Colonials Corner

Wagner beat Monmouth 91-60 to eliminate the Hawks and Fairleigh Dickinson this afternoon. That clinches 7th place for the Seahawks, pushing St. Francis NY to the 8 spot no matter what they do against Long Island today.

That means Stefan Perunicic will return to the scene of his 28 point, 7 trey performance in that upset of Robert Morris back in December. He’s been much colder since then, and was almost non-existent in the 61-54 RM

This is the only seeding to be determined so far. The rest will depend on the outcome of today’s games. All of the teams have been determined, but who and where they’ll play comes down to the final minutes.

One way or another, the Robert Morris Colonials are going to be playing postseason basketball once the NEC Tournament is done.

Now it’s time to work on making sure it’s not an NIT bid.

Robert Morris topped St. Francis PA 74-62 in Loretto, improving to 20-10 (14-3) heading into the final game of the season against Mount St. Mary’s Saturday at 4pm. The Colonials won their 20th game of the season for the second year in a row, and it is their second regular season title in a row.

“After this weekend, to get a “W”, it’s just a relief. Now we can make sure we get focused for senior night and for the NEC tournament,” Mike Rice said.

Following ugly losses to Monmouth and Wagner on the road last weekend, the Colonials roared out to a 10-0 lead against the undermanned Flash. But as both teams rolled their benches onto the floor, St. Francis closed the game, eventually using a last-second Marquis Ford three-pointer to close to 29-28 at halftime. Rob Robinson had 8 of his 9 points in the first half.

“I don’t like the productivity of my bench, especially with their defense right now,” Rice said. “What was it, January, that we didn’t lose a game? That feels like three years ago now. We had them rolling in and out, and we didn’t miss a beat when they were in there at that point. We’ve got to get their confidence back.”

Robert Morris pulled away in the second half, leading by as much as 15, before finishing of St. Francis 74-62. Robinson finished with 5 assists to go with his 9 points in 23 minutes. Jimmy Langhurst led all scorers with 19 points, while Jeremy Chappell with 16 points, and Dallas Green had 13 points. Now, even though the title is locked up, the Colonials focus on Mount St. Mary’s.

“It’s the almighty Mount,” Rice cracked. “We don’t like each other right now. It’s admiration and respect, but I look forward to playing them and seeing how we do when we come off a day’s rest when they’ve had seven days off.”

It will also be senior night, meaning not only the last regular season game for Jeremy Chappell, Iffy Ehirim, and Bateko Francisco, but the final RMU-Mount regular season game for Sam Atupem and Markus Mitchell for the Mount.

“I hope everyone gets out there,” Rice said. “Can you have a better career than Jeremy Chappell? And Iffy and Bateko deserve attention and credit for their years here.”

Also in the NEC tonight – Monmouth and Fairleigh Dickinson lost, while Wagner won at Quinnipiac. That gives the Seahawks a full one-game lead over the Hawks and Knights for the 8th and final spot in the NEC Tournament. It actually vaults Wagner into the 7th spot because they currently hold the tiebreaker over St. Francis of NY (losers tonight to SHU).

If Wagner wins Saturday against Monmouth, they are in. If FDU and Monmouth win, FDU gets in by virtue of their 2-0 record versus Monmouth (Wagner eliminated by virtue of 0-1 record versus Monmouth). Monmouth is in if they beat Wagner and FDU loses to SFPA.

Your current matchups:
#8 St. Francis NY at #1 Robert Morris, #7 Wagner at #2 Mount St. Mary’s, #6 Central Connecticut State at #3 Sacred Heart, #5 Quinnipiac at #4 Long Island.

I expect everyone to be at Saturday’s game. Again, it’s a 4pm tipoff. Yes, the game is on FSN Pittsburgh, but you should only need that so you can tape/DVR the game like I’m doing. Then stick around, because the women’s game is at 7pm and you can honor the likes of Sade Logan for their seasons in Moon.

More comments and opinions than questions this week, but that’s perfectly fine. After all, we had a rather self-indulgent expose in the Answers last week.

i’m curious of after watching RMU hoops the last two years who you think the better player is: Tony Lee or Jeremy Chappell?

It’s actually been five years, which is important to the discussion. The player that had the best season was Tony Lee. Nothing compares to the all-around game that Lee displayed last year. While Chappell is a consistent double-double threat, Lee was a consistent triple-double threat. Just look at last year’s game log. Lee had seven or more points, assists, and rebounds five times before pulling off the back-to-back feat in February 2008. He pulled off a double-double.

It was a remarkable year, but career wise, Chappell has been slightly better. He’s a more prolific scorer and a better on-the-ball defender. He doesn’t have the vision Lee had on the court, and he doesn’t have the gambler’s approach on defense that led Lee to go after the ball more (although Chappell is doing just fine in the steals department). But Chappell is more athletic, with a better 3-point shot and a better approach at the charity stripe.

If everything broke very well for him, I could see Chappell in an NBA uniform, simply because of his athleticism and his shot. He’s 6’3, well-built, and with good speed. He and Duquesne’s Aaron Jackson are two players that are so strong for their size that they could make the transition.

However, they’ll need a lot of help. They don’t play for national teams. They don’t have sexy stats (respectable, but not Stephen Curry mind-blowing), and they’ll need to work their way up. But three years from now, after a stint or two in the D-League or a top Euro team? Get an injury or two to break their way, get hot at the right time, and it could be a possibility.

In a 51-49 split, Chappell gets my nod because of the athleticism. I’d prefer to have them both, though. In fact, my starting lineup of top Colonials since 2000 – C – Rob Robinson, PF – Chaz McCrommon, SF – Jeremy Chappell, SG – Maurice Carter, PG – Tony Lee. Top three subs – AJ Jackson, Wesley Fluellen, and Derek Coleman.

Might win some championships with that roster.

who do u think will have more fans at the game?….rmu or msm!

Obviously Robert Morris, but the Mount will pack them in, that’s for sure. I think the entire NEC would want to tap into the Mount’s passion, figure out what drives them. Certainly having just MSM sports in the area helps matters (as opposed to the multiple events in the Pittsburgh or NYC region on any given night), but the school does a fantastic job of promotion and getting people to travel as well.

of the three teams that could finish in eighth place in the league standings and play RMU in the quarterfinals, who would you like to play and why? FDU, Wagner or Monmouth?

I’d pick one of Monmouth or FDU. Wagner travels well, and while they were slaughtered at the Sewall, they’re much closer to the team that upset RMU in Staten Island. They stumbled in the NEC, but they’re 14-13 overall with non-conference wins over some good teams. They had a horrible stretch to finish January where they were either on the road or at home against top NEC teams (CCSU and SHU). All of those games, except the RMU and the MSM games, were close matches with the final margin less than ten points.

Monmouth, meanwhile, is young. They haven’t won on the road all season long. However, they’re very talented, and as they grow, they’ll be a tough team in the NEC. They’re athletic enough, coupled with their matchup zone defense that they play, that they could be a very tough out in the NEC Tournament, even if they do have to do it on the road.

Which leaves FDU. Unlike the other two, Robert Morris played the Knights just once this year, a 74-40 trouncing in New Jersey. The reason I think the Knights would be a fit is because the Colonials match-up with them better. Monmouth is athletic and physical, Wagner has some decent size and a good offense. FDU doesn’t have much of anything outside of Sean Baptiste. FDU had zero answer for Rob Robinson last time around, they’re 3-13 on the road, they’re rudderless, they’ve beaten no one of consequence this year, and they don’t have the athleticism to keep up with the Colonials on the road.

Now, all of these games – and any game in the NEC – is predicated on the Colonials playing like Robert Morris, rather than the band of misfits that wore the uniform this past weekend.

That time of the week already? Must be.

Ask away on any questions you may have. Some potential topics:
- Senior night this Saturday (4pm vs Mount St. Mary’s on FSN Pittsburgh)
- Paul Meyer’s feature on Jimmy Langhurst.
- The editorial from the other day about RMU finding their hearts…
- …Something Rob Robinson apparently agrees with, according to the Post-Gazette.

“It was the truth, everything coach Rice said,” junior standout forward Rob Robinson said. “We needed to be reminded that everyone needs to look in the mirror and find our hearts.”

Colin Dunlap’s article focuses on Rice’s address during practice on Monday and how the Colonials plan to regroup.

And we’ll throw this out there – what do those of you who blasted Robert Morris for losing two conference games over the weekend have to say about Pitt’s loss to Big East also-ran Providence? Colonials Corner is a fan of Keno Davis, and while the Friars may sneak into the NCAA Tournament, the difference between Pitt and Providence is about as great as the difference between Robert Morris and Wagner/Monmouth.

We say conference losses, even bad conference losses, are bound to happen. 31 conferences in Division I, only two conference leaders are undefeated in league play (Memphis in the C-USA, Gonzaga in the WCC).

What say you?

The wake being left by media attended mock selections is being felt by the Worldwide Leader now.

A week after Kyle Whelliston of the Mid-Majority detailed the NCAA Tournament process, ESPN had their own separate event (they can do that, they own the world) with bracketology king Joe Lunardi, Andy Katz, and others.

So their bracket looks different from Lunardi’s last bracket. You can read Lunardi‘s thoughts here, Katz‘s thoughts here, and the collective bracket here.

All of the projects were based on results through Saturday, combined with some hypothetical scenarios (such as Siena not winning their league and being left out).

So, some thoughts:
- Robert Morris is seeded 16th against UNC. Pitt is the top #1, followed by Connecticut, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. The way the S-Curve works, that means RMU is the top #16 seed out there. So for those of you that were worried what the two losses over the weekend would do to the seeding – a 15 seed clearly seems to be possible if the Colonials right the ship, win these last two regular season games, and win the NEC Championship.

Not a fan of WVU at #5. I’d put Texas and Gonzaga (both 6′s) before the Mountaineers. I think teams like WVU, Syracuse, and others in the Big East are going to ride the gravy train into the Big Dance because the Big East is so strong. But if they get seeded that high and go up against some tough teams (Northern Iowa won the MVC, hypothetically, but if it’s the stronger Creighton squad that’s across from WVU?), it won’t be a pretty result.

The ESPN group bracket also gave us our dream 1st round matchup. #3 Duke v #14 VMI in Miami. Other matchups had concerned us because they had those two in Greensboro, basically a home game for the Dukies. If that matchup happens, we’ll be holding up a VMI flag the whole through, and there’s a very good chance they’d pull off the upset.

Meanwhile, over at Sports Illustrated, Andy Glockner is putting his brackets up. Robert Morris would be a 15 seed against #2 Memphis out in Kansas City, certainly not a favorable matchup for the Colonials. That matchup featuring WVU and Creighton that I spoke about two paragraphs ago appears in Glockner’s bracket as a 6/11 matchup in Miami. Gotta love the chances for the BlueJays in that scenario.

Glockner also does something brave that we haven’t seen many people do of late. With Patty Mills out hurt, the St. Mary’s Gaels have been left for dead in the WCC. Many think that even if they were to get to the WCC tournament and lose, they wouldn’t get an at-large bid. Here’s how Glockner explained it:

The lack of quality teams for the final four or five at-large spots was really jarring. As such, Saint Mary’s made it back into the field as the Gaels beat San Diego and Utah State at home without Patty Mills and have shown over the past four games that they are a capable team without him. If and when they get him back, they are a very solid at-large candidate given the whole landscape.

Considering their regional, with a healthy Mills, the Gaels could do some damage against Florida State and then Washington/VCU. To go from Bubble Team to Sweet 16 would be an impressive thumbing of the nose at the prognosticators.

Finally tonight, we head over to our new friends at CBSSports.com Community, where Jason Wells has a pile of information regarding the brackets.

Robert Morris is again a 15 seed, hooking horns with Clemson down in Miami. I think we’re getting proof that RMU just needs to take care of business and not worry about seeding or a first-round matchup, because it’s 50/50 either way regarding travel or likely opponent. Win the damn NEC, then we’ll talk.

One thing we don’t like, or at least hope we get to avoid, is the pairing of mid-major vs mid-major when it comes time to dance. A bit of fortuitous seeding in Jason’s bracket has things like #4 Gonzaga/#13 American, and #6 Xavier/#11 San Diego State. It’s not a rule – it can’t be – but as someone who roots for the mid-major upsets, we’re always bummed out to see two teams below the red line battling it out.

That said, we like Jason’s bracket. Why? Because Creighton, Davidson, Butler, Siena, Utah State and Gonzaga are all in as “auto qualifiers” yet teams like SDSU, Xavier, and Saint Mary’s are all in as at-large bids. We love it. It’s a mid-major rising!

Until next time…….

Three of our top five lost last week, so be prepared for some shuffling. Indeed, not one single team stayed in the same position as last week. As always, check out the CBS BlogPoll blog here. For the last two weeks, Colonials Corner has been tabbed as one of five selections for “Mr. Bold” – meaning our ballot was one that deviated from the overall ballot the most.

Never said we were conventional…

Now, to the ballot!

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Pittsburgh	1
2	Connecticut	1
3	Clemson	2
4	Memphis	3
5	North Carolina	2
6	Oklahoma	2
7	Duke	2
8	Marquette	3
9	Michigan St.	1
10	Villanova	3
11	Missouri	3
12	Louisville	4
13	Wake Forest	3
14	Kansas	1
15	Butler	9
16	Arizona St.	3
17	Gonzaga	4
18	Louisiana St.	5
19	Illinois	2
20	Utah St.	8
21	Xavier	3
22	Purdue
23	UCLA	2
24	Texas
25	Davidson	3
Last week’s ballot

Every day, I wake up to the bleating of my alarm clock. It’s an obnoxious screeching with a faulty snooze button, so even attempts at silencing it end up failing miserably.

Years ago, I had a different alarm clock, nicknamed “The Detonator”. It was set up across from my bed in my mother’s house, and I used it throughout high school and during the summer while I worked at a local cemetery. Unlike the screecher that I employ now, “The Detonator” did exactly what its name implies. At six in the morning, as dawn attempted to crawl through the clouds that perpetually hang over Erie, it would detonate. The sound that emitted from that tiny alarm clock was like someone had jammed an armadillo into a garbage disposal.

It woke me up.

I would imagine that Saturday’s loss to Wagner served a similar purpose for the Robert Morris Colonials. At least, I hope it did.

It is eminently frustrating to not be able to watch a team self-destruct, to stumble, to have to rely on words over the airwaves or incomplete game reports. Chris Shovlin and Jim Duzyk do a tremendous job on the radio, but ultimately, I end up trusting my own eyes. I may be a writer and an avid reader, but I often thought I should study psychology. Body language says it all, and not just the simply slump of the shoulders or the lethargic act of going through the motions.

What this weekend served, if not a wake-up call, was a reminder. On any given night in any given league, the best team can lose and the worst team can win. Davidson’s been losing. We will have yet another new #1 – probably Pittsburgh – because Oklahoma, Connecticut, and North Carolina all lost.

There are 31 conferences (not including Independents) in NCAA D-I basketball. Only Air Force (Mountain West), DePaul (Big East), and Southeast Missouri State (Ohio Valley) are winless in conference play.

So, if I were to address your Colonials right now, here’s what I would say.

Forget the record. Forget who you beat and you didn’t beat. Forget about the NCAA Tournament, forget about seeding and RPI, forget about everything that has happened this season. Look around you. This is a Division I basketball team, the best set of collegiate programs in the country. Only the best high school players play D-I. How many of your teammates in high school aren’t balling in D-I? How many aren’t playing at all anymore? Look around again. You want to play in the NBA? Be a league player? Make some money at the highest stage?

There are 300+ teams in D-I basketball. That is almost 1,500 players. Maybe 60 will play in the NBA next year.

So this is it. Your years in college are what you have to make something out of yourself, as a person, and as an athlete. Your legacy more than likely ends when you take off that Robert Morris uniform for the last time.

You didn’t lose your talent this week. Sacred Heart didn’t open up some invisible wound to let it seep out, and Quinnipiac didn’t gash it open more last Saturday, and Monmouth and Wagner haven’t gutted you like a pile of fish.

You lost your heart. You lost the desire. No matter who you are on this team, the fire burned out. The attention to detail suddenly became a little blurry. The focus went from narrow to wide angle, letting every possible thing in to distract you.

Lucky for you it’s easy to get back the heart and the desire, to retrain yourself to get the focus back. Not so lucky for you is that if it was missing talent, well, you can just call it a day. No talent? That’s an easy excuse.

There’s no get out of jail free card here. All that’s left is for you to remember what got you here. This is a game, and it is supposed to be fun. And when it is the most fun is when you are winning. This is a team that bonded as the year turned to 2009. Whatever happened in the beginning of the season didn’t matter. You figured yourselves out, your chemistry on the court displayed an intense admiration of each other’s skills, and a willingness to work within a system to make sure that everyone has a chance to shine.

It worked. You want to talk about a detonation, there you go. What happened in January was devastating to the NEC.

Now here you are. Someone finally landed a punch. Not just a quick jab, either. It was a series of body blows and then two powerful uppercuts. But you are not down. Sure, the referee is giving a standing eight count, but you have time to regroup.

So in the words of Michael Irvin, “Look up, get up and don’t ever give up.”

This is not over. Two games are left to begin writing your final statement on the 2008-2009 Robert Morris Colonials. And as any good writer will tell you, you must start strong to finish strong. The middle comes together on its own. This week starts a new story, so this is the new beginning that you must write. Do that, and you can work on being able to write one hell of a finale when you win the NEC Tournament.

The fuse has been lit on the end of basketball for the Robert Morris Colonials. The only question is which detonator is going to set it off. I’m certainly willing to travel back to Erie to see if the cranky old clock still works. I just hope they don’t need it.

This will not be on the NEC keeps in the archives as an example of quality basketball in the conference.

And it will certainly be one that Robert Morris head coach Mike Rice files away in his “Horror” category, perhaps use it on Halloween night from here on out to scare his team and himself into realizing what needs to be done to win in the NEC.

“Good teams find a way to win,” Mike Rice said. “Our team is finding ways to lose the ball game. Inexcusable – three straight offensive rebounds.”

Lest we forget, this road trip served as a reminder that anything can happen in the Northeast Conference on any given night. Wagner finished a tremendous weekend, following up an upset of Mount St. Mary’s Thursday might with an upset of Robert Morris 62-59 on Saturday.

The only good news out of this is that both nights, the Colonials played absolutely dreadful basketball and still nearly won. The horrors continued Saturday against the Seahawks, who weren’t nearly as bad as the team that was blitzed 104-56 at the Sewall Center on January 17th.

Perhaps frustrated by a decidedly awful night from the men in black and white stripes, the Colonials blew another double digit lead on their way to the loss. That said, the Colonials didn’t look sharp for the second game in a row.

“Our guys aren’t matching the intensity and focus of the other teams,” Rice said. We’re going to figure this out. It’s going to take some very hard work to get this fixed.”

Rob Robinson was picked on all night. Robinson was tagged with his first foul two minutes into the game, was tagged with his second foul one minute later when he and another Wagner player went up and brought down a rebound at the same time. Rice pulled Robinson, putting him back in with about 9 minutes left. Within a minute, Robinson – nowhere near the ball – was somehow called for his third foul.

On both occasions, the zebras called a foul on a Wagner player within seconds of the Robinson foul. Robinson sat the first part of the 2nd half, found his fourth foul on another dubious call inside of 14 minutes, and picked up his fifth with 3:30 left in the game.

Robinson finished with 6 points and 5 fouls in just 16 minutes, and his unbelievable situation was symbolic of the night. Both teams were caught with odd fouls, non-calls, and generally incredulous developments. Chris Shovlin and Jim Duzyk had the call for WPIT and were apoplectic most of the night over the handling of the game by the zebras – Mezie Nwigwe should’ve been tagged with a goaltending at one point, same with Dallas Green for pulling on the rim while a shot was up by Chappell; Orock upended a Colonial at one point and Czrecki should’ve fouled out at one point as well.

Nonetheless, sloppy calls simply highlighted the sloppy play. Robert Morris shot under 40% from the floor, exhibited poor shot selection, and while they out-rebounded Wagner, they allowed key rebounds – especially on the offensive glass – at the wrong time.

Last year, Mike Rice said he eased off the gas a bit on his team, not wanting to wear them down as they finished off the regular season. Several weeks ago, he promised he wouldn’t do that. And if there was any question about that from his players, they know he meant it now.

“The country club is over,” Rice fumed. “There will be some interesting practices this week at the Sewall Center. I hate the mentality of this team right now. They’re fat cats. We’re going to chop them down to size.”

Robert Morris still has a share of the NEC title, but they need to win Thursday to clinch it outright.

Well, we had hoped to give you an earlier look at the recruiting class, but that wasn’t able to happen. Thankfully the Colonials put out a detailed release today highlighting their 18 new recruits for 2009.

The class includes 13 Letter of Intent signees, 4 non-letter signings, and 1 mid-year transfer.

Interesting to note – and an explanation of why we’ve been waiting – is that a handful of players that announced they are attending Robert Morris aren’t on the list, including Thomas Jefferson running back Brian Baldridge.

This is not to say that those players are not attending RMU. But as of now, they are not part of the official recruiting class. Recruiting is a tenuous process and those involved tend to get a bit overzealous.

We’ll see what happens with the rest, but for now, you can pick apart the current class. I haven’t seen any of them play except for Sinclair, and my thoughts on him are well documented on this site. Also, the class fits exactly what was described to me a month or so ago – a focus on the lines, not on the skill positions.

http://www.rmucolonials.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=13900&ATCLID=3674389

Someone asked about the scariest team in the NEC Tournament for the Colonials.

Way to jinx it.

The two top teams in the NEC both lost to cellar dwellars Thursday night, proving that no one is safe in the Northeast Conference down the stretch. Robert Morris played their second straight subpar game, dropping a 60-57 decision in New Jersey against the vexing Monmouth Hawks.

Meanwhile, across the NJ/NY border in Staten Island, the Wagner Seahawks knocked off Mount St. Mary’s 70-65. Both Monmouth and Wagner are 5-10 in the NEC.

Jeremy Chappell was 5 of 16 from the floor for 15 points with 10 rebounds, and his shooting problems were symbolic of the night for the Colonials. Poor decisions, foul trouble, bundles of turnovers, and just sloppy play allowed Monmouth to keep a hold on the Colonials.

“They weren’t ready to win a Division I ball game. We didn’t attack. We didn’t play Robert Morris basketball. They were the aggressor,” Mike Rice said.

It doesn’t help when Robert Morris watches an 18 point swing flash by in the second half. RMU was up by 12 in the second half only to go down by 6 at one point.

Robert Morris shot 37% from the floor and lost the rebound battle 37-33.

“When you shoot 37% you’re not going to win many games. 15 turnovers against all zone. I don’t if there was an item there that we needed to do to win a Division I basketball game,” Rice said.

Pretty simple. Let’s hope for a better effort against Wagner on Saturday.