Colonials Corner

One thousand, one hundred thirty-four fans watched the latest Robert Morris victory Thursday night.

1,134.

That’s only 88 more people than the amount that watched Bryant and Wagner on Staten Island Thursday night. Bryant won 53-51, improving their record to a gaudy 1-26. Wagner? 4-24.

Meanwhile, Robert Morris is on pace for another Northeast Conference title, another postseason run, and is playing their best basketball of the season. They have five seniors – four currently capable of actually walking – and are staring at another postseason filled with hardware.

NEC Coach of the Year? Who else, again, but Mike Rice, the man who took a team with six first year players and turned them into a juggernaut?

NEC Rookie of the Year? Karon Abraham is the safest bet since Jeremy Chappell waltzed into the league five years ago.

NEC Defensive Player of the Year? Mezie Nwigwe shut down the league’s leading scorer, Corey Hassan, Thursday night, just like he’s shut down just about every other top scorer the Colonials have played since Thanksgiving.

All of this, and Mike Rice’s loafers are living the good life. See, Rice doesn’t have to stomp his foot much in the Sewall Center to get his players’ attention. Last week at the Petersen Events Center, Rice practically broke his ankle because of the noise. His loafers are surely thankful for the home games, but I would imagine Rice wouldn’t mind buying a couple extra pairs of shoes over the course of the season if it meant that opposing players and coaches couldn’t hear themselves think every time they walked into the Sewall Center.

All of the success, and I could still hear the eyes rolling into the back of their heads as Sacred Heart players complained about another call that they disagreed with Thursday night.

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It was inevitable. In fact, it started way back on December 3rd. But now a major news outlet is firing up the coaching carousel, and the speculation has begun.

The key word is speculation. Writers across the country, perhaps suffering a bit of basketball induced cabin fever, have begun ruminating on the fate of college coaches across the country. Who is in danger? Which programs need a facelift? Who deserves a new contract or a promotion? Which assistants are the fresh faces needed in this program or that?

And just like last year, Mike Rice’s name has come up.

Before we go much further, let’s make this clear: I don’t know what the future holds for Mike Rice or Robert Morris. No one does. At this point, Mike Rice probably doesn’t have the faintest clue.

He’s probably plopped in front of a TV or computer somewhere watching film of Devin Sweetney. His mind is probably racing, trying to figure out how the hell to handle back-to-back games against St. Francis (Pa.) this weekend. When his mind pauses long enough to allow other thoughts to muscle their way in, he’s likely hoping Karon Abraham doesn’t get the flu or Mezie Nwigwe doesn’t get the whooping cough or that the bus doesn’t break down on the trip back from Loretto late Thursday night and royally screw his team over because the NEC – in their absolutely infinite wisdom – thought it would be a good idea to schedule the first set of “home-and-home” basketball games in college basketball since the days of short-shorts and regular quintuple headers at the Palestra.

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Two down, three to go.

Robert Morris men’s basketball coach Mike Rice announced that 6’3 guard Brook Turson and 6’5 forward Malcolm Lemmons officially signed national letters of intent to play basketball for the Colonials beginning in the 2010-2011 season.

Turson is a physical shooting guard from Plymouth, OH who shoots a high percentage and has played in multiple spots on the floor for his high school team. He’s averaged almost 21 points per game, 10 rebounds per game, and 5 assists per game in his high school career and will be the number one option on his team this year.

Lemmons is an athletic wing who can play guard and forward and will have the unique experience of already being part of a “team” rather than being a high school star transitioning to the more ensemble makeup of the college game. Lemmons attends Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C., one of the top high schools in the country and one that regularly churns out quality Division I athletes. Thus, Lemmons already has experience as being part of an ensemble cast. That status – and less gaudy statistics than most – likely helped him land at RMU.

Both players are reportedly solid academically, and Rice said in his official press release that both will compete for quality minutes right away.

After the jump, check out the official scouting reports on the two signees and a quick look at how the roster/scholarship situation shapes up for next year.

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I generally have little issue with the selection of the all-conference teams at the end of the year. It’s generally understood that the winning teams get more publicity and the losers end up getting a few nominees in minor categories. There’s a good reason that Central Connecticut has nine players on the two All NEC teams this year.

The five Colonials selected – first teamer Garrett Clawson and second teamers Shadrae King, Rolf Bathold, Michael Landers, and Nick Schirtzinger – all deserve their selections. Arguments could be made for one or two others – Sherrod Evers at receiver and Myles Russ at running back come to mind immediately.

We’re not one to begrudge a numbers issue if there is one. We realize that there are only a handful of spots, and sometimes a player gets bumped off the list because of that. Russ is the perfect example. (just too many good runners in the league this year).

But the omission of Alex DiMichele and Elias Navarro is absolutely mind boggling, especially compared to those who ended up making the team in their place.

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Senior forward Rob Robinson will be the primary target on offense for Robert Morris. Photo courtesy of Associated Press

College coaches everywhere will complain that they won’t have enough time between the start of practice sessions and the start of the season, but there’s still almost 3 weeks of practice left before the games start.

For Robert Morris, that means about 18 more days of Mike Rice’s boot camp before they head to the Carrier Dome to take on Syracuse in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

That’s a lot of time for Rice to torture his players. It’s also a lot of time for them to either learn his system or become familiar with the new wrinkles that any coach will implement in the offseason. Fans got an early look at the 2009-2010 Colonials Thursday night in a primetime scrimmage at the Sewall Center, and Colonials Corner got an even earlier look at practice that afternoon.

Here are some thoughts on the scrimmage and the roster. I’ll be posting a transcript of an interview with Mike Rice that I conducted today this weekend, since there is not a football game Saturday. Expect it Saturday or Sunday night. Enjoy, and feel free to add your comments if you had a chance to catch the scrimmage Thursday night.

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Saturday marks the end of camp and the beginning of the true season. While the coaching staff at Robert Morris has already begun instituting various forms of preparation for the season opener against the Virginia Military Institute, next week will be exclusively focused on that element. Position battles will be done, the depth chart will be set, and the mood changes from survival to beating VMI.

That brings us to Saturday, the last chance for those in position battles to stake their claim. The true scrimmage portion of the practice should begin around 2 or 2:30, but there will be some drills and other things going on prior to the actual scrimmage, so I’d recommend getting there around 1. Here are the things we’ll be watching for:

• Is Shadrae King fully healthy? While coaches, players, and fans likely have full confidence in King’s abilities, having King completely ready and working with the first team alongside Chris Molnar would be a nice start to the season.
• How will the coaching staff rotate the running backs? Sure, Myles Russ is going to get his carries. But what about Raphael Johnson, Kent State transfer Jamar Cromwell, and fullback Jeff Link? Is Link the guy inside the five yard line? Will it be a rotation, much like the Dallas Cowboys should use this year with Marion Barber, Felix Jones, and Tashard Choice? The one difference is that Russ is so explosive and durable, you’d almost hate to take him off the field. But Johnson and Cromwell have shown their abilities in camp as well, including some nice moves and speed from Cromwell.
• Who will be the front three on defense? Mark Syzmanski is a lock, but is he good to go following some injuries last year? Will it be some combination of Gavin Marshall, Chris Roberts, and Farren Mason in the middle? Can Roberts play end, or will Mike Lovely or someone else be there? That’s a major key to figure out, as each day I’ve attended camp this summer has brought a slightly different look on the defensive line.
• Who will return kicks? Dion Wiegand, Anthony Coleman, and multiple others have all been back there at various points in camp. The Colonials struggled with returns last year until James O’Quinn and Coleman stepped forward, but now O’Quinn is gone. So who steps up?
• Finally…the quarterback. The only thing we can be relatively sure of is that it’s down to Camdin Crouse and Aaron Smetanka. Desmond Brently, Jeff Sinclair, Kyle McNeil, and Kevin Quinn will have to wait. So which out of Crouse and Smetanka is the right choice? Some days it looks like Crouse. Other days it looks like Smetanka. I have a feeling that Walton is close to making a decision but wants to let the two quarterbacks make the decision for him in simulated game action on Saturday. Besides watching out for completions and touchdowns, we’ll be looking at how the two quarterbacks command their squads (are they organized, calm, in sync?); decision making process (was someone else open, was the throw forced?); who gets the running plays, who gets the pass plays; which defense is on the field against them; finally, player reaction.

Failing all of that, we’re in position to ask Walton following the scrimmage. So you’ll know right away if there’s a final decision. The bulk of our journalistic work on Saturday will be for the Beaver County Times preview special coming out Friday, September 4th. But you’ll get plenty of nuggets here, too. In the meantime (shameless plug alert), pick up the gigantic 80-page BCT High School Preview special this Friday at your local convenience store in North/West Allegheny County and Beaver County.

Jeremy Chappell (in gray) works on offense during his Pittsburgh Summer League basketball game July 7th. Photo: Andrew Chiappazzi/Colonials Corner.

Round Five of the Pittsburgh Summer Basketball League sponsored by the Pittsburgh Basketball Club is in the books. Just one more week of round-robin play remains for the playoffs begin and the champion is crowned.

Colonials Corner took in all three games at the GreenTree Sportsplex on Wednesday night, and with a few Pitt Panthers shelved, the players opened up the throttle and upped the intensity – and the acrobatics – from the opening week. All three games, but especially the middle one between UPMC and SPK, had a variety of players playing well above the rim.

All three games featured your Robert Morris Colonials, with the middle game serving as the highlight for a packed gym. Game one featured LAIR against Jeremy Chappell and Khalif Foster’s PGT team and went down to the wire. Game two featured Mezie Nwigwe and Lijah Thompson taking UPMC against Rob Robinson and SPK. Game three had Dallas Green and Russell Johnson’s CRONS squad trying to hold off a Pitt-heavy PBC squad.

For more, read on.

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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.

I’ve always enjoyed reading The Fan Blog, which focuses on Mount St. Mary’s as well as some other sports. Considering the rivalry between Robert Morris and the Mount, I was more than happy to contribute some answers to a Q+A sent my way by Ryan Raffensperger. You can read my answers here.

And you can read Ryan’s answers to my questions below. Tip off tonight is at 7pm on WPIT 730 AM and Yahoo! Sports.

1. Unlike Robert Morris, the Mount has experienced very little turnover. How has this team gelled with an entire season under their belt?
The team has gelled pretty well from some aspects. I think the coaching staff realized during the run last year that having an eight or nine man rotation is the best way to go. Losing only Chris Vann from that rotation seemed like it shouldn’t have been as big a deal. But his long range ability tended to attract defenders and I think make the transition more difficult without him.

2. What has the atmosphere been like in Emmittsburg following the tournament run?
The community has been excited about the start of the season for awhile. The trouble has been most (all but three) of the games have been on the road. But most have been televised locally so I think people have seen a lot more of the team. But the record might hurt some of the enthusiasm.

3. 5-8 to start the season. Indicative of a stronger non-conference schedule, or are there some hiccups in the Mountaineers game this year?
The non-conference schedule has been extremely difficult. And most of it has been on the road. The disappointing thing to some of us were obviously the two losses in CT and then the home loss to Navy. The Mount has played everyone tough, but hasn’t gotten results. From that standpoint I don’t think it’s as discouraging as 5-8 sounds, but at the same time, you’ve got to win some of those games.

4. What’s the growth of Jeremy Goode been like? Colonials fans know him well, but now he’s the unquestioned leader with Chris Vann no longer on the team.
No doubt he’s the leader – and early on he was leading the team in scoring almost on a nightly basis. That hasn’t been the case of late as some others have gotten more involved, Kelly Beidler, Will Holland, Jean Cajou, etc. He has had some trouble shooting in some of those games after being red hot to start the season. But even when he’s not scoring he’s still contributing. He played very well at Lafayette on Friday and I expect that he’ll get things rolling in the conference soon.

5. Which Mount newcomer should Colonials fans keep an eye on?
Truly the two freshman haven’t made much of an impact. Jacolby Wells the post player is likely to be redshirted, while Lamar Trice the point guard from Philly has spelled Goode for a few minutes a game. Pierre Brown a sophomore has seen his minutes increase recently and he’s been making solid contributions when he is on the floor.

6. Are these games with Robert Morris the highlight of the Mount St. Mary’s schedule?
That’s a tough question. It certainly has me excited to go out to the game tonight. But I like a little variety, and playing some of the non-conference schedule is probably more enticing. And even though this has definitely been the conference rivalry in the last several years, it still doesn’t fully measure up from a rivalry standpoint to that of the Loyola series. But that is sort of a backyard thing and gets fans from both sides at both places. But there is something special about this game tonight and I think it could really develop into something more in the future as well.

7. What do you expect out of Monday’s game?
One side of me thinks that the Mount is ready to explode offensively. The other side says that isn’t likely to happen against Robert Morris. So I think we could see a very choppy first half, without a lot of flow and some of the most intense defense that the Northeast Conference has even seen. Coming from both sides. And the score could reflect that at halftime. I think then in the second half, the Mount’s preseason scheduling, the homecourt advantage, and maybe their interior experience will make the difference and I see the Mount winning a tightly contested battle say 61-54.

Thank to Ryan for the contribution.

Commenter Bill asked about the negativity in the recent comments, wondering why fans on this site have been focusing on other factors rather than the awards being handed out to Robert Morris athletes.

A response:

Bill -
It’s the nature of sports fandom circa 2008. We are a critical society when it comes to sports, so over saturated with opinions and analysis that we forget what we actually enjoy about sports.

We live to break down those in front of us. Sure, in the sheer moment of something amazing happening, we’re ecstatic. Our team wins a championship – or even just a close game – or an athlete pulls of a phenomenal play. We go nuts (unless you’re in the press box, in which case you’re drawing blood as you bite down on your tongue).

And yet, when we sit back down in our chair or retrieve the dog from his hiding spot following our moment of ecstasy, we become critical.

Nowhere was this more evident than the hours following the Pittsburgh-Dallas NFL game on Sunday. Steelers fans and media members focused not on the fact that they won a remarkable game on Sunday, but on what went wrong. Roethlisberger holds on to the ball too much, where was Hines Ward, who the heck is Tashard Choice and why is he allowed to run on our #1 defense like that?

Never mind that Roethlisberger showed off his moxie by leading the comeback. Never mind Townsend’s remarkable interception. Never mind the fact that the Steelers showed remarkable poise in the final moments, something my Cowboys should be studying all week.

I watched the game on tape last night after being gone all day. I already knew the score, even knew what had happened to create the loss. Naturally, as a lifelong Dallas fan, I was disappointed. But as I watched, I saw a lot of good things that Dallas can build on and try and make a run. Won’t be easy, but there are things there.

Those aren’t being focused on today.

ESPN had an article up in a prominent spot on their website about the Dallas loss, saying the Cowboys were in horrible position to win a playoff spot now. Yet Dallas actually moved up into a playoff spot with the loss, as Atlanta also lost, freeing up the sixth and final NFC playoff spot for the Cowboys. Sure, the Cowboys have a tough schedule and will be hard pressed to stay in their spot, but for the time being, Dallas is in.

Doesn’t matter, says our sporting society. It’s not going to “stay” that way. It’s bound to “come crashing down”.

We are writing people, teams, and organizations off before giving them a chance. If they don’t produce immediate results, we are no longer patient as a sports viewing society – as a society in general – to allow them to grow and mature.

As I’ve watched this Colonials basketball team get off to an inconsistent start and observed the tepid reaction at the Sewall Center and here on Colonials Corner, I keep coming back to one question.

What happens next year? Better yet, what happens in two years? How will people react when Bateko Francisco and Jeremy Chappell leave next year? How will they react when five scholarship players depart the following year? Will they allow Karon Abraham, Russell Johnson, Lijah Thompson, Brad Piehl, Velton Jones, and five yet-to-be-determined players grow?

Or will there be an immediate demand for another run at the NEC? Sure, Robert Morris will contend in those years. But will they be as good of a team as they could be two years later, when those players are juniors and seniors? Highly doubtful. Will you be willing to wait for their development?

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if all of us were covered and discussed at the same level of athletes. Would we be as patient as we are now for a law student to acquire all the tools and experience she needs to become a successful lawyer? Or would we say, “She’s a selfish and ‘me-girl’, she doesn’t deserve it.”

Would we allow the young journalist to make some mistakes, turn in some weaker and less effective articles, even if it’s against the New York Times or Washington Post? Or would we say, eight articles in, that “he’s a disappointment. Not what I expected at all.”

How you answer that could probably say a lot about your perspective. Which sports fan are you? The Tampa Bay Rays fan who exploded in joy when his team made the World Series after years of losing? Or the disgruntled Steelers fan calling talk shows, yelling about Bruce Arians being a moron despite being a fan of the best team in the AFC?

The first is in the vast minority right now. The first is being drowned out by the second. That’s why there’s a rash of negativity, Bill.