Category: Robert Morris

Help Support St. Anthony 2020

Ed. Note: This morning’s guest post comes from Peter Spiewak and the St. Anthony 2020 campaign. Please check it out and consider donating this holiday season as the school not only provides basketball talent to schools around the country, but does a great job educating students as well. Continue reading “Help Support St. Anthony 2020” →

NEC Power Rankings – The First Installment

Overall, the month of November wasn’t a great one for the Northeast Conference. This was to be expected with lots of senior talent and Quinnipiac moving on, though, some performances near the top of the league have been rather underwhelming. Still, the NEC is currently the 24th best conference in the nation, according to Ken Pomeroy’s standards. If that ranking holds up over the course of the season, it would be the league’s best performance in the KenPom era going back to 2003. Continue reading “NEC Power Rankings – The First Installment” →

NEC Recap – November 26

Six NEC teams were in action two evenings away from Thanksgiving. According to KenPom, all six were registered as underdogs, with Wagner having the most “realistic” shot of beating their opponent, St. Bonaventure. Despite the low odds, tonight served as an interesting barometer for several teams heading into the holiday break. Let’s check in to see how the conference fared. Continue reading “NEC Recap – November 26” →

NEC Recap – November 23

It’s been rough beginning for the Northeast Conference, as its ten teams have managed to win only 11 of 40 games versus Division I competition. With lots of senior production moving on and Quinnipiac jettisoning for the MAAC, this was to be expected. But no one could have envisioned four NEC clubs – Sacred Heart, Central Connecticut, Mount St. Mary’s and Fairleigh Dickinson – would still be winless at this juncture of the season. Well, at least for the former three. Continue reading “NEC Recap – November 23” →

NEC Recap: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

It’s time to begin a non-conference tradition – our “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” post for the NEC! The first edition is a little late this week, so a few teams already have a couple of games under their belt. Let’s highlight the biggest positives and negatives from the first four days of the 2013-14 season.

The Good

  • New Blackbirds May Soar, But One Remains the Same – No Jamal Olasewere, C.J. Garner, Julian Boyd, Booker Hucks, and Kenny Onyechi? No problem! All the Blackbirds did was score 1.18 points per possession and drain 11 of their 24 three-point attempts in their season opening victory over St. Peter’s. The long distance onslaught was led by guard Gerrell Martin, who after only playing a quarter of LIU Brooklyn’s available minutes last season, scored a career high 24 points. As impressive as Martin and others like Gilbert Parga and Landon Atterberry were, though, Jason Brickman was the star of the show. His NEC Player of the Week effort yielded a sensational line of 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 14 assists. Currently, Brickman has 733 career assists. He would need to average approximately 9.5 dimes per game for the remainder of the season (28 games, plus any postseason games) to crack 1,000 career assists, which would make him only the fourth player ever to do so in NCAA history. Are you going to bet against him? Yeah, we didn’t think so.
  • A Stunning Upset Down South – John already went over the Terriers remarkable takedown of Miami, but given the magnitude of the accomplishment, this story bares repeating. St. Francis Brooklyn’s season opening win was the first time the program has ever upended an ACC school. Previously, the NEC’s record against ACC schools since the turn of the century was 2-52, with both victories coming against hapless Boston College (Robert Morris in 2008, Bryant in 2012). Jim Larranaga may be in a deep rebuilding mode after losing point guard Shane Larkin and five seniors from a championship roster, but a win versus a power conference is impressive nonetheless. It puts the rest of the NEC on notice – St. Francis will be a contender, even if that wasn’t the consensus thought prior to November 8th. This team is far more athletic with Kevin Douglas, Amdy Fall, and rookie Wayne Martin logging big time minutes around Jalen Cannon, Ben Mockford, and others.
  • New Faces, Same Result – Even though he likely won’t admit it, the 2013-14 season will be the biggest challenge of Andy Toole’s young career. Lots of production has graduated and/or moved on, yet it was business as usual in their home opener versus Savannah State. Last season the Tigers – a defensive stalwart ranked 30th nationally in defensive rating – stymied the Colonials’ offense, holding them to 0.78 points per possession on 29% shooting. This time around, Robert Morris got their revenge as 11 different players – five newcomers – scored in a decisive 20-point victory. Three players scored in double digits and Anthony Myers-Pate and Kavon Stewart combined for nine assists and two turnovers. Velton and Russell who?

The Bad

  • A Massive Rebuild Ahead – We here at Big Apple Buckets don’t put much value in non-Division I wins, hence our stark refusal to acknowledge FDU’s Friday night victory over Caldwell. Rather, we’ll treat that as an exhibition and focus on the Knights’ inconsistent effort in Hofstra. It wasn’t much of a game from the start, with the Pride pulling away after a couple of early runs. Not surprisingly, the Knights struggled to score, posting 0.85 points per possession. A field goal percentage of 30.2% surely didn’t help, nor did an unsavory 9:13 assist to turnover ratio. Obviously, the rebuilding effort in Hackensack is going to take a while, so don’t expect the turnaround to occur in the next couple of months. With the exception of home games against St. Peter’s and Hofstra, every other non-conference showdown gives FDU a 6% chance or less to win, according to KenPom. It’s improbable, yet not wacky to envision Greg Herenda’s group with zero Division I victories heading into NEC play.

The Ugly

  • A Sacred Shooting Slump – Anthony Latina summed it up best in his postgame comments after a disheartening defeat at the hands of Fairfield, “It’s almost impossible to win when you shoot 24%.” Extrapolate that to just three-pointers, and the Pioneers were a paltry 19% (on 26 attempts) from behind the arc. Yikes. Much of the poor shooting had to do with Fairfield’s newfound post presence, Malcolm Gilbert (11 rebounds, 8 blocks), but the Pioneers missed a lot of open looks from within 15 feet. Chalk it up to first game jitters, over aggression, whatever, yet it wasn’t a good start to the Anthony Latina era. With a whopping 25 Stag turnovers committed in the contest, Saturday evening was Sacred Heart’s best chance to beat Fairfield (now 0-5 all time) for the first time in its Division I history. Instead, the Pioneers must now regroup against an improved Holy Cross squad on Wednesday. To make matters worse, freshman De’von Barnett – who Latina believes can provide an instant impact off the bench – will likely miss his second straight game with a sprained ankle.
  • 13 Minutes of Blue Devil Hell in Bridgeport – With 13 minutes remaining in the second half, CCSU was cruising against in-state rival Yale. Kyle Vinales was red-hot, Matthew Hunter was his usual stat stuffing self, and newcomers Juwan Newman and Faronte Drakeford were contributing. Everything was sunny at the Webster Bank Arena for the blue and white. And then Yale began their furious comeback. When the smoke cleared, James Jones’ crew delivered a stunning 33-point turnaround by the final horn. In order to pull it off, the Bulldogs scored 32 points on 15 consecutive possessions (yes, you read that correctly) to give them the lead for good. Moreover, the Blue Devils fell apart on the boards, as they were out rebounded 23 to 9 in those final 13 minutes. Of those 23 rebounds, seven were offensive rebounds that led to 10 second chance points.

Player of the Week: Jason Brickman for reasons stated above. With all due respect to Dyami Starks, I can’t get too excited about an individual performance when the team was routed by Gonzaga.
Rookie of the Week: Wayne Martin, of course. A well deserved honorable mention goes to St. Francis point guard Malik Harmon, who was sensational against Navy (20 points on 7 shots, 5 assists, 4 steals) on Monday. It isn’t premature to say that Rob Krimmel has his point guard of the future. This kid is legit.
Team of the Week: St. Francis Brooklyn. That was one heck of a Florida trip for Glenn Braica’s crew, knocking off both Miami and the Mike Jarvis coached (remember him?) Florida Atlantic within a three-day span on the road.

You can follow Ryan on Twitter @pioneer_pride

NEC Team Primer: #3 Robert Morris Colonials

Head Coach: Andy Toole, 4th Season (68-36, 39-15 NEC)
Last Season: 24-11, 14-4 (NEC), Lost Second Round of NIT to Providence, 77-68
RPI/KenPom: 121/144
NEC Preseason Poll: 2nd out of 10 teams (tied with Bryant)
State of Program: NEC Contender
Starters Returning: 2
Key Loss(es): Velton Jones (10.6 ppg, 5.1 apg, 1.7 rpg), Coron Williams (9.1 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 41.6% 3pt%), Russell Johnson (10.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg), Lijah Thompson (didn’t play last season due to injury)
Incoming Players: Britton Lee (G), Kavon Stewart (G), Desjuan Newton (G), Jeremiah Worthem (F), Charles Oliver (G), Aaron Tate (F)

RMULogoProjected Starting Lineup:
PG: Anthony Myers-Pate (5.9 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.8 apg)
G: Karvel Anderson (12.5 ppg, 43.9% 3pt%)
F: Lucky Jones (11.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg)
F: Aaron Tate (So., Played at Dodge City Community College)
C: Mike McFadden (8.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 56.5% FG%)

Key Reserves: Kavon Stewart (G), Desjuan Newton (G), Jeremiah Worthem (F), Stephan Hawkins (F)

Major Storylines:

  • The Apprenticeship Ends – Anthony Myers-Pate has spent the past three seasons learning behind one the all-time greats in NEC history, Velton Jones. Now Myers-Pate has the unenviable task of replacing Jones in the RMU lineup. The senior’s passing skills are going to be up to snuff. Myers-Pate has shown the ability to make plays with his passing ability, but he’ll need to cut down on the turnovers a bit now that he’s in a full-time role.
  • Tradition and Respect – It needs to be noted that Robert Morris lost a lot from last year’s team that won the NEC regular season title with a 14-4 record. The Colonials will be without Velton Jones and Russell Johnson this season, two players that were the biggest cogs in the offense last season. They’ll also be without sharpshooting Coron Williams, who transferred to Wake Forest for his final season. Still, Andy Toole and his program have built up a ton of respect after being at or near the top of the NEC for the past six seasons. It’s because of that past history and Toole’s outstanding coaching that people are overlooking this team’s flaws and planning to see RMU near the top of the standings once again.
  • My Old Kentucky Home – Robert Morris pulled off one of the upsets of the season by defeating Kentucky 59-57 at home in the NIT last season. It was probably the biggest win of any NEC team last season and landed the Colonials in the national spotlight. It also showed off the team’s commitment to defense – or at least a slow pace in a 54-possession game – and a lack of intimidation. (It might also have shown why major conference teams never go play true road games during non-conference.) The rematch occurs on Nov. 17 at Rupp Arena. The atmosphere is going to be completely different and Kentucky will have that much more talent, but it’ll provide the Colonials an early measuring stick and more exposure for the NEC.

The Skinny:
The Colonials’ success or failure never hangs on just one player. No player played more than 68.0% of the team’s minutes last season. Andy Toole wants to rest players and juggles his lineups so that he can get the best available defensive match ups during a game. What will be incredibly important is RMU’s commitment to defense. The Colonials allowed 0.99 points per possession during conference play last season. It was the best mark in the high-scoring NEC. The one weakness of the Colonials defensive identity was that they fouled way too much (51.3 defensive free throw rate, the worst in the NEC). It might take this team some time to adjust to the new rules and continue to be the defensive force.

In the backcourt the Colonials will start two known commodities. Karvel Anderson showed during his first season in the NEC that he’s one of the conference’s best shooters and he should be able to continue stretching defenses with his deadly accurate three-point shooting. He’ll be teamed up with Anthony Myers-Pate, who definitely doesn’t need to replace all of Velton Jones’ production, but certainly does need to be a steady hand at the wheel and a stout defensive presence in a league with a ton of talented point guards. RMU also has added some backcourt depth in its talented recruiting class. Kavon Stewart scored 10 points in 19 minutes off the bench in the Colonials’ scrimmage against California (Pa.). Desjuan Newton will also provide a more experienced, albeit not at the Division I level, scoring guard. Newton averaged 17.4 ppg at Central Arizona College last season.

The front court has two familiar names. Lucky Jones and Mike McFadden can be all-conference performers. Jones should have the inside track for an all-conference slot thanks to his inside-outside scoring ability and tough work on the defensive end. McFadden will need to help lock down the paint against this season. The third spot in the front court is up for grabs. Aaron Tate started the exhibition game, but played only nine minutes. Another freshman, Jeremiah Worthem, comes to RMU with a good deal of hype and grabbed 10 rebounds in 19 minutes in the exhibition. Worthem also hit the two free throws that gave the Colonials a late lead. The 6’6″ Worthem had offers from a number of schools before choosing to go to Western PA. Someone is going to step up and take those minutes in the rotation. Also, while David Appolon is listed as a guard, he could play the wing at times, considering he’s 6’4″.

Overall, RMU has all the talent it needs to compete for an NEC title. The Colonials had the inside track last season, but blew it at home in the semifinals against Mount St. Mary’s. Can they return to the NEC title game again and this time get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2009-10 season? Certainly.

Coach’s Quotes:

“I don’t know yet. What I’ll say is that we had a really good summer in terms of our team chemistry in terms of our guys, including our new guys, coming in and working.” – Andy Toole on how the Colonials replace Velton Jones

“What we’ve done over the past six years at Robert Morris, the last three as head coach, I hope people understand that we try and play the right way. We try and play and compete as hard as we possibly can. I think it’s a tribute sometimes to the guys that were here previously that people still continue to pick us high and there’s responsibility that falls on the shoulders of this year’s group and our new guys to continue on the tradition. To try and leave it better than they found and to continue to try and push our program forward each and every time they get a chance to step out on the floor. It’s something that we have to explain because a lot of our guys come to the program because of the success, but they don’t necessarily understand the effort that it takes and so it’s something that we talk to them about frequently.” – Toole on expectations and the legacy at Robert Morris

“We don’t teach our guys to foul. It’s something that we talk about all the time about defending with your feet and your chest and position defense and things. I think the intent is hopefully to make the offense have more freedom of movement, but I also think that as a defender you have to be really engaged. You have to be anticipating. You have to be in the correct position. You have to be technically sound in order to defend and I think in a lot of ways that’s the way the game should be.” – Toole on the new defensive rules and fouls in general

Predictions:

Ryan – Off the record, one NEC coach said it best when explaining why Robert Morris was picked second in the preseason poll, despite losing a lot production: “Robert Morris is like the Patriots of the NEC. Until they aren’t in a position of contention, you just have to assume they’ll be there at season’s end.” I agree, but I think it could be rough sailing in the early going. They have to adjust to the new defensive rules and Toole must tinker with his rotation and team chemistry. They’ll be a legit factor come NEC time, but I think losing Velton, Coron, Russell, and Lijah will be too much to overcome. (16 wins, 9-7 NEC)

John – Lucky Jones is one of the best players in the NEC whether Andy Toole plays him enough for him to earn NEC First Team honors or not. Considering the talent around him and the youngsters Toole brought in to supplement the lineup this team should be right back in the thick of the NEC race again. It might not end in a championship, but the defense will keep this team in every game. (18 wins, 10-6 NEC)

Other NEC Team Primers:
#10 Fairleigh Dickinson Knights
#9 St. Francis (PA) Red Flash
#8 Sacred Heart Pioneers
#7 St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers
#6 LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds
#5 Bryant Bulldogs
#4 Central Connecticut Blue Devils

How the New Defensive Rules Will Impact the NEC

The NEC was the fastest conference in the nation last season and the league’s teams roasted opposing defenses during the 18-game conference slate. Teams scored an average of 1.06 points per possession, the second best in the nation behind only the Summit League. Scoring might be even higher this season. Continue reading “How the New Defensive Rules Will Impact the NEC” →