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On Friday, the East Region 2-Seed Alabama Crimson Tide begin their (hopeful) ride to six wins and cutting down the nets to the dulcet tones of One Shining Moment. <\/em>Most \u2018Bama fans I suspect would be happy with three wins and an Elite 8 appearance, and positively over the moon if the Tide emerges from the same region as the Duke behemoth. <\/p>\n Their opponent? The Robert Morris Colonials. It\u2019s not the first time Alabama has met BobMo U, well at least in basketball. The two schools have developed a bit of a rivalry in ACHA hockey over the last decade. <\/p>\n And despite the fact that most people have never heard of this tiny school on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, RMU has been a very competitive club out of the Horizon since Andrew Toole took the reins 15 years ago. <\/p>\n In Robert Morris\u2019 postseason history under Toole, the Colonials took \u2018Nova to OT, were competitive with Michigan State, notched upsets of St John\u2019s and Kentucky in the NIT, and even won a first round game a few years back against North Florida. Overall, in 15 seasons, RMU has won or shared six conference titles, and made postseason play eight times. It\u2019s a solid low-major, in short. <\/p>\n But, alas, they are significantly out of their athletic depth in this one, as they draw the Crimson Tide. The odds reflect that too. Quick shout-out to FanDuel <\/strong>for helping us keep the lights on, as they are sponsoring this post. <\/p>\n All odds courtesy of FanDuel<\/strong><\/a>, and if you\u2019re going to spend that egg money you\u2019ve been saving, it may as well be for something you enjoy. <\/p>\n Per FanDuel, Robert Morris enters this game sitting as a 22-point underdog (-110). <\/strong>But is that fair? Let\u2019s find out and make a prediction, shall we? <\/p>\n First, we have to be mindful that \u2018Bama\u2019s stats are with a healthy Grant Nelson. We simply don\u2019t know if he\u2019s even going to play in the first round matchup. And, as we saw on Saturday, it\u2019s a very different Tide without him. People greatly underestimate his worth to the team, lost in his poor start to the season and occasional turnover spates. <\/p>\n But, data are what data are…and there are few people that have made as much of an impact as Dakota Durant. <\/p>\n Grant was \u2018Bama\u2019s leading rebounder, second-leading scorer, 2nd in blocks, second in adj. +\/-, second in win shares, and first in defensive win share.<\/p>\n Outside of Mark Sears, there\u2019s not a single more valuable person on the stat sheet, the final score of games, or in winning them https:\/\/t.co\/9bCE78ORbB<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Roll \u2018Bama Roll (@rollbamaroll) March 16, 2025<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Still, we take what we have to work with here. RMU is by almost every metric a completely above-average team almost across the board \u2014 offense, defense, pace of play, wins above bubble, floor shooting. The whole shebang. <\/p>\n The Colonials are even quite good at a few things. They are a stout team on the offensive glass, which has helped RMU greatly offset decent-but-not great shooting efficiency. As we saw three times now against Florida and Tennessee, even average shots from inside the perimeter can become troublesome if your opponent is having greater success with their OREB. That in turn leads to other success, such as their great ability to get to the free throw line (one of the best in the low-majors, and better than Alabama\u2019s, in both raw terms and as a percentage of offense).<\/p>\n Robert Morris is a solid low-major team that does a few things that Alabama could stand to work on. This will be a good way to ease into the tournament for Nate Oats, particularly in getting his team to emphasize positioning on the blocks to prevent offensive rebounds and in ball security. Alabama was simply murdered <\/em>by Florida on the glass, surrendering 92 points in the paint, 27 offensive rebounds, 8 eight blocks and 13 assists in two meetings. <\/p>\n I\u2019m not going to sandbag you here; this isn\u2019t Florida \u2014 nor is it even an upset risk. RMU is a small team. They have faced one of the absolute worst schedules in the country and have had far too many narrow escapes from even those bad opponents. The Colonials are also a younger squad, and have practically no bench to speak of. They are not good perimeter shooters, and they\u2019re terrible at hanging on to the ball. But, recall, we thought much the same against similar low-majors before, like North Dakota. <\/p>\n And that takes us to the biggest question in this one (aside from Nelson\u2019s injury). Alabama has had a habit of playing down to the level of their opponent. And you do wonder about this team\u2019s headspace after flat-out quitting against the Gators. That <\/em>was demoralizing to watch, and it fairly disgusted Nate Oats too. <\/p>\n \u201cI told them, \u2018Do you want me to call a timeout and tell them to play harder?\u2019 We sat in the video room after the first time we played Florida,\u201d Oats said<\/a>. \u201cWe said we\u2019re going to be the hardest playing, toughest team. It\u2019s not because we\u2019re tired. We can make up a lot of excuses.<\/p>\n \u201cWe played last night, they played last night. 15-minute break at halftime, they played harder than us. You guys got to determine whether you\u2019re going to play tougher or not. Then you figure some stuff out, to be honest with you. They need to figure out whether they wanted to be the hardest playing, toughest team on the floor or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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