Robert Morris picked 9th in Horizon League men's basketball preseason poll

Two days after sharing the court as a speaker with Arkansas’ John Calipari, Gonzaga’s Mark Few and others at a regional clinic, Robert Morris men’s basketball coach Andy Toole learned Tuesday where his team would land in the latest Horizon League preseason poll.

Coming off a disappointing 6-14 league record (10-22 overall), the Colonials, with just one returning starter, were chosen to finish ninth among the league’s 11 teams, the identical spot in which they ended last season.

It’s not a place Toole prefers his team to be, but entering his 15th season as RMU’s coach and fifth since the school joined the Horizon, he’s not surprised by the level of respect his program has received.

“There’s really good coaches, good players, good teams in this league, and we’ve got to be onto our game much more than we were last season,” Toole said.

Milwaukee, with 15 first-place votes, and Purdue Fort Wayne, with 14, shared the top spot in the poll, conducted by the Horizon’s coaches and team sports information directors as well as media covering the league.

Wright State’s Brandon Noel, a 6-foot-8 junior forward who averaged 14.5 points and 8.0 rebounds last season, earned preseason player of the year.

Northern Kentucky wound up third in the poll; Oakland, which last season upset Kentucky and lost to N.C. State in overtime in an NCAA Tournament regional at PPG Paints Arena, was picked fourth, ahead of No 5 Wright State and No. 6 Youngstown State, which ended the year just one game behind regular-season champion Oakland.

Youngstown State begins a new year under first-year coach Ethan Faulkner, a former assistant under Jared Calhoun, who left to take over as coach at Utah State.

Following a time when Robert Morris was among the title contenders in the Northeast Conference, the program has struggled to gain footing in the Horizon, where its best year resulted in a tie for sixth place in 2022-23.

“We were disappointed last year in our ability to defend and rebound, something that’s really been a hallmark of our program,” said Toole, who was joined also on Sunday by Pitt’s Jeff Capel and Duquesne’s Dru Joyce III as among six guest speakers at a clinic designed for high school coaches at Rize Sports in Leetsdale.

“Two years ago, we were one of the better teams, defensively. Last year, we were not where we needed to be. There’s still a long way we need to go.”

Justice Williams, a 6-4 senior guard, who averaged 12.3 points last season at Robert Morris and was second on the team with 76 assists, was joined by two other returning players with significant playing time last season: 6-5 senior forward Chris Ford (3.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg) and 6-9 sophomore forward Alvaro Folgueiras (5.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 21 blocks).

The Colonials welcome eight new players, led by N.C. State transfer Kam Woods and former Division II star Josh Omojafo, from Gannon.

Woods, a 6-2 senior guard, last season played in 18 games for an N.C. State team that lost to Purdue in the Final Four after, a year earlier, leading North Carolina A&T in scoring (17.3 ppg).

The 6-5 Omojafo, a junior guard, averaged 20.0 points while shooting 48.2% last season at Gannon, which posted a 32-3 record and reached the Division II Elite Eight.

Robert Morris will visit Villanova on Oct. 27 for a charity exhibition game to benefit seriously ill and disabled children.

The Colonials last played the Wildcats in an NCAA Tournament first-round game in 2010, losing 73-70 in Providence, R.I., a year prior to Toole taking over the RMU program.

Horizon Preseason Men’s Basketball Poll

(First-Place votes in parentheses)

Rank, team, points

1t. Milwaukee (15), 421

1t. Purdue Fort Wayne (14), 421

3. Northern Kentucky (4), 389

4. Oakland (5), 345

5. Wright State (4), 315

6. Youngstown State (1), 272

7. Cleveland State, 252

8. Green Bay, 171

9. Robert Morris, 148

10. IU Indianapolis (1), 91

11. Detroit Mercy, 79