Early last March, the Robert Morris men’s basketball team’s season came to an end in heartbreaking fashion.
Leading Cleveland State by as much as 12 in the second half of a Horizon League Tournament quarterfinal, the Colonials stumbled down the stretch and fell to the third-seeded Vikings in overtime.
Advancing to the semifinals would have been a first for coach Andy Toole’s program, which, entering Year 4 in the Horizon League after moving up from the Northeast Conference, still is finding a footing.
“We want to be competing at the top,” Toole said. “We want to be playing our best basketball at Horizon League Tournament time, and I think, certainly, we had an opportunity to continue our season last year and weren’t able to do it. That kind of sticks in some people’s minds.”
Robert Morris’ improvement since joining the Horizon League has been tangible, even if it’s fallen short of the standard an ultra-competitor like Toole maintains.
The Colonials have doubled their win total for three straight seasons and finished last year 16-17 overall, with a 10-10 mark in conference, good for a sixth-place finish in the Horizon League, all of which were bests for the team since changing conferences.
Toole, who begins his 14th season at the helm in Moon, has aspirations of continuing to climb the ladder.
Looking to help him do it is a roster mixed with new faces and returning talent.
Like many college programs these days, the Colonials had to parry some blows in the form of transfer portal defections, with key guards Enoch Cheeks (Dayton) and Michael Green (James Madison) leaving.
Also gone (via graduation) is Robert Morris’ leading scorer and rebounder from last year, forward Kahliel Spear, arguably the team’s top player over the past three seasons.
Back in the mix for Robert Morris are upperclassmen guards and returning starters Josh Corbin and Jackson Last.
Corbin averaged 10.5 points, and Last contributed 5.8.
TJ Wainwright, who got his feet wet as a freshman playing point guard behind Cheeks, is set to take on an expanded role.
The development of sophomore forward Stephaun Walker will be key for the Colonials.
Last season, the 6-foot-7 Walker was thrown into the deep end, starting 30 games and averaging 6.8 points and 6.0 rebounds, the latter of which was second on the team behind Spear.
“There were times last year when he was inhibited a little bit by some foul trouble,” Toole said. “So I think the next step when you go from freshman to sophomore year — how consistent can you be in your responsibilities and your details?
“Steph’s had a good summer. He’s been working hard, and I think he’s got a grasp of what we need him to do. Now it’s a matter of him going out and doing it.”
Toole had several open scholarships heading into this season and seems to have filled them wisely.
Junior guard Justice Williams joins the Colonials following two seasons at LSU and will look to complement the main backcourt of Corbin, Last, Wainwright and Chris Ford.
Down low, Walker should be aided in grabbing boards and chipping in offensively by fellow 6-7 big man Markeese Hastings, a transfer from Western Michigan who also played two years at Butler.
As a senior starter for the Broncos last season, Hastings averaged 9.3 points and 8.3 rebounds.
The final pieces of Toole’s latest recruiting class are a pair of international freshmen, guard Alfredo Boglio (Novara, Italy) and forward Alvaro Folgueiras (Malaga, Spain), who will compete for minutes.
The Colonials hosted Penn State on Oct. 27 in an exhibition match, falling to the Nittany Lions, 68-58, but offering Toole a barometer to measure his team as the regular-season opener at Xavier approaches.
“I think there’s some areas where we’re more advanced than we have been in certain years, and then there’s other areas where we’re maybe not completely grasping how we need to look or how we need to behave in certain situations,” Toole said.
“We’ve got to continue to get better, and we’ve got to continue to be consistent.”
Robert Morris travels to Xavier to face the Musketeers at 8 p.m. Monday.
