RMU-Oakland recap: giving up 100 points and winning usually don't go hand in hand

I was feelinjg good today. I don’t know if it was the Christmas spirit or if I was still drunk from last night, but I was feeling good.

Then 1 p.m. happened. Then a few hours later Robert Morris lost to Oakland 100-94.

This was a pretty awful game to watch. Oakland did WHATEVER it wanted on offense. You know how when you were younger and you didn’t want to lose in a video game, so you changed the settings to beginner and just started making everything? That’s what this entire game was like. You want an easy look at the rim? Go ahead. What about a wide open corner three? Sure. It was 40 minutes of that.

It’s not like RMU didn’t have their runs or good performances. Lucky Jones dropped a career high 27. Chuck Oliver did more Chuck Oliver things and went for a career high 18. Karvel Anderson has been battling a flu, per Andrew Chiappazzi, and it showed as he had an oh’fer from three (0-6).

We should give credit where credit is due: RMU was getting their asses completely kicked at the beginning of the game but fought back, just not enough. Every time they needed to go on an extended run it seemed they would turn the ball over and give up a three. 11 and 12 point deficits were back to 19 before the blink of an eye. RMU got some stops when they needed to late but couldn’t hit shots. Such is life.

Some interesting tidbits: Aaron Tate started for Jeremiah Worthem today. I don’t think starting a game is really to important, it’s way more important about who’s finishing games, but it was still weird. Tate is certainly playing better but not at the same level as Worthem. Toole could have felt it was a match-up thing or maybe Worthem got in trouble… I really have no idea.

-Good job from the bench today. Chuck Oliver, Jeremiah Worthem, and Kavon Stewart all played well.

-Not a lot from the big men today. Mike McFadden was awful defensively and even some of the possessions he did play well in Oakland hit shots. McFadden did have seven rebounds and went 4-10 shooting. Still too many jump shots from him in my opinion. Stephan Hawkins was pretty irrelevant. He didn’t grab a single rebound again today.

-The two main guys we talked about in yesterday’s game preview were Corey Petros and Travis Bader. They combined for 50 points. I LOVE Petros’ game. The big man has such a high basketball IQ. He can read double teams and passing lanes so well and knows when to go to work. He has 20 first half points (24 in the game) along with seven rebounds, three blocks, and two assist. As for Bader, the Oakland telecast noted how he was in a slump, then made ten three’s yesterday. He went 7-12 from three today. He also is going to break J.J. Reddick’s all-time three point record. So yeah he can shoot.

Overall this really sucked. Oakland is certainly much better then what their record reflects and anyone who follows college basketball knows this, but lets not get it twisted: this is also a team that lost to St. Francis Brooklyn. This was a winnable game that was lost due to deplorable defense. It doesn’t get easier with Oklahoma State, Alabama, and Bryant in three of the next four games.

That’s all for now!

--Chris Cappella

--@C_Cappella