PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – How did it come about that Robert Morris felt it could move up to a tougher conference and compete? How much was it because they had Andy Toole as their head coach? What allowed the Colonials to play a first NCAA Tournament game as a member of the Horizon League on Friday?
You could count every year, barring extreme circumstances, that Robert Morris would be a favorite to win the Northeast Conference. The Colonials were a power in men’s basketball in the NEC and had a relatively local rival in St. Francis University in Loretto, who won the NEC this season.
Athletic Director Chris King came in six years ago and changed it all. It was a big reason they brought the RMU alum back. He worked in athletic departments across levels, including seven-and-a-half years at the University of Alabama. They were convinced they could elevate the program to be in a conference where you weren’t in the NCAA Tournament play-in game and could get a higher seed with more opportunities.
The challenge they found was not only making this move, but doing it during a pandemic.
“It takes time,” King told 93.7 The Fan. “It takes resources to be able to make the transition from the NEC to the Horizon League. I knew that. I told everybody to give it four, five years and here we are in year five. You are seeing success.”
He said he never had a doubt it would work. Which had to be difficult to sell as the Colonials didn’t have a winning conference record before this year. The won 24 of 76 games over four seasons in the Horizon League, before winning 15 games this year.
A big reason he never doubted they would win is their head coach Andy Toole.
“I’ve worked with him now,” King explained. “It’s my sixth year of working with him. First year we went to the NCAA Tournament, unfortunately COVID ruined that.”
“He’s a very competitive guy, very driven. He has a very strategic vision of the men’s basketball program. He’s been here 15, 16 years now as a head coach. He’s been committed to RMU, committed to this region. He has a fantastic relationship with the alumni, the donor base, the media. He’s a great ambassador for the program.”
King said he and Toole have evolved and adapted together with the changing world of college athletics. They’ve been able to work with alumni and donors, who in turn believe in Toole and the program. RMU has done well raising funds compared to others in the conference.
There is something that hasn’t changed or been adapted, the Toole intensity and expectation that everyone will play defense. He knows not everyone fits their system, but players know what they are getting and he has resources to find the right fits.
“As an athletic director, you rarely get praise,” King said. “You rarely get someone to pat you on the back for a great job. Normally, you deal with the headaches. When you are in a leadership position you have to have a vision. You got to understand where you are going and you have to exude patience when you make a big jump like that. Whenever you are looking to go to a much bigger conference, the Horizon League is no joke, top to bottom, particularly in men’s basketball. It’s a tough league.”
Now for the first time Robert Morris is its representative in the greatest tournament in all of college sports. That belief and willingness to take a chance gives the Colonials the opportunity to do even more.
“For RMU it’s not just the local publicity, the local media coverage,” King said. “It’s regional, it’s national with ESPN. It helps with enrollment. It helps with institutional image. It helps with the identity of the school. It attracts students, faculty and staff to be able to come here.”
“I’m not going to lie, it helps quite a bit with revenue generation for us to be able to sustain what we are doing now.”
It started with taking a risk.