Tonight, the Robert Morris Colonials (16-8, 8-2) will play
in their biggest home conference game of the year, as they take on the Wagner
Seahawks (13-9, 7-3) at the Sewall
Center
We were joined by Velton Jones and Russell Johnson on our
show Thursday and learned through Jones that Mike McFadden will rejoin the team
for tonights game. In my humble opinion, McFadden is not the defensive player
that freshman Stephan Hawkins is, but is a much needed, reliable, low post
scorer. His 57 percent shooting percentage is good for best on the team and
sixth best in the NEC. At the very least, McFadden is another body that the
frontcourt desperately needs, with Vaughn Morgan leaving, Lijah Thompson being
gone with a torn ACL, and Keith Armstrong still recovering from a torn
Achilles.
The health of both point guards, however, is a little more
questionable. Anthony Myers-Pate has passed his IMPACT tests after hitting his
head Wednesday against St. Francis PA. Velton Jones did not play Wednesday and
gave us the dreaded “taking it day-by-day” quote regarding his right shoulder. This
is a huge game, and not many are tougher than Velton Jones, so I would expect
him to give it a go on at least a limited role. Myers-Pate is more than capable
of playing a solid game and I’ve been very impressed with his play lately, but
make no mistake about it, this team goes when #2 is on the floor.
Lee made an awesome point on our show Thursday. Wagner guard
Kenny Ortiz, the reigning NEC defensive player of the year, could be spending a
lot of time on Karvel Anderson if Velton Jones is a no-go. With Coron
Williams struggling, that could put a lot of the burden on Russell Johnson and
Lucky Jones. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing because those two guys are very
capable scorers but when you’re facing a team the caliber of Wagner that can be
a dangerous combination. Coron Williams needs
to get going.
Wagner is a team that has been pretty inconsistent this
year, especially offensively (this includes a 38-36 win at NC Central in the
third game of the season), but are finally getting healthy and figuring things
out. Guard Latif Rivers missed some games earlier in the season but has came
back and had a typical Latif Rivers year (12 points, 40 percent from the field
per game). Like I said earlier, Ortiz is a lock down defender and a capable
scorer (11 points per game) but the guy Robert Morris needs to key on is senior
forward Jonathon Williams, averaging 14.6 points per game and seven rebounds. Overall,
Wagner is a balanced team offensively and it’ll take a complete team effort defensively.
My prediction: RMU never fails in these big home games. If
the students come, they will respond: Colonials win 74-70.
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