By Sam Federman
Andy Toole had been an NEC basketball coach for a decade. He had just one losing season in conference play, won 20 games five times, and had just won the NEC Tournament for the second time - defeating rival Saint Francis (PA) in the final.
Then, on July 1, 2020, he became a Horizon League basketball coach. And for the next four seasons, his team struggled. Robert Morris didn't finish over .500 in its first four seasons in the HL, and won fewer than seven league games in three of those four years.
It appeared that would continue into 2024-25 when the Colonials started Horizon League play 2-4, but everything changed from there. Robert Morris has only lost once since January 8th. On Tuesday, RMU took down Youngstown State 89-78 in the Horizon League final, punching a ticket to the NCAA Tournament, and completing the sweep of the league's regular season and tournament titles.
Led by a core four of Horizon League Tournament MVP Kam Woods, Horizon League MVP Alvaro Folguerias, Horizon League DPOY Amarion Dickerson, and the ever-underrated Josh Omojafo, Robert Morris put together a season to remember.
Omojafo scored 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the championship game, and the Colonials dropped 1.3 points per possession on one of the league's top defenses.
The 26 wins already recorded matches the best mark in school history - accomplished in 2011-12 by Toole, and 2007-08 by his predecessor, Mike Rice.