Colonials Corner

Couple things for everyone to chew on over the weekend. As you enjoy these tidbits, you should be aware that the site is scheduled to undergo some changes over the weekend. This has been primarily a template and placeholder, and we’re hoping to institute a better organized and more visually interesting version this weekend. That is, of course, if everything goes right.

From there, the hope is to work out the final few bugs and then see if/how some additional features – more photos, video, additional multimedia, a message board – can be included as we go along. The primary focus, though, is to get the true format of the site up and running this weekend. Keep your fingers and toes crossed that all goes well.

On to the notes:

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One of the great Pittsburgh institutions is back for another year. The Pittsburgh Basketball Club sponsored summer league begins Monday night. Games will be played Mondays and Wednesday nights through July 15th at the GreenTree SportsPlex in Green Tree.

If you need more information about the club and the sportsplex, check out the PBC website. Games are scheduled as triple-headers, with a game starting at 7:00, 8:00, and 9:00 in the evening. Some games go longer, some end early.

The summer league serves as an open competition for players with ties to the local area. That includes all of the Division I teams in the region – Penn State, West Virginia, Robert Morris, Duquesne, and Pittsburgh – as well as D-I players who are from the Pittsburgh area but may be playing elsewhere. It is also open to Pittsburgh based players who are now playing overseas (you’ll see some RMU reps there in that category), and it’s open to several D-2 and D-3 schools in the area as well.

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New RMU assistant Robby Pridgen.

Robert Morris has hired a new assistant coach to Mike Rice, and they’ve finally announced Coron Williams as their final recruit for 2009-2010.

Lots of news from the basketball program today. Coron Williams, long expected to be in the fold since verbally committing months ago, officially signed his letter of intent and was announced as the final piece of the recruiting puzzle. The 6’2, 170 pound Virginia sharpshooter will compete for playing time right away, according to Mike Rice.

So what does this mean for Micktavious Holt? From what I’ve been able to learn, Holt has gotten a little too excited. There’s “mutual interest” in him playing for the Colonials, but Holt has some academic work to do to ensure his role with Robert Morris.

More likely is that he comes to RMU next year, either via prep school or as a Prop 48.

The Colonials will also have a new assistant. Levi Franklin left to coach at the Potomac School, opening the door for D-3 Roanoke assistant Robby Pridgen (at right). Pridgen graduated from Roanoke in 2003 and has helped coach the team to three straight winning seasons.

Rice on Pridgen:
“Robby is a young and up-and-coming coach, and he proved to me that he possesses a great amount of energy and enthusiasm for what he does,” Rice said. “He comes from a very successful Division III program at Roanoke, and we’re extremely excited about him joining our staff at Robert Morris.”

It’s official. Thoughts and impression of the press conference below, including some reaction from Velton Jones, Craig Coleman, and Rice himself. Topics include the continued efforts to push for excellence on and off the court, raising the profile of the university with the basketball program, and the makeup of his team for the 2009-2010 season.

Once full articles are up, we’ll include links to Eric Hall’s coverage from the Beaver County Times and Colin Dunlap’s coverage from the Post-Gazette (plus anything else that filters out).

Q+A will be answered later tonight. This should tide you over.

Every year, all of the coaching staffs across the college basketball landscape meet and discuss the state of their profession at the Final Four. Athletic directors gauge interest in possible job movement, coaches reconnect with their former mentors, and gab sessions of indeterminable length occur about anything and everything involving college hoops.

At this year’s Final Four, Mike Rice became a sort of target. Not necessarily to gauge his potential interest in leaving Robert Morris, but to playfully chide him for setting the bar so high for himself.

Fifty wins in two seasons. Two regular season conference championships. An NIT berth his first year and an NCAA Tournament appearance in his second. All while doing it, in the words of athletic director Dr. Craig Coleman, “the right way.”

Rice signed a three-year contract extension to keep him at Robert Morris through the 2015-2016 season.

All three speakers at the press conference announcing the deal – University President Gregory Dell’Omo, athletic director Coleman, and Rice – spoke of the need to build a true program at the university and to do it the right way.

Rice harkened back to his original press conference, where he wanted to focus on his three keys to a successful program: winning, academics, and awareness in the community.

“It’s remarkable what we’ve done the past two years,” Rice said. “I was confident that I had great mentors and teachers that helped me to understand what my formula was going to be for winning. But you never think you’re going to win 50 games in two years. Did I think we might challenge for the NEC? Sure, that’s what I thought. But then you get into it and you see that you’ve recruited some great players, that you have the best coaching staff, and an administration that will bend backwards to help you with your basketball program.”

With the recruits coming in, Robert Morris will have a deep bench with everyone on the roster capable of contributing. But even the recruiting class itself has some experience, as Velton Jones and Russell Johnson were recruits last year that didn’t contribute to the championship season this time around. At least, not on the floor.

Jones sat out last year but was able to practice as a partial qualifier. Now that he’s a full member of the squad, Jones will be among a dozen players vying for playing time.

“Last year was a learning experience,” Jones said. “I came in not really knowing what to expect and now I’ll be ready to go for this year.”

Mike Rice cited just three players as likely being in his starting lineup – Rob Robinson, Dallas Green, and Jimmy Langhurst – but cautioned that those three could have their spots threatened by the other guys on the roster.

No matter how the roster works out, Jones and the Colonials aren’t concerned. This was a deep team by NEC standards last year, and it was a close team. That chemistry has carried over so far into the offseason.

“It’s good to play with people you know,” Jones said. “I’ve known Khalif Foster since I was 11. I played against other guys in AAU ball and other games. Everyone loves each other, and we all just want to win.”

As far as new blood goes, Jones will be joined by another familiar face in Russell Johnson, a 6’6 forward from Chester High School in Pennsylvania. Johnson was a recruit last year but sat out the season to focus on academics. He turned down offers from schools in the A-10 and the CAA to come to Robert Morris, and he’ll challenge for a starting spot from the very beginning.

In fact, the four true freshmen coming in will also challenge for spots. All will earn the opportunity to play, with Mike Rice saying that the guys who work that hardest and want it the most will be the ones to move up.

Brad Piehl, Lijah Thompson, Karon Abraham, and Coron Williams have all signed and qualified and will be in the mix.

“It’ll play itself out. The workers end up at the top,” Rice said. “The challenge is going to be defense. I think I have some guys that can step up, and I think we’re going to be even more athletic than we were last year, but it’s going to be a challenge.”

Rice admitted that other schools talked to him to gauge his interest, toting higher salaries and “high jobs” in “better conferences”. But the lure of a coaching staff that he described as “second to none”, the support of the university, and the possibilities in front of him, there was no way he could leave Robert Morris.

“I have, I think, a great formula here. Running away for money just doesn’t make sense,” Rice said.

“It’s hard not to believe that we’re going in the right direction with this program as far as raising the notoriety and awareness of this program,” he said. “To me, that’s the exciting part. I’m excited about our returning players, with a lot of veterans already with us, and I’m excited about a six-man recruiting class that I think may be one of the best in NEC history. We’re on people’s lists [recruiting wise] that for the past ten years we haven’t been on.”

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.

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.

He did it again.

Really, he did it all night long, but when push came to shove, Rob Robinson brought the house down.

Again.

Robinson rebound-tomahawk slam gave Robert Morris a 66-63 lead with 1:57 left in the game on their way to a 69-64 come from behind win against Quinnipiac. The junior forward scored a career high 22 points, had 14 rebounds – including 9 offensive boards – and five steals to lead the Colonials. Jeremy Chappell had 17 points to go with 6 boards and 2 steals.

Chappell’s two thefts made him the only player in Northeast Conference history with at least 1,000 career points, 500 rebounds, 250 assists, 250 steals, and 200 three-pointers.

The night didn’t come easy for the Colonials. Robert Morris effectively shut down Justin Rutty, the Bobcats star forward, but guard James Feldeine scored 25 points and the Bobcats nearly walked out of the Sewall Center with a win. Robert Morris led 34-33 at halftime, saw the game swing to a 3 point lead for Quinnipiac, back to as much as 6.

But after James Geffen gave Quinnipiac a three point lead with 3:28 left, Robinson and Chappell scored eight of the final nine points for the Colonials to get the win.

Also, less than 1,000 people in attendance. I realize it’s Valentine’s Day, but it’s pretty clear what you do. Guy wakes up early, either makes sure not to disturb significant other sleeping next to him or drives over to significant other’s home, makes breakfast, brings better half breakfast in bed. Spend afternoon doing chores and other odd jobs around the house. If you have kids, play with them.

Take the kids to the game, or just go with the better half. Watch the game. Enjoy. Drop the kids off with a sitter/grandma/aunt/lonely best friend for the rest of the night. If it’s the two of you, even easier.

Proceed from game, buzzing with excitement, to your late reservations at posh restaurant. Enjoy romantic candlelight dinner and celebrate Valentine’s Day and a Colonials win however else you wish.

Adopt it your life as you see fit.

Just sayin’.

It was a double feature Thursday night in the Sewall Center. Sure, the rare televised weeknight doubleheader was nice, even if the Lady Colonials couldn’t hold on for the win, but the real double feature came in the second half of the men’s game.

Let’s call it the Chappell Show meets Hangin’ With Mr. Robinson.

3o of the 51 second half points for RMU came courtesy of Jeremy Chappell and Rob Robinson, and your Colonials are 18-8 (12-1) following an 85-79 win over Sacred Heart.

Game story is up and readable here.

Mike Rice and the Colonials will walk away paying attention to the defense (or lack thereof), trying to find out what happened just one game after playing what Rice called the team’s best defensive effort of the year against CCSU.

Everyone else? Cue the music. Da da da, da da da!

Robinson’s acrobatic dunk (which is already making the rounds on ESPN, as they just played it as an exit to a commercial, but somehow failed to include it on The Top 10) sent the place into a frenzy late in the second half. The junior forward was trailing Bateko Francisco as Francisco went on a breakaway layup. But a Pioneer came back and partially blocked Francisco’s shot.

Enter Mr. Robinson.

Rob scooped the ball out of the air and – in one simple, fluid motion – windmilled home a tomahawk jam. As you can read in the game article in the Times, even Mike Rice was impressed.

Robinson had 20 points and 8 boards, Chappell had 22 points with 9 boards and 5 assists.

We’re working on getting the video up of Robinson’s dunk.

AJ Jackson is heading to Southeast Asia.

The former Colonials forward recently signed a contract to play in the Phillipines and will head there later this week. He was previously with a team in Finland (which we were not aware of), but was released in September and had been back in the Pittsburgh area. Jackson had attended several of the recent RMU home games while he was back in town.

Meanwhile, Tony Lee continues to do well in Poland. Sportino Inowroclaw, meanwhile, is struggling at 8-13 in the league. Lee’s averaging 11.1 points per game, 4.2 rebounds per game, 3.8 assists per game, and 3.3 steals per game in 25.9 minutes per game.

And Derek Coleman is lighting up Germany. His Osnabrueck team is 11-8, Coleman is playing 34 minutes per game, and is the leading scorer at 19.3 points per game.