Basketball fans, today marks the fourth week of the HoriZone PC series, which is a tribute to every current Horizon League coach in the style of video games.
This week, we are featuring Robert Morris head men’s basketball coach Andrew Toole, who scored over 1,000 career points as a collegiate player.
For those of you that know about Toole in his playing days and others that don’t, he played his first two seasons for the Elon College Fighting Christians under head coach Mark Simons. As a freshman in the 1998-99 season, Toole played in 26 of the team’s 27 games (16 starts), averaging 9.9 points while shooting 36.4 percent on 3-pointers (44-of-121), and 88.2 percent on free throws (45-of-51). One of his notable games a freshman was when he scored 14 points off the bench on 6-of-8 shooting in Elon College’s 106-71 loss at Virginia on November 28, 1999.
Elon College finished their first season in NCAA Division I with an 11-16 overall record and were tied with Charleston Southern for 4th place in the Big South standings since both teams went 6-8 in conference play, but the Fighting Christians were ineligible for postseason play since it was the first year of their transition phase onto the NCAA Division I level.
Now onto Toole’s sophomore campaign, which features him in NCAA Final Four 2000 on PlayStation, and it turns out that he had a better second season in college than he did in his first. As a sophomore in the 1999-2000 season, Toole played in all 28 games (26 games) while leading the team in scoring at a career-high 14.6 points per game, shot 37.6 percent from downtown (65-of-174), and led the Big South Conference in free-throw percentage at 84.8 percent (84-of-99). Toole’s best game with Elon College came on January 4, 1999 in their 94-54 win over Belmont Abbey College in which he dropped a career-high 25 points.
Elon College finished the 1999-2000 campaign with a slightly better overall record of 13-15 overall and finished 7-7 in conference play, which was good enough for a three-way tie in 3rd place with UNC-Asheville and Coastal Carolina.
Toole’s ratings in NCAA Final Four 2000
• Shoot: 62
• Over: 61
• Leap: 72
• Steal: 69
• FT (free throw): 72
• Quick: 70
• Strength: 62
• Block: 56
• Pass: 70
• Speed: 70
• Ball handle: 70
• Range: 81
• Clutch: 63
• Stam (stamina): 67
• Off Reb (offensive rebounds): 57
• Def Reb (defensive rebounds): 60
NCAA Final Four 2000
Following the season, Toole decided to transfer out of the Elon College program. However, Toole was still made as a playable character in NCAA Final Four 2001 (PlayStation and PlayStation 2). Some things to note is that at the end of last season, Elon College was now renamed Elon University, while the school nickname was also changed from the Fighting Christians to the Phoenix.
Toole’s ratings in NCAA Final Four 2001 (both versions)
• Shoot: 56
• Over: 49
• Leap: 64
• Steal: 51
• FT (free throw): 95
• Quick: 67
• Strength: 50
• Block: 40
• Pass: 58
• Speed: 62
• Ball handle: 69
• Range: 90
• Clutch: 76
• Stam (stamina): 79
• Off Reb (offensive rebounds): 40
• Def Reb (defensive rebounds): 45
NCAA Final Four 2001, PlayStation
NCAA Final Four 2001, PlayStation 2
Following his decision to transfer out of Elon, Toole signed with the Penn Quakers of the Ivy League and played the best basketball of his entire NCAA career under legendary head coach Fran Dunphy. Since Toole was not featured in NCAA Final Four 2002, we skip ahead to NCAA March Madness 2002 on the PlayStation 2 where Toole was actually listed as a small forward instead of a shooting guard in the beginning of the game.
As a junior with Penn in the 2001-02 season, he played in 28 of the team’s 32 games (27 starts), finished 7th in the Ivy League in scoring at 13.9 points per game, finished 7th in the conference with 3.7 assists per game, shot 41.5 percent from beyond the arc (59-of-142) and shot 87.3 percent from the foul line (69-of-79). Toole also made the All-Ivy League 1st Team alongside of teammates Koko Archibong and Ivy League Player of the Year Ugonna Onyekwe.
Penn also finished with an impressive 25-7 record and 11-3 in conference play, finishing in a three-way tie for first place with Yale and Princeton. However, Penn would go on to beat Yale 77-58 in an Ivy League Playoff to advance to the NCAA Tournament. It was the Quakers’ 10th straight win, but that winning streak and their season came to a halt after their 82-75 loss to the University of California in the 1st Round of the Big Dance.
Toole’s ratings in NCAA March Madness 2002
• OVR (overall): 56 (small forward) / 58 (shooting guard)
• FG (field goals): 77
• 3PT (3-point shooting): 90
• FT (free throws): 75
• ORB (offensive rebounds): 32
• DRB (defensive rebounds): 33
• HDL (ball handling): 65
• PAS (pass): 60
• STL (steal): 32
• BLK (block): 20
• DNK (dunking): 52
• INS (inside scoring): 51
• RNG (shooting range): 25
• JMP (jumping): 47
• SPD (speed): 70
• OIQ (offensive IQ): 67
• DIQ (defensive IQ): 62
• AGL (agility): 70
• STM (stamina): 75
NCAA March Madness 2002
For Toole’s final collegiate season, we have him in three different games on the PlayStation: NCAA March Madness 2003, NCAA Final Four 2003, and NCAA College Basketball 2K3. In his senior year with the Quakers, his numbers went down mainly due to the arrival of incoming freshman Tim Begley, but Toole was still solid nonetheless. Appearing in 27 of 28 games games (25 starts) during the 2002-03 campaign, Toole averaged 10.8 points per game, 4.7 rebounds per game shot 40.9 percent from beyond the arc (45-of-110), and 83.6 percent from the foul line (46-of-55). Toole and his teammate, Archibong, were both named to the All-Ivy League 2nd Team.
Penn finished with a very good 22-6 overall record and won their second straight Ivy League Championship by going 14-0 against conference opponents. They went to lose to Oklahoma State 77-63 in the 1st Round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament.
Toole’s ratings in NCAA March Madness 2003
• OVR (overall): 64 (shooting guard) / 57 (point guard)
• FG (field goals): 59
• 3PT (3-point shooting): 82
• FT (free throws): 72
• ORB (offensive rebounds): 35
• DRB (defensive rebounds): 35
• HDL (ball handling): 78
• PAS (pass): 75
• STL (steal): 40
• BLK (block): 29
• DNK (dunking): 62
• INS (inside scoring): 54
• RNG (shooting range): 16
• JMP (jumping): 77
• SPD (speed): 84
• OIQ (offensive IQ): 75
• DIQ (defensive IQ): 70
• AGL (agility): 84
• STM (stamina): 70
NCAA March Madness 2003
Toole’s ratings in NCAA Final Four 2003
• Over: 80
• Shoot: 92
• Leap: 85
• Steal: 84
• FT (free throw): 86
• Quick: 65
• Strength: 65
• Block: 70
• Pass: 99
• Speed: 96
• Ball handle: 93
• Range: 52
• Clutch: 75
• Stam (stamina): 95
• OReb (offensive rebounds): 68
• DReb (defensive rebounds): 83
NCAA Final Four 2003
Toole’s ratings in NCAA College Basketball 2K3
• Rate (overall rating): 90
• ShCl (shot close): 80
• ShMed (shot medium): 75
• Sh3Pt (shot 3-point): 40
• ShFT (shot free throw): 87
• ShLy (shot layup): 93
• ShDnk (shot dunk): 31
• DnkRng (dunk range): 10
• DnkSt (dunk standing): 23
• HndBl (handle ball): 88
• Ps (pass): 79
• OffCl (offense clutch): 0
• Sh/Ps (shoot or pass): 68
• LwPst (low post): 75
• LwPstDef (low post defense): 78
• Def (defense): 69
• Blk (block): 67
• Stl (steal): 82
• DefCl (defense clutch): 0
• RebOff (rebound offense): 65
• RebDef (rebound defense): 69
• Spd (speed): 88
• St (stamina): 87
• Emt (emotion): 4
• Dur (durability): 87
• Foul (fouling): 60
• DefAwr (defense awareness): 81
NCAA College Basketball 2K3
Coaching career: Toole is currently in his 18th season overall with Robert Morris and his 15th season serving as their head men’s basketball coach. He was their top assistant coach three years under Mike Rice Jr., whom Toole succeeded after the latter left to take over at Rutgers. In already 15 seasons as the man in charge of RMU, Toole has 236 wins, which makes him the winningest coach in school history (236). He was also named the 2013-14 Northeast Conference Coach of the Year and led the program to the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
Before his success at Robert Morris, Toole started his coaching career at Lafayette University of the Patriot League where he spent the 2006-07 season as an assistant under head coach Fran O’Hanlon.
