The reason Mount can be a difficult matchup for zone defenses is how they can spread the floor with shooters; they have three 1,000 point scorers. In the last regular season matchup between these two squads (an eight point Robert morris victory), coach Toole referenced this, stating Mount had five "high alert" guys on the scouting report who can stroke it. the difference being RMU contained scorers like Julian Norfleet, Sam Prescott, and Will Miller. This time, that was not the case.
In the first half, besides making it rain from three, the Mount did an incredible job scoring from the elbow. Sometimes they were tough shots and other times they were good looks. Exhibit A:
Rashad Whack does a good job splitting two defenders at the top of the key. This shouldn't happen to begin with, but when it does, Stephan Hawkins has to step up immediately.
Hawk does step up and gives a decent contest, but Whack is a very good player and this is a little too much space for him.
A few minutes later, RMU is in their base defense again and again Whack has the ball. This time, RMU is in a much better position with their defense. You can see Chuck Oliver at the top of the zone. Anthony Myers-Pate is taking away the high post and can also provide help if Oliver gets beat off the dribble.
These are the types of shots you can live with. Whack hit a tough, contested elbow jumper. That's just the type of day it was.
The second half saw more high post-baseline action with the Mount doing a good job spreading the floor:
Whack beats Karvel off the dribble but Lucky can't help because he can't leave Will Miller open in the corner. Taylor Danaher holds his ground on the opposite side of the paint baseline which hesitates Hawkins from sliding over to help. The high post man screens off Kavon and Prescott is on the wing at three point line. This is the ideal floor spacing you want to see when facing a zone.
Here is an example of what we saw a ton in the second half: working the high post. Sam Prescott did a great job with his decision making in the high post. Here we see him flashing into that position. Karvel can't take away the passing lane because Whack could very well knock down that three pointer (and the way things were going, he probably would have). Again, there are shooters in the corner and the far wing and a big man baseline. Look at how Kavon is unsure on if he should stay on the shooter or guard the high post.
Hawkins steps up on the high post but there are two guys on Prescott at the wing. Appolon was late to help and it results in another easy bucket. Picture perfect execution.
And one more time. Prescott in the high post. Danaher baseline. Lucky probably should have taken one step to his left. Prescott makes a nice pass and Danaher finishes. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
There was a lot of talk on how RMU maybe should have went to a man defense after getting continually beat in the zone. Even the announcers suggested this. I completely disagreed with that notion. To begin: RMU's zone defense was what got them to the position they were. It was their bread and butter. It was the second most effective defense in the conference. That's not something you ditch in your biggest moments... you have to have faith in your scheme. Also, does anyone remember how dreadful RMU's man-to-man defense was at the beginning of the year. Besides getting beat off the dribble every possession. Help rotations were slow.
I was more impressed with RMU's offense than I thought it would be. The biggest problem they had was rushing possessions late in the game. I'm all for aggressiveness but there were a few drives that Kavon Stewart and Anthony Myers-Pate had late in the game that were just not smart. On top of that, RMU also missed some gimmies at the rim and had at least three hundred rebounds fall through their hands and go either A) out of bounds or B) right into the hands of a Mount player.
-Karvel Anderson played better than I thought he did. In the first half, there were a few instances where I thought he should have shot the ball instead of trying to create off the dribble. We saw a more aggressive shooter in the second half.
-Chuck Oliver and Kavon Stewart played very well when given the opportunity. Chcuk played with a ton of energy. Kavon's steal and layup to cut it to eleven in the middle of the second half was one of the lone high points of the game and really had the Chuck rocking. Karvel airballed a three the next offensive possession in a shot we've seen him hit 100 times before. Just one of those days.
-Three calls I really disagreed with: the Chuck Oliver blocking foul late in the game (he was two feet outside the restricted area), an Aaron Tate block called for a foul, and a Lucky Jones block called for a foul. With that being said, the refs were not the reason RMU didn't win.
-Those who criticized the crowd noise: just stop. I thought the crazies did a good job. It's hard to absolutely lose your mind every defensive possession when you're down double digits. listen to the crowd when RMU cut it to eleven. The deficit wasn't even at single digits and the place was going insane.
-Give credit to the Mount. Head coach Jamion Christian had a flawless gameplan and was a step ahead of Toole the entire game. Also, good for the Mount for bussing down hundreds of people for the game. They had a really, really good showing.
-Do you believe in omens? This was a quick recap of my day: Despite having my clothes in the dryer for over four hours, everything was still wet, not allowing me to wear my lucky socks. We tried to tailgate in the gravel parking lot but were shut down by RMU police despite having only a dozen people with no music plying and no grill. A 50 year old man challenged me to a fight before the game because I made fun of Taylor Danaher for not having a beard. He even appeared to be a writer covering the game. I'm not kidding.
-Coron Williams dropped 25 today for Wake Forrest because of course. What's next? Lijah Thompson blocking 12 shots, including one with his afro? A Vaughn Morgan game winning dunk over three people as time expired? Sheesh.
-There's going to be a lot of talk about the future of Andy Toole. Toole is a great, great coach but still has that blemish on his resume of no NCAA appearances. He'll have chances to go elsewhere this offseason, but will they be significant enough to pry him from Robert morris. As of now, I doubt it. Just my opinion.
-I feel bad for this team. They put up with a lot this season. the crazy 8 truly deserved better. With that being said, there is still more basketball to be played. The NIT is right around the corner. Who knows, maybe a Pitt-RMU matchup is in our future.
--Chris Cappella
--@C_Cappella
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