for the first time ever. Derek Schooley has his men’s program on the cusp of being nationally ranked, and certainly earning local recognition. Not a week goes by where FSN Pittsburgh and Dan Potash aren’t seen at the Island Sports Center.

It all culminated in the hiring of Mike Rice to replace the departed Mark Schmidt in men’s basketball. Rice instantly changed the team, riding their rear ends all summer, getting them into the inaugural Philly Classic to play Navy, Seton Hall, Drexel. Awarding Tony Lee with a trip home to play Boston College – something Lee was promised as a freshman but Schmidt never followed through on. While Rice’s team sits at 5-4 with a few disappointing hiccups in the recent games, no one can deny the immediate impact on the young men on the team or the program. Rice took his team to Fordham, won, and earned an article in the New York Post. That had not been done before.

Western Pennsylvania, specifically the Pittsburgh area, is football region. When it came to sports, Robert Morris was a football school since the program started winning championships. It no longer is. Robert Morris is known for hockey and basketball, not football.

I don’t know the next move. I’m sorry that you’ve read this far only to be met with no answers. I don’t want to call for Joe Walton to step down; I have neither the heart nor the conviction to ask a man that this region owes so much to give up his livelihood. What I do ask is that this University look strongly at the football program and ask why a football rich region has not pushed this team to be perennial contenders since 2000.

Why do players gravitate towards Scott Farison, Bob Morris, and John Banaszak instead of Joe Walton? Why do the likes of Rowan and Morehead State dominate the schedule when conference rivals Albany and Monmouth schedule Montana, Delaware, Colgate, and Hofstra?

Where are we going the next four years? And is Joe Walton the one to lead us?

Any time an extension is handed out to a coach, it’s with the understanding that there are answers to any questions surrounding the program. That there is a defined path to reach expected goals.

When it comes to the Robert Morris football program, there would appear to be far more questions than answers.