CLEVELAND (93.7 The Fan) – It looks like stats for an NBA team. It must be a nightmare to watch in preparation. Alabama led the country by a fairly wide margin in scoring this year at 91 points a game. What Robert Morris will try to do on Friday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Colonials head coach Andy Toole said his players have watched them play. They understand what they are going against. What Toole has tried to do to keep them from being overwhelmed is to try and equate what Alabama does with some of the teams they’ve faced this season. Understanding it’s not at the same level.
“We wouldn’t be here without defense,” said guard Kam Woods. “That’s a big part of why we have been winning. To stop them you have to play defense. Teams that have beaten them have stopped them. We’ve been trying to lock in and get ready to guard for 40 minutes.”
Stop might be aggressive, limit might be the better word. Since January 14, Alabama’s lowest point total is 76 points in a three-point loss at number five Tennessee. 18 times this year the Crimson Tide went over 90 points, seven times over 100 points. They have six players averaging double-figures in a game led by First Team All-American Mark Sears. They beat three number one teams this season.
“Just keying in on the details,” said Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year Amario Dickerson. “Defense is just not a one-person thing. All five guys on the court have to be locked in. Not just locked in on themselves, but locked in on each over. You've got to rely on your brother when you're out there playing defense.
“So just keying in on the details, having the will and want to do it. I feel like defense is something you have to want to do. You can't just go out there and be like, I want to play defense. It's something you actually have to do.”
“We trust in each other,” said junior Alvaro Folgueiras. “It's something that we do every day, every night. He said that good; we trust in each other, and we take responsibilities defensively.”
“One of the things that we tried to do when we built this roster was improve our defensive ability by having some guys that can guard in space, by having some guys that can protect the rim. I'm not sure that we thought we'd have to be doing that against an SEC-level team, but we are, and we're fortunate to be able to do that.”
RMU was second in the Horizon League allowing 70.4 points per game, second in rebounding margin and third in blocked shots. In the Horizon League.
“I've told the guys that what we need to do is everything we've worked on all year long, but we've got to do it at by far the highest level that we've done it all year,” Toole said. “That's going to be the challenge (Friday).”
“Once the whistle blows, we just do what we’ve done all year,” said junior Josh Omojafo, a former Gannon University player. “Trust our instincts, trust our guys to make the right plays. We are just going to have to lock in defensively. The are the number one offense in the country. We have to contain them, once we contain them, everything else will follow.”