Robert Morris coach, players ready for NCAA Tournament, but many already know what awaits

Andy Toole knows what the next several days will feel like for his Robert Morris players.

They’re headed to the NCAA Tournament as Horizon League champions for the first time as a team, and Toole understands the enormity of it all.

“They’ll have the best week of their lives,” he said. “From now until Sunday (when the NCAA will reveal its brackets), it’s like you’re walking on air. You can do no wrong. Everybody’s patting you on the back. When these guys hear their name on Sunday, it will be a feeling that they never felt.”

Toole has been to five such spectacles — “The best tournament in sports,” he said — as player, assistant and head coach.

His first taste was as a guard at Penn in 2002 and 2003. In ’02, he scored nine points inside Pittsburgh’s now-long gone Mellon Arena in an 82-75 loss to California. He was an assistant under Mike Rice when Robert Morris qualified in 2009 and 2010 and the Colonials’ head coach in 2015. The covid-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 tournament after the Colonials qualified by winning the Northeast Conference.

Toole, who’s been RMU’s head coach for 15 seasons, has the experience, but his players also are aware of what awaits them.

“You will never forget this,” said graduate student Ismael Plet, a native of The Netherlands who played at Arkansas Pine Bluff before joining Oral Roberts in the Sweet 16 in 2021. “You’ll tell your children about this.”

Robert Morris (26-8) has won 10 games in a row and 16 of 17, but Plet said there were moments long before the season began that helped make this run possible.

“You’ll remember the moments not wanting to go to practice,” he said, “not wanting to run (during summer workouts), not wanting to sprint, wanting to quit, wanting to give up. That’s what March Madness embodies, all those moments.”

Said Horizon League Player of the Year Alvaro Folgueiras: “We’re champions now, but we were champions on effort from Day 1.”

In step with the rest of the country, six of the team’s top seven scorers were uncovered by Toole in the transfer portal. The exception is Folgueiras, a sophomore and native of Spain, who said he’s been on campus almost exclusively since his freshman year, except for three weeks when he went home to visit family.

The transfers include Josh Omojafo, who helped Gannon finish 32-3 and reach the NCAA Division II Elite 8 last season. He scored 24 points with 13 rebounds Tuesday in the Horizon championship game against Youngstown State.

Senior guard Kam Woods, whose three-point play Monday forced overtime and allowed Robert Morris to eventually defeat defending reigning champion Oakland in the semifinals, was with N.C. State last year during its Final Four season.

He leads RMU in scoring (15.1 points per game) after playing in only 13 games last season for the Wolfpack.

“We had a lot of transfers come here to rewrite their stories, finish what they started in their basketball careers,” Woods said.

All five starters scored in double digits in the title game, including Folgueiras (14), Woods (17), Amarion Dickerson (13) and D.J. Smith (11).

The victory against YSU was easy when compared to the come-from-behind effort against Oakland when Robert Morris trailed by 13 in the second half.

“The second half, we had some animated timeouts and a lot of it was from them,” Toole said.

He said players spoke to each other in huddles with commands such as, “Guys, we’re not losing this. Pick it up. Do what we have to do. Figure out how to make the next play. Figure out how to make the next stop.”

How was Toole able to recruit and then fit the pieces together seamlessly after ending last season on a seven-game losing streak and finishing 10-22?

“The vision that coach Toole and his staff put in front of us,” Plet said. “We believed in that.”

Folgueiras gave credit to Toole, remarking, “If you’re not humble enough, he’s going to humble you.”

Said Toole: “Sometimes, you just get fortunate. These guys made choices as well to give us the opportunity, to come here, to buy in, to try to execute and bring the vision to life. They did it and then some.

“One of the things I’ve always been impressed with when we got these guys together — and I’ve said it a bunch — is the competitiveness they have. They have great pride in how they want to perform and how they want to play. You could just see it in the way they worked, the way they prepared and the way they focused.”

When the team returned Wednesday from Indianapolis, the bus was met by a group of happy fans and a pep band. After the cheering calmed down, Toole met with reporters and said he has no preference of opponents or venues. For the record, ESPN’s most recent bracketology sends the 15th-seeded Colonials to Cleveland to face No. 2 Tennessee in the first round.

Speaking while surrounded by teammates, Plet didn’t predict a score, but he suggested the opponent doesn’t matter.

“Regardless of the score, we knew we were going to win the game,” he said of the Horizon semifinal. “That’s the beauty of our team. In order to win championships, you need that resilient spirit. You need that character of knowing you’re going to win, regardless. All my brothers behind me showcased that at a high level.”

Toole gave the team Thursday off and plans to practice Friday and Saturday.

“I’m sure they’ll be spirited practices,” he said. “Why not?”