Robert Morris head coach Andy Toole agreed last week to a contract extension that will keep him in…uh…Pittsburgh through the 2026 NIT.
Huh. Didn’t know Robert Morris was in Pittsburgh.
It’s a big deal for the newest member of the Horizon League. If the contract’s completed, Toole will be the longest-tenured coach in RMU program history. But it’s worth asking:
How did the Colonials get here?
Toole doesn’t have a spectacular win-loss record. 188 wins, 154 losses over ten seasons of play. His teams have only won their conference tournament twice (yes, good to not win those, but not in the eyes of the misled public), and while the CIT results in 2012 and 2019 were promising, they weren’t enough alone to make a city love a low-major coach.
No, what makes Andy Toole a rising star—one the board at Robert Morris is eager to hold onto—is his NIT success.
Do you remember 2013? When Robert Morris beat Kentucky in the first round of the NIT? The Nerlens Noel year? Of course you do. That was quite a moment.
Well, what you might not remember is that the next year, Robert Morris did it again. Not the beating Kentucky thing. But they beat somebody in the first round. St. John’s. More impressive, really, since it came on the road and the 2013 Kentucky and 2014 St. John’s teams are comparable in KenPom.
Anyway, the message is clear: Make NIT moments, and schools will want you to coach for them. The power’s still on in NIT-ville.
