Five years after leaving the Northeast Conference and five years after the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled their appearance in March Madness, Robert Morris (26-8) is dancing again.
This season, RMU swept the Horizon League in almost every category. They won the regular season title and the conference tournament. Alvaro Folgueiras won Player of the Year. Amarion Dickerson won Defensive Player of the Year. Head coach Andy Toole won Coach of the Year.
Now they enter the NCAA tournament as a 15-seed against a 2-seed juggernaut in Alabama (25-8). No match-up in the tournament is easy, but Alabama will be especially tricky as they rank first in the nation in points per game (91.1 PPG), rebounds per game (43.1 RPG), and defensive rebounds per game (30.2 DRPG). “It’s going to take an incredible effort tomorrow afternoon,” said Toole. “You’re playing against a 91-point scoring team, the No. 1 pace in the country. It’s going to take a momentous defensive effort. It’s going to take a connected defensive effort where guys are constantly willing to make the next effort, make the next run, communicate the next screening action, rotate properly, contest everything.”
The Crimson Tide score these points in many different ways as they are fourth in the nation on two-point percentage (59.7%) though they take almost 30 threes a game (good for ninth in the nation). They don’t shoot particularly well from deep (35.0%) but they kill teams with volume. On top of this, they take 25.8 free throws a game (7th in the nation).
Alabama plays fast (which also led to opponents scoring a lot as well: 81.4 PPG) and six guys average in double figures. Mark Sears leads the way averaging 18.7 PPG plus 4.9 assists per game (APG). “He’s just so capable at any time of making a deep perimeter three,” said Toole. “He puts so much pressure on your defense with his ability to get to the rim and get fouled. Everybody has tried to keep him away from his left hand, but he keeps getting back to his left hand.”
Sears has an Ohio connection as he played at Ohio University before transferring back home to Alabama. When asked about transitioning from a mid-major to Alabama, Sears pointed to how his time at OU prepared him. “At the mid-major level, you have to win the tournament to go to the championship, and at the high-major level, you’ve still got to win games to get a good seeding. When you get in that tournament, you just want to have that competitiveness to make it farther than you did last year.”
Grant Nelson leads the way on the boards averaging 7.6 RPG plus he also contributes 11.8 PPG and over a block a game. Alabama head coach Nate Oats touched on the topic of Nelson’s availability for the game. “Our trainers are saying he’s day-to-day. Just yesterday, he started doing basketball, skill workouts. He did not go in our live play and practice today.”
Folgueiras spoke a bit about Nelson’s impact (if he played or not). “We’ve got to be focused on what we do, and personally if they’re saving Nelson for the second round, we’ve got to make sure that they suffer without him, and that’s our job.”
Labaron Philon adds another 3.6 APG and 10.9 PPG. One could go on, but it’s clear that up and down the roster, Alabama is stacked. After beating Auburn in the regular season finale plus winning against Kentucky in the SEC tournament, they lost to Florida (the eventual tournament champion) 104-82. They come in ranked 7th in the AP poll though they have been as high as 2nd multiple times this season.
RMU comes in hot as winners of ten in a row and 16 of their last 17. After vanquishing last year’s NCAA Cinderella (Oakland) in overtime during the semi-finals of the Horizon League Tournament, the Colonials scored 55 points in the second half of the final against Youngstown State to get the automatic bid.
Folgueiras is the obvious place to start for RMU’s success as he averages 14.1 PPG, 9.1 RPG, and 3.1 APG. His ability to do basically anything on the floor (including over a three a game, over a block a game, and over a steal a game) plus his 6’9” length creates havoc for defenses.
His jump to the best in the league goes right along with Robert Morris becoming the league champs. “Last year, it wasn’t a great season for us, and we just won 10 games,” noted Folgueiras. “So we’ve got to value the moment and enjoy the experience. But the job is not finished. We have a great chance tomorrow to keep making history, and we’re on that.”
The conversation about Robert Morris might start with Folgueiras, but it ends with the other guys on the team, including Cleveland-native Amarion Dickerson. Dickerson also put up great numbers with 12.9 PPG and 5.9 RPG. He was clearly excited to be back in town for an NCAA tournament. “In Cleveland, you can expect some diehard fans. Obviously growing up not too far from Rocket [Arena], probably five minutes away, you can expect the type of fans that we need, high energy, throughout the arena. It’s an away game, neutral game, but it’ll feel like a home game for us with all the fans travelling from Pittsburgh and all the fans we have here in Cleveland.”
Toole echoed how special it was for Dickerson. “There is no more prideful Clevelander[…] than [Amarion]. He will argue with you about the Browns until death. When we come here to play Cleveland State, he’ll go through his list of favorite restaurants and all the attractions that make Cleveland what it is. So he has such great pride. So for him to be able to play a game here in the NCAA Tournament is awesome.”
Rounding out the Colonials is leading scorer Kam Woods. That’s correct, the leading scorer on the team isn’t the Player of the Year. Oats noted how odd this was. “To have the leading scorer, the Defensive Player of the Year in your conference, and the Player of the Year in your conference be three different guys, I think says a lot about the depth and the talent that they’ve got, and our guys need to recognize that.”
Sears and Woods played together in the past and both had things to say about the other. “From the time I played with him, he was a big-time scorer,” Sears said of Woods. “In high school, he was really known for his scoring and his big numbers he put up. To go with it now, I still think he’s a big-time scorer, so we’ve got to really respect him when we go out there on that court.”
Woods also spoke of Sears, “He’s a great player. We all know that. But it’s just like us, he’s human. Growing up with him, pretty good player. Went to Ohio [University]. He played great and then transferred to [Alabama] and he’s been doing his thing.”
If there was a theme of this RMU team it would be that simple word: team. Folgueiras brushed away his sole impact when asked about winning Player of the Year. “It’s way less important than being Horizon League champion. You’re not a real MVP if you’re not a champion. If I’m the Horizon Player of the Year, it’s because of all of us.”
He went on to credit two people in particular, “One is Chris Ford. Sometimes he [doesn’t] even touch the court being a senior, but he’s practicing extra hours, shooting extra times. [He] never put [on] a bad face when he’s not playing. On his paper, he knows what his role is, and we all know.”
He continued, “Another one is Isaac. Isaac is our head manager. He’s the one that picks up everyone, and it doesn’t matter if someone tells him that he’s doing a good job or not, he just does it for us. On a winning team of course we have good players, and we have it, but you also have to have people that know his role and try to give everything to the team without wanting anything back.”
Adding to the theme of “team,” Toole talked about another non-player. “Our director of basketball operations, Matt Sweet, a couple years ago had had a bout with cancer at 28 years old. Before the championship game against Youngstown, on the bottom of our scouting report, it said highlight of your life, and as we were going through our pregame stuff, when we got to that point, Coach Sweet spoke up and basically said, when you have an incredible death situation like I did with cancer you’re going to reflect on the highlights of your life, and going to the NCAA Tournament is a highlight of your life. He urged the guys, go make a highlight of your life. So whether you play 40 minutes tomorrow or play zero minutes tomorrow, to be a part of this is a highlight of your life. I’m just happy as a coach and a coaching staff that we’ve been able to provide these guys this opportunity.”
With the entirety of the basketball world, plus many others, watching tomorrow, Toole knows how special this game can be. “Obviously, excited to be here. Short drive from Pittsburgh, so we’re excited about the opportunity to have some fans come out and support us tomorrow. Proud of our team. This has been a great group for us to coach. They’re ultra competitive. They love to play the game, love to compete, and I think that’s what’s allowed us to be where we are today.”
Toole again summed the feeling up best. “It’s a lifetime memory. It’s something that you’ll never forget.”
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