When coaches want to get more out of their players in between games they may implore them to practice like they play.
For Robert Morris heading into their massive first-round NCAA Tournament challenge against No. 2 seed Alabama, head coach Andy Toole wants them to play like they’ve practiced.
“We’ve had two or three really good days of prep. Guys are engaged,” Toole said before the team left campus Wednesday. “They’re familiar with some of the personnel. They’re familiar with some of the actions. We tried to do our best to equate some of the things that we would be guarding to other examples of us guarding during the course of the year. The guys have been really locked in.”
The biggest challenge for the 15th-seeded Colonials on Friday in Cleveland will be trying to figure out a way to slow Alabama’s offense. At 91.1 points per game, they are the top-scoring team in the country.
“What makes them unique is how many different options they have. They just put so much pressure on you at every level. They do such a good job of getting into their offense so quickly,” Toole said. “They all play with supreme confidence. They all play with supreme aggression. One half-step in the wrong direction, one split second too slow, then all of a sudden they’re taking advantage of that.”
Part of what RMU does on defense, though, starts when the team is on offense. A challenge for the Colonials will be to avoid taking ill-advised attempts early in the shot clock. The Colonials may write their own ticket out of the tournament early in the game if they find themselves increasing the number of possessions and going shot-for-shot with the powerful Crimson Tide.
“If it is quick, it’s quick — if it is a good shot. But we are always trying to find a great shot,” guard D.J. Smith said. “A lot of times we pass up the first good shot to get a better shot. That’s kind of the game plan.”
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Toole knows his team will have to walk a fine line between suppressing the overall number of possessions without being too robotic on offense.
“We talked a little bit about that, being intelligent about the shots that we take. Not taking semi-open shots,” Toole admitted. “But it’s hard because we have some guys — Kam (Woods), Josh (Omojafo), Alvaro (Folgueiras) — those guys can make some tough shots. They can create some tough opportunities that have been some positive plays for us. I don’t want to completely rob them of that. But we also have to be intelligent about how we’re executing our offense.”
The 44-year-old head coach has been on the sidelines of NCAA Tournament play before, leading RMU to a First Four win in Dayton back in 2015. He also played in two tournaments with Penn in 2002-03. Toole believes his team has adapted well to pre-tournament prep after celebrating the high of winning the Horizon League last Thursday for the first time since joining the conference in 2021.
“We’ve got to flip the switch from ‘Cloud Nine’ to preparation,” Toole said. “There’s times where you win that league championship and you get (in) the NCAA Tournament, and all of a sudden you never get back to work. We talked about it last Friday. Making sure we get back to work, starting to get back to work, starting to make sure we’re sharp in what we do.”
Woods is also a veteran of March Madness play, having been on the N.C. State team that went to the Final Four a year ago. He knows that preparations for the games are one thing. But getting out and actually playing them is another.
“It’s different,” Woods said. “They are no nerves. But it’s definitely bigger than other games we had this year.”
And it’s tough to find an opponent bigger than Alabama. The Colonials are taking the floor as a 22.5-point underdog, and the Tide are in the top five on the BetRivers.com odds board to win the whole tournament.
“You’ve got to shoot the ball into the same net. The goal is 10 feet,” Woods said on Selection Sunday. “You are playing with the same-sized ball. And (your opponent) is waking up the same as you.”
With a 12:40 p.m. start Friday, that wake-up call will be early in Cleveland. And it’s one the Colonials will have to answer right away if they plan to hang with one of the best teams in the country.