Andy Toole Has Robert Morris Back at the Pinnacle of College Basketball

INDIANAPOLIS — Andy Toole and Robert Morris were regulars in the NCAA Tournament when the Colonials were a part of the Northeast Conference but since joining the Horizon League, Bobby Mo has struggled to find its footing. That was up until this season as Toole guided the Colonials to a program-tying 26 wins, a Horizon League regular-season title, a Horizon League Championship and an NCAA Tournament berth.

Toole helped the Colonials reach two NCAA Tournaments as an assistant coach and another two tournament berths as the head coach, albeit one was cancelled due to the pandemic. Now, after a rough first four years in a new conference, Toole finally has the Colonials back to where they are used to being which is at the top of the college basketball world and inside of the March Madness field.

While Toole never got over the fact that the 2020 NCAA Tournament was cancelled, he finally got some closure as this year’s squad is headed to the big dance.

“I don’t think that you ever are fully resolved from the emotions of that 2020 experience,” Toole said after the game. “But this is a different group. This is a different year. These guys have been unbelievable all year long. They’ve continued to improve all year long. They continued to come together all year long and that is how we became a championship-level team.”

Just a season ago, Toole and the Colonials won just 10 games but now they are one of the most successful mid-majors in the entire country. The reason for the big jump was Toole’s ability to recognize and recruit the “right” players. Each player in the Robert Morris rotation had a defined role and played within the system.

Toole brought in eight players last offseason with six of them being transfers. The six transfers, along with the returning Alvaro Folgueiras, made up the main rotation that Colonials played with over the course of the season.

“In order to become a championship level team, you have to have guys that are willing to accept and embrace and excel in their roles,” Toole said. “There’s no way in hell that we could be even close to the team that we’ve been without these guys, without [Ismael] Plet, without Ryan Prather, without Chris Ford, Dilen Miller, all of those guys that are stepping up, making plays, giving contributions whenever it is needed.”

“Again, the only way you’re going to be able to get to this level, you have to have some good players, you have to have some talent, you have to have some competitiveness but you have to have some guys that are willing to accept and do whatever they can to help the team and that’s what these guys have done all year,” Toole continued.

The Colonials managed to get as far as they have due to the core group of players, but the spotlight was on just three of them for a majority of the season. Those three were the Horizon League Player of the Year winner Alvaro Folgueiras, the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year winner Amarion Dickerson and All-League guard Kam Woods.

RELATED: Sights and Sounds of the Robert Morris Horizon League Championship Win

That was not the case in Tuesday night’s championship victory as the spotlight was on D-2 transfer Josh Omojafo. The Canadian scored a game-high 24 points and hauled in a career-high 13 rebounds. In fact, he posted a double-double in the second half alone as he scored 18 points and hauled in 10 rebounds after the halftime intermission.

Courtesy Tristan Freeman

“When we clinched the regular season championship, Josh had 27 points,” Toole said about Omojafo. “When we clinched tonight, he had 24 points. I thought that his rebounding was as impactful as anything else that he did tonight. Those plays don’t always get celebrated by you guys, but we celebrate them, we see them, we value them.”

Another player that did not get much of the spotlight throughout the season but played a huge role in the team’s success was D.J. Smith. While he scored just 9 points in the championship, Smith helped stabilize the Colonials early in the season when Woods was out due to an injury.

Smith’s play took a hit after Woods returned to action but fortunately, as time went on, Woods and Smith found a way to mesh on the court. While the Colonials’ award-winning front court carried them throughout the season, the backcourt got better game-by-game and was a huge part of the postseason success.

“In the third game, I had gotten injured so that took me away from the team for a minute and they were playing well, they were winning, and they were having fun so me coming back, it took time,” Woods said about how he and Smith meshed throughout the season. “The month of December was rough. We got it done and sometimes we didn’t get it done but after we came back from break, we knew what we needed to do to win.”

We'll say it again, @Deangilo_Smith is clutch! We're up 53-49 at the U12. #GRIT #MarchStartsHere #HLMBB @RMU pic.twitter.com/zVYKW1HQr1

— RMU Basketball (@RMUMBasketball) March 12, 2025

“I think it’s just me and him as competitors,” Smith added. “Even going all the way back to August in practice, we just went hard every day against each other and then when he came back (from injury) we did have that span, it was either one of us having a good game but it’s just being in the gym together, seeing each other work hard and just trusting one another.”

Following the championship win over Youngstown State, Robert Morris now awaits Selection Sunday when they will find out their seed in the NCAA Tournament and who their opponent will be.