Robert Morris men’s basketball picked 8th in Horizon League preseason poll
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Andy Toole enters his 13th season as coach of the Robert Morris men’s basketball team, hoping the return of four starters will vault the Colonials past what the Horizon League preseason poll is predicting.
Robert Morris was picked eighth of 11 teams in a vote of league coaches revealed Wednesday.
Leading the four returning starters is fifth-year forward Kahliel Spear, who was named to the Horizon preseason second team.
Spear, a third-team, All-Horizon choice at the end of the 2021-22 season, led the Colonials in scoring (14.7 points per game) and rebounding (7.7, fourth in the league).
Spear led the league in field goal percentage (55.1%, 188 of 341) while starting 32 games.
In four seasons at Bucknell and Robert Morris, Spear has scored 819 points, with 452 rebounds. He has averaged 12.9 points and 6.8 rebounds in 50 games (two seasons) and recorded 58 blocked shots at Robert Morris.
Also returning to the Colonials are guards Enoch Cheeks (9.2 points) and Michael Green III (10.4) and forward Matt Mayers, who averaged six points per game while converting 63.3% of his shots (76 of 120) from the floor.
Purdue Fort Wayne (17 first-place votes) and Northern Kentucky (15) finished in a tie for first in the preseason poll, each with 394 voting points.
Robert Morris will hold a meet-the-players event, entitled MADNESS, at 7 p.m. Thursday at the UPMC Events Center on campus.