Most coaches use schools like Robert Morris as a launching pad. For Andy Toole, it’s become home

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (AP) — Andy Toole is still here. This isn’t how it’s supposed to work, at least not from the outside looking in.

The Robert Morris coach knows this. All but one of the seven men who preceded Toole at the private school with about 3,800 undergrads about 20 minutes west of downtown Pittsburgh parlayed their time with the Colonials into bigger and better — in paycheck, stature and perception — jobs.

They all saw Robert Morris as the launching pad, not the destination.

Not Toole. At least not yet. And maybe — who knows — not ever.

A full decade-and-a-half since he was promoted to replace Mike Rice at the age of 29, Toole will lead Robert Morris to the NCAA Tournament for a third time in 10 years when the 15th-seeded Horizon League champions face No. 2 seed Alabama in the first round in Cleveland on Friday.

Press Toole, whose face remains boyish at 44 even if there’s a decent amount of gray in his TV anchorman-perfect hair, on why he seems to be an anomaly and the former Ivy League point guard with a degree in political science pitches you much like he’s pitched so many recruits through the years.

“I always felt like there was more for us to do and there was more stuff on the horizon,” he said. “I always wanted to be a part of something that I felt was growing and evolving and I felt like our program has always been doing that.”

Courting change

For proof, he points to 10 years ago, when the Colonials won the Northeastern Conference title. They watched the NCAA Tournament selection show in a nearby sports bar. The next day they held a walkthrough in a bleacher-filled gym considered modest even by most high school standards.

On Sunday, Toole spent 30 minutes before the brackets were revealed signing autographs and shaking hands on the second floor of the UPMC Events Center, a sparkling facility that opened in 2019, a process in which he was heavily involved.

Toole remembers the conversations he had when plans for the arena were announced. Many assumed in the time that it took to go from design to groundbreaking to ribbon-cutting, he’d be a memory.

“Everybody was saying, ‘Oh, you’re not going to be there long,’” he said. “And I’m thinking to myself like, ‘Who walks away from a $52 million arena that’s going to be built as we speak?’ And so seeing the completion of this ... I think those are things that keep you here.”

So does a sense of purpose. Toole is deeply competitive, and the challenges have kept coming. Robert Morris moved from the NEC to the Horizon League in the summer of 2020, just a few months after the Colonials’ second NCAA appearance under Toole was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The transition was bumpy, though Robert Morris athletic director Chris King sees one small sliver of a silver lining. Had the pandemic not brought the world to a halt, maybe Toole would have been lured away.

“It might be the only good thing that came out of COVID,” King said.

Vision and vigilance

The Colonials won 12 games combined in their first two years after making the switch. Travel restrictions forced Toole and his staff to recruit over Zoom, not exactly the best way to convince players to take a flier on a school whose name offers zero hints on where it is. (Robert Morris was an English-born 18th-century businessman who went on to become one of the U.S. founding fathers and later a senator from Pennsylvania).

It was frustrating, sure. Yet it hardly deterred Toole. Then again, not much does.

Forced to hit the reset button last spring following a fourth straight losing season, he cast a wide net and connected with guard Kam Woods, who was looking for a fresh start after appearing in just 13 games last season at N.C. State.

Woods had no idea Robert Morris was in Pittsburgh the first time Toole reached out. It hardly mattered.

“He just saw a vision for me,” Woods said. “For a coach to see a vision in you after you haven’t played a whole year, that means something special.”

Toole told Woods he’d have the ball in his hands all the time. That he’d have a chance to lead. To win, too.

All of it came to pass. Woods leads the Colonials in minutes, points, assists and steals, providing him with a happy ending to a nomadic career in which he bounced from school to school to school before landing at “Bobby Mo.” Woods, however, is quick to point out that he is merely part of a collective that has found common ground under Toole’s steadfast guidance.

“A lot of people wanted to rewrite their stories,” he said. “A lot of people came here this year (from other places) for whatever reason. Once you see somebody else try to rewrite their story, that encourages you to go hard. We’re kind of an inspiration to each other.”

Robert Morris heads into the tournament having won 16 of 17. The bump up from the NEC to the Horizon League means the Colonials aren’t a 16-seed like this year’s NEC champ St. Francis (Pa.). A year ago, Oakland emerged from the Horizon tournament and March Madness hero Jack Gohlke led a stunner over Kentucky in the first round.

The Golden Grizzlies are coached by Greg Kampe, a somewhat rumpled everyman who is the longest-tenured head coach in Division I. You don’t have to scan that far down the list to get to Toole, whose 15 seasons at Robert Morris ranks in the top 30ish out of 362 Division I schools.

Here to stay?

For how much longer, no one knows. Not even Toole, who insists he’s happy. He’s become part of the firmament at Robert Morris. His and his wife’s two sons are fixtures in his office and at home games when they’re not in school or playing on their AAU team.

“If he ain’t left yet after those winning years, it’s definitely something that’s keeping him here,” Woods said. “I feel like it’s just the city ... People love him.”

Woods, who was born in Cleveland, likened Toole’s popularity in the community to that of NBA great LeBron James. Yet even James left northeast Ohio. Twice.

If the Colonials — 23 1/2-point underdogs to the Crimson Tide, according to BetMGM Sportsbook — can pull off a stunner or two this weekend, maybe Toole and his 252-240 record finally move on. Or maybe they don’t. The grass, or at least the money, might be greener elsewhere. Success, however, is another matter.

Not every coach who left Robert Morris found stability elsewhere. Given the chaotic nature of college sports, there’s something to be said for knowing what you have. And what you’ve built.

Toole has a deep appreciation of both.

“A lot of coaches don’t get to coach for 15 years period, let alone in one place,” he said. “I think I have a lot of pride in what we’ve been able to accomplish as a program and how we’ve been able to grow over my time here. A lot of people have contributed to that. It’s been fun.”

So maybe he’s not an anomaly. Maybe he’s just smart.

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