Robert Morris Colonials

General Team Information:

Founded: 1976

Conference: Horizon League

Past Conferences: Northeast Conference (NEC), Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Metro (ECACM), Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference South (ECACS), Independent

Arena: UPMC Events Center

City: Moon Township, Pennsylvania

Championships and Titles:

9 Conference Tournament Championships

11 Conference Regular Season Championships

Team History

The Robert Morris Colonials have been fixtures in the NCAA Tournament almost ever since they joined Division I basketball. While it has yet to break past the first round, Robert Morris’s frequent appearances are a testament to this program’s consistency.

It first qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 1982 by winning the ECACM tournament. The following year, the program posted its first 20+ win season and went 11-1 in the conference for another run at the NCAA Tournament. However, it also ended in a first-round exit.

Moving to the NEC with Jarret Durham as coach was a trying start at first. But in 1988, Robert Morris recaptured its peak form and went to three NCAA Tournament appearances in four seasons. Myron Walker helped lead the team by piling on points for the Colonials’ team stats. 

But following 1992, its final appearance, the Colonials went into a lengthy drought that also saw several coaches come and go. The NCAAB odds likely had the Colonials as double-digit underdogs in almost every game as it spent most of the next 10 seasons losing over 70 percent of its games. 

Mark Schmidt took over in 2001 and started to turn the program around albeit the team still barely won half its games. Mike Rice then took the program back to relevance in 2007. The Colonials won 26 games, which is still tied for the most as of 2022. However, the team fell short in the tournament and missed March Madness.

It did rebound nicely in the next two seasons and represented the NEC in March. But not even the prolific Jeremy Chappell, who lead the Robert Morris Colonials team stats, could get the program to finally win an NCAA Tournament game. 

Robert Morris’s most recent March Madness run then came in 2015 under Andrew Toole. The program once again bowed out in the first round as a 16-seed. Moving to Horizon in 2020, Robert Morris is once again in a rebuilding phase and it will take a while before it can make a run at the conference title.

All-Time Robert Morris Colonials Records

Points Scored

• Myron Walker: 1,965
• Chipper Harris: 1,942
• Jeremy Chappell: 1,875

Rebounds

• Lucky Jones: 846
• Anthony Dickens: 751
• Tony Lee: 751

Assists

• Velton Jones: 551
• Kavon Stewart: 503
• Jon Williams: 493

Robert Morris Colonials FAQs