Two games nestled into the early portion of its schedule for Robert Morris served as an ideal time to check on the progression of Andy Toole’s team this season.
After a competitive non-conference stretch against higher-ranking opponents for RMU, the Horizon League gifted teams an opportunity to play two conference adversaries before proceeding with the rest of its out-of-conference action.
Progress report: Things are trending backwards.
Robert Morris had fairly strong showings against the likes of Xavier, Towson and Wisconsin. With those takeaways, there was a growing expectation that RMU may take another step in the Horizon League after a 10-10 record a year ago.
With two games in four days against Northern Kentucky on the road and a rivalry matchup at the UPMC Events Center versus Youngstown State, the Colonials had the chance to prove that they would be contenders in the conference.
Albeit, both contests were against two of the top teams in the conference, the Colonials showed a lot of regression from the early stint of its campaign.
There was one thing that bothered Toole when he addressed the media after the 71-57 loss at home to YSU, so much so that he dropped the phrase during nearly every answer.
“That’s the theme of today, the lack of consistency.”
Pick any facet of the game for Robert Morris: 3-point shooting, layups, turnovers, communication, rebounding, defense. There was not a whole lot of consistency.
Let’s start with this. One of, if not the most pressing issue, especially against Northern Kentucky, but also visible against the Penguins, came with the inability to finish layups.
Time and time again, the Colonials could not bury contested layups or second chance layups.
At NKU, the Colonials failed to finish on 19 lay-in shots on 25 total opportunities. Similar troubles kept the Colonials from pouring in layups at home on Saturday.
“How many layups can you miss? A lot of them are at the rim, and you got to be able to finish. That was the story on Wednesday. We were 5 for 20 at the rim. We miss a layup, they make a layup, we miss a layup, they make a layup,” Toole said.
Per Hoop-Math.com, the Colonials convert 51.1% of its shots at the rim, nearly last in all of NCAA Division I basketball at 342.
Layups are one of the foremost fundamentals learned in the game of basketball. In order for a team to compete, it’s imperative that the layups are falling. Yes, sometimes you don’t get the roll, but for NKU and YSU, they made the shots that counted underneath the hoop.
Just as the layups wouldn’t land, the 3-point performance has been insufficient as well. RMU has shot just 8 for 38 beyond the arc the last two games.
With the inability to drain open shots and execute at a higher rate, that has corresponded with lengthy runs that allowed NKU and YSU to pull away in both contests.
At NKU, after the Colonials tied the game at 33 to start the second half, the Norse assembled a 22-4 run. Days later, RMU did a better job to respond to an early Penguins’ run, but in the second half, YSU generated its own 22-4 stretch that built the Penguins largest lead of the day.
“Then they went on a run, we went on a run, and they went on a run and then we didn’t have another run in us. That was the difference in the game. We still got to figure out why that is the case or why we can’t consistently be playing better for longer,” Toole said.
In addition to the poor shooting for the Colonials is the turnovers. Although they fluctuate game by game, they seem to have become more egregious over the last two games.
As points are left off the board and lead to convenient chances for the opposition, it has become a growing frustration for Toole and his coaching staff.
“Some of them, I just can’t understand what we’re seeing,” Toole said about the turnovers. “If you are giving away eight possessions like its nothing, and a handful of those are leading to offense for the other team, you’re basically gifting the other team multiple layups. It makes it really hard to win.”
The Norse and Penguins combined to score 29 points off of 28 turnovers.
So, how do the Colonials turn their inconsistencies into sustainability?
First thing that Toole noted, just like any coach, was that they need to get back in the gym and drill the message into their players.
“We got to hold a line as coaches that we’ve got to do it until we do it right, and I think that can create some consistency,” he said. “Hopefully, at some point, you get tired of doing things over for doing them incorrectly and then you either learn how to do them correctly or your focus grows because you don’t want to have to do it again.”
Adding to that, the Colonials have to find an “edgier” drive during practices and games. The effort has been a problem for the Colonials, especially when rebounding.
Entering Saturday’s matchup, YSU had a +5-rebounding differential, and that was apparent against the Colonials. However, it wasn’t so much the big guys taking care of the glass, it was the tenacity from guys like Brett Thompson on the offensive side of the floor, who corralled some of his own misses.
“A lot of its effort, a lot of its discipline, a lot of its desire,” Toole said regarding his teams rebounding performance.
As a team, the Colonials require some soul searching in order to fix some of the ongoing issues, but they are also in need of one of its starting five players to return to form.
Starting small forward Jackson Last has lost his way over the past few games after a career-high-tying 16 points against Wisconsin. His last four games saw point lines of 2, 1, 6 and 0. The junior has shot a mere 20% from the floor in that span.
The Colonials have relied on Last’s ability to play a well-rounded game, and even in this slump, that hasn’t changed.
“Jackson’s one of our most consistent people. He’s an incredible teammate. He kind of etched a role for him because he was so consistent and so solid. I was trying to urge him at half time to stop thinking and play, but he’s struggling a little bit right now,” Toole said.
“We got to figure out a way to try and help him contribute more because he’s capable of contributing more. He’s not going to stop working, I guarantee you that. He probably feels worse about some of his performance than anybody does because he feels like he’s not doing what he can do to help the team,” he added.
As Last and the Colonials seek more sustainability, it comes at a time where they turn back towards non-conference play with matchups against Canisius and Delaware approaching.
Although it’s been eight games and just two conference matchups, there has begun a sense of urgency for the coaching staff to fix the ongoing errors.
