As the confetti rained down in Indianapolis, the Robert Morris Colonials became the Horizon League’s representative as an automatic qualifier in the NCAA Tournament next week.
This is the first time the Colonials have won this particular conference after being perennial contenders in the Northeast Conference, having made eight other tournament appearances in the school’s history.
Officially, it will be the first time since 2015 the Colonials have participated in the tournament. However, they were able to capture the NEC’s automatic qualifier in 2020 before the NCAA cancelled its championship due to COVID-19.
At that point, the world was shut down but Robert Morris made a big move. They left the NEC for the Horizon League that summer.
Solidifying a mid-major program back to a championship pedigree takes time facing a higher level of competition, but starting that process in a pandemic without recruiting on the road to get to that level is another challenge itself.
Head coach Andy Toole went through those rough patches and built the program back to its winning ways just like he did in the NEC.
“ When you change leagues in June of an international pandemic, it makes it a challenge,” Toole said. “I think that slowed our progress in this league, and that’s where some people are saying, ‘Hey, what happened to Robert Morris?’ Well, sometimes there’s a lot of things that go into how successful you can be.”
Toole has been in Moon Township since 2007, and quickly became the head coach in 2010.
Looking back 18 years ago, he has understood how much the program has changed since then, with fans have been increasingly frustrated of seasons without a championship to come home.
To the Colonial coach, it’s been a blessing in disguise.
“One of the things that I actually really love is that, [before this year], we haven’t won a championship in five years and people are saying, ‘Hey, what’s going on?'” Toole said. “When I got here as an assistant coach, there was no expectation of anything. That just shows the respect level that this program has built because [now] people expect them to be in championship contention. I think that’s a good problem to have.”
With RMU just getting their feet wet in a new conference, they struggled mightily, combining for just eight conference wins in its first two years in the HL.
In those first two years, there many strings of consecutive losses, star players entering the portal midseason, as it seemed like the program was behind the 8-ball in their brand new conference.
However, in 2022-23 season, they seemed to have turned a new leaf. Kahliel Spear would return for his graduate year, along with sophomore Enoch Cheeks and Michael Green III leading the charge. The Colonials would go an even 10-10 in league play, surpassing how many wins they have the past two years combined and would force overtime in the Horizon League Quarterfinals on the road to Cleveland State, coming just short of a trip to Indianapolis.
That would break up most of the team with Spear graduating and Cheeks and Green would transfer to eventual NCAA Tournament teams in Dayton and James Madison respectively.
The Colonials would take a step back and finish with a total of 10 wins and go 6-14 in conference play.
“ I thought we we were moving in the right direction,” Toole said. ‘But in this day and age of college athletics with roster instability, we lost some guys that were key components. We thought we had kind of added some, it didn’t come together and we had a disappointing year last year.”
With a disappointing 2024, there needed to be a shake-up of some sort.
Over the summer, he spoke with the Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman and received a barrage of phone calls from him about a rumor of Toole’s potential resignation.
“I remember last July, at my son’s sixth grade practice and you calling me about 15 times in a row as if like a family member died, that the word was that I was resigning.” Toole said.
Those rumors quickly went silent when all of the assistant coaches would leave the program.
There needed to be a shakeup, and Toole would be the one to do it. He would hire his assistants Kim Lewis from Mercer, George Aramide from Fresno State, and Anthony Richards from Sacred Heart.
Toole said he sat down with the staff in this summer of what his vision was with this team.
“I don’t even know if the staff or player knew what the vision was,” Toole said. “But, over the last six weeks [the staff] and [the players] have brought that vision to life.”
Next, was bringing in new players. Alvaro Folgueiras was the only returning starter from last year’s 10-win season so they needed to rebuild their starting five.
In came Amarion Dickerson and Josh Omojafo, two guys who have never played on a Division I team before. Toole saw the potential for them and there was plenty of it. Dickerson was named Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year and set the single-game record for blocks in a game back in November and the all-time RMU single-season record for blocks as well. As for Omojafo, he led the team in scoring and rebounds in the championship game with 24 points and 13 boards.
“We went out, we identified some guys that we thought could do that at a higher level,” Toole said. “Obviously, they’ve come in and done that. I don’t think anyone anticipated us being where we are, but I thought as we got together in the summer, we had some of the ingredients necessary to become a championship level team.”
Omojafo was playing at PSAC’s Gannon last season and said the chemistry of the team was a similarity from playing in Division II.
“I just like to reflect on the journey a lot and just be thankful and just blessed that I’m here,” Omojafo said.
With all-new roster, coaching staff and still just their fifth year in their league, the Colonials are finally back dancing in the NCAA Tournament, something not only fans of Robert Morris have been waiting for, but so to everyone in the Pittsburgh area.
