By PAUL GOTHAM
DAYTON, OH — The Robert Morris Colonials (19-14) and North Florida Ospreys (23-11) meet in the first of Wednesday night’s doubleheader to decide who will be a long shot to take on the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils in Friday’s second round action Charlotte, N.C.
The odds against either advancing past Friday may pale in comparison to the miles logged by the Ospreys who have traveled more than 14,000 miles this season.
“Since we’ve taken the job six years ago we play somewhere between six and seven Power-5 teams every year because we bring in a large amount of money for our university, unfortunately,” North Florida’s Matt Driscoll said during Tuesday’s press conference. “When I say unfortunately, meaning that we don’t ever want to play those games but we need the money.”
North Florida played 13 of its first 16 games away from home and finished the season with 18 true road affairs.
“There’s not a hotel, a bus, a restaurant that we haven’t been to and we tell it to the guys all the time,” Driscoll commented. “The environment is what it is. And you gotta be able to adapt and overcome and do that. So it’s been great. And the one thing we do and the reason why we’re close and why our guys love each other so much, we have seven guys score 20 points or more already, and the reason why our guys are truly the way they are, is because we don’t do cell phones at meals. That’s been a great thing on the road. So they’ve really got to talk with each other, kick it with each other, as opposed to being locked into what’s going on on Twitter or Instagram or Snapchat. I would say My Space, but I know that’s old time.”
Beau Beech leads a North Florida offense nicknamed #BirdsOfTrey which ranks eighth in the nation with 308 makes behind the three-point arc.
“They shoot the three, shoot it a lot,” said Robert Morris junior guard Rodney Pryor. “They’ve got a few guys that got a fast clip. So we’ve got to be high alert in our zone and aggressive in our zone, making sure all shots are contested. And just preparing for anything that stands out there alone. They play with big lineups, making sure we’re boxing out, not giving up a lot of second chances.”
Dallas Moore (15.9 ppg) leads four Ospreys in double figures. Beech scores 12.5 while Chris Davenport and Jalen Nesbitt add 11.5 and 10.8 respectively.
Pryor scores 15.2 a game for Robert Morris. Marcquise Reed adds 14.8 while Lucky Jones tallies 14.3.
“The one thing that’s great about them is about those three particular guys is they can score at all three levels, meaning they can make 3s,” Driscoll said. “They can put it on the floor and get mid-range and they can get to the rim because of their athletic ability. Because they can score at all three levels, any coach would love to have guys like that that can do that or not just one dimensional, so to speak. I like one-dimensional guys that can make 3s. If you can make a 3 and you’re one dimensional that’s the kind of one dimension you want to be.”
A 6:40 tip off is scheduled.
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