Robert Morris' Alvaro Folgueiras challenges himself to be leader

The Pittsburgh sports world has produced its share of iconic names. You know them by heart: Bradshaw, Clemente, Dorsett, Lemieux …

They all chased their dreams and made them come true.

“If your dreams don’t scare you a little bit, you’re not ambitious enough. You’re not big enough,” said Robert Morris sophomore Alvaro Folgueiras, the Horizon League’s player of the year in men’s basketball.

Perhaps one day, Folgueiras (prounced Fool-gair-us) will add his name to the list of iconic athletes who exceled in sports in and around Pittsburgh.

“I don’t put limits on myself. I cannot be weak,” the 6-foot-9 Folgueiras said late Sunday night in the hours after No. 15 seed Robert Morris learned it would be matched against No. 2 Alabama in an East Region first-round game of the NCAA Tournament.

The underdog Colonials (26-8), champions of the Horizon League Tournament, will square off against the Crimson Tide (25-8) at 12:40 p.m. Friday at Rocket Arena in Cleveland.

The winner will advance to Sunday’s second round at the same site against either No. 7 Saint Mary’s or No. 10 Vanderbilt.

“We don’t (care) about who is in front (of us). The next game is not going to be different,” Folgueiras said in his best English.

No matter the language, the native of Spain speaks from his heart.

After an uneventful freshman year, Folgueiras this season broke onto the college scene in a big way. He has 12 double-doubles, is averaging 14.1 points and 9.1 rebounds per game and is shooting 55.0%, including 42.3 from 3-point range.

And while he wasn’t the only reason, he was a huge reason for Robert Morris’ turnaround. In one year, the Colonials went from 10-22 overall (6-14, ninth-place Horizon) to 26-8 (15-5, first).

“I had something to prove for me. It was something personal,” Folgueiras said. “I was trying to prove to myself that I can be a leader of a winning team. Those are big words, you know? I was trying to prove to myself that I can change the culture, change the environment around me if I had the right mindset.”

Folgueiras arrived in the United States three years ago. He played one season at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Fla., and was a primary target of the Robert Morris coaching staff.

He signed following the 2022-23 prep season as the type of player that coach Andy Toole was hoping would fill the Colonials’ roster following the program’s jump to the higher-profile Horizon.

Robert Morris for decades had played in the lightly regarded Northeast Conference.

“I think Andy aspired to be at a much higher level for basketball and (have) the ability to bring in a higher-level recruit,” Robert Morris athletic director Chris King said. “He aspired to have the opportunity not to be in a play-in game or be a 16 seed when you go into the NCAA Tournament.”

The risk remained that the fast-developing NCAA transfer portal would interfere with Robert Morris’ growth, and it did to an extent (for starters, think Enoch Cheeks to Dayton and A.J. Brahma to Nevada).

Suddenly, things clicked, bringing the Colonials’ astonishingly rapid transformation from a Horizon nobody to a Horizon champion. The roster includes eight transfers, six of them this season.

But Folgueiras is not one of them, a rare high school recruit who so far has remained loyal to Toole.

“It’s special here,” Folgueiras said. “We have great pride, you know? We learn from when we lose. We try to figure out every problem we had during the season. Being together, playing the game with great passion, doing it the right way. I think that means the team is stronger and has a better mindset, better togetherness. It makes us winners.”

If not for a two-point loss to Wright State, Robert Morris would own the nation’s longest current winning streak at 17.

Still, the Colonials have won 10 in a row and 16 of their past 17 heading into Friday’s clash with SEC power Alabama, which earned an NCAA at-large bid after bowing out of the conference tournament following a 104-82 semifinals loss to eventual champion Florida.

Folgueiras is just one piece, but a large chunk of the puzzle in Toole’s instant rebuild.

On the TribLive “Breakfast With Benz” podcast Monday, Toole echoed Folgueiras’ stay-the-course sentiment by referring to a season-opening 87-59 loss at West Virginia.

“Obviously, at that point in time, a lot of us were brand new,” Toole said. “It was our first real game together. There is a lot to learn from that, how out of character we played because of the physicality or the pressure or the intensity that West Virginia brought.

“It’s certainly something we can look back on. And honestly, 34 games ago, it might provide a good glimpse of what we have to not do. We’ve got to continue to stay in character and execute what we work on and play how we play.”

Folgueiras, who says little on the court — his play speaks loudly — has mastered his English well enough to converse freely among those who know little to no Spanish.

And who gets much of the credit for that?

“My language here? I’ve had to work at it,” Folgueiras said. “I don’t talk to the coach often. The coach talks so much, sometimes. So I learn from him, you know?”