Who’s coming? Who’s going?
Who knows?
For now, at least one thing appears certain in the Robert Morris men’s basketball camp: Anything can happen.
When the Colonials entered the season with a brand-new lineup after the transfer of all five starters from their first Horizon League Tournament championship team, nobody knew what to expect.
But they knew what they wanted.
“Our staff did a great job of getting guys to understand some of the finer points of the game that really affect winning and losing,” coach Andy Toole said in the aftermath of Monday night’s 70-64 loss to Detroit Mercy in the Horizon Tournament semifinals in Indianapolis. “You saw that in our team for the second half of the year. You saw flashes of it at the beginning of the year. But you saw consistency in that at the end of the year.”
Though they failed to return the Horizon championship game — instead, Detroit Mercy played top-seeded Wright State for the title Tuesday night — the Colonials have put together back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since doing it four years in a row from 2011-15.
Yes, this new group had grown tight, much in the same way last year’s collection came together at the right time and finished the regular season with 10 straight wins and 16 of the final 17.
As the season wore on, this new group had the look of another champion, winning the final seven regular-season games and 10 of last 12 heading into a title defense that finally broke down against Detroit Mercy in the second half.
Nonetheless, DeSean Goode, RMU’s second straight Horizon Player of the Year, again marveled at how much he has appreciated the stellar team atmosphere that radiated around UPMC Events Center and beyond.
He didn’t back down after the Colonials’ late rally Monday got them within a point, only to watch Detroit Mercy hold on in the final minute while going 6 for 6 from the free-throw line.
“Without (my teammates and coaches), I wouldn’t be in the position I was in,” Goode said.
On and off the floor, that is.
“We exceeded some expectations outside our locker room, and I think we were really close to living up to the expectations in it,” Toole said.
In the past two years, Toole was able to work the NCAA transfer portal to near-perfection. What’s more, he coaxed his new “guys,” as he likes to refer to them, to perform with an eye toward perfection.
Although Robert Morris fell short, Toole reminded everyone that in order to get to the top, you’ve got to get past the middle.
“If you’re not consistently in this position, you don’t ever get to the ultimate goal,” he said. “Sometimes, the closer you get to it, the more it hurts when you don’t achieve it. That’s kind of where we’re at right now.”
Until the transfer portal opens for business April 7, it’s anyone’s guess if next year’s team will offer some familiar faces or enter a new season with yet another new look.
Most everyone is eligible to come back, including the 6-foot-8 Goode, an IU Indianapolis transfer who, as a sophomore, led Robert Morris in rebounding (8.7 rpg) and was a close second in scoring (15.2 ppg) behind junior Ryan Prather Jr. (15.7), the only returnee from last year’s championship team.
Which brings us back to the beginning of all this.
Who’s coming? Who’s going?
Seriously, who knows?