Lijah Thompson leaves RMU

In a surprise move, center Lijah Thompson has decided to forgo his senior season at Robert Morris and will instead enroll at Lincoln University, a D-II school. Andrew Chiappazzi of ColonialsCorner.com was the first to report. A few thoughts:

• Lincoln just got a heck of a center: Lijah is a big, tough center. He played three very solid years and I was really looking forward to his fourth and final season, where he apparently was making great strides in all parts of his game. In his last season, Lijah averaged 7.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Lijah always made his presence felt on the defensive end and was the best rebounder on the team, a big weakness of the Colonials.
• You’re up, kid: What does Lijah’s departure mean for the frontcourt? Things are definitely pretty slim. The recent departures of Thompson, Vaughn Morgan, and Jervon Presley (Never played a game at RMU) increases the roles of sophomore Stephan Hawkins and freshmen Jeremiah Worthem and Aaron Tate. I thought Hawkins was the most improved player RMU had last year and he has the size and length to be a pretty dominant shot blocker and rebounder, but has to keep improving. Worthem is extremely talented but seems to be more of an inside-out player (think of the likes of Russell Johnson and Jamal Olasewere) than a post player. It sounds like Tate is a good defender and rebounder, but is only 6’5”.
• Lineup changes? Ideally, Toole would have liked to play a lineup with Thompson at center and Mike McFadden at power forward, moving Lucky Jones to small forward. Now? There are plenty of options. You could simply replace Thompson with Hawkins, or move McFadden to center and start Worthem at power forward. When Toole wants to go small, he can move Jones to power forward and potentially play two point guards with Anthony Myers-Pate and Kavon Stewart taking the floor, much like we saw last year when Myers-Pate and Velton Jones played together.
• The Expectations should stay the same: Look, losing a tough, experienced center obviously sucks, but it’s not like he played last year. While RMU lost two greats in Russell Johnson and Velton Jones, Toole still brought in one of the best recruiting classes in the history of Robert Morris basketball. There’s been a ton of turnover in the NEC and RMU is as talented as anyone. There’s no reason to still not expect the colonials to be in the NEC championship hunt. It’s NCAA’s or bust. Again.

--Chris Cappella

--@C_Cappella