Strange reunion on the court
Jon said he realized he and his brother had a chance to team up again a few months after his commitment. Josh was a steady role player for Akron, but wanted more minutes.
“I just felt like it was a better fit for me here,” Jon said of his commitment. “[Josh] understood that. We always did want to play together. Toward the beginning of my senior season, he was like ‘Yo, it may not go that way.’ That’s when I realized we may not get a chance to play together.”
Both players fill needs for the Colonials. In Jon, Robert Morris gets a pass-first point guard who can control the pace of a game. The Colonials were one of the worstpassing teams in the Northeast Conference in the 201617 season, averaging about 10 assists per game opposite 15 turnovers.
“I think he really understands how to organize the team, he understands how to communicate, he understands where the ball is supposedto be,” Toole said. “He’s a little bit of a throwback.”
Josh, also a guard, addresses another weakness the Colonials had last season — shooting. Robert Morris had the second-worst 3-point field goal percentage in conference, converting about 32 percent of their attempts.
In his two seasons at Akron, Josh made almost 39 percent of his 329 3-point attempts. Additionally, Toole hopes he will bring a winning attitude to Robert Morris. Akron was 53-18 during Josh’s tenure there. Robert Morris was 14-19 last season.
“I’m not going to be playing, but I feel like I can be a leader on the team as far as letting people know things they can do, things they can’t do, how to get things done and then also them helping me learn the system,” Josh said.
Dambrot said he has no hard feelings over the situation. He understands players will transfer to find better situations, and thinks highly of both players.
“That’s just the nature of the beast nowadays,” Dambrot said. “You’re going to play against kids you know, or kids that you recruited, or kids that played for you. We have 100 Division I transfers now, that’s kinda what we fight.”
Toole is no stranger to the NCAA’s transfer culture. Robert Morris routinely has lost key players every offseason in recent years, and Toole blasted the system in Sports Illustrated. This year, he lost four players to transfer, including last season’s leading scorer, Isaiah Still.
With Josh, Toole is happy he landed one. Former Robert Morris assistant coach Robby Pridgen is a St. Vincent-St. Mary alumnus who helped connect the program to Jon, and later Josh.
“It’s the new normal,” Toole said. “There were over 700 transfers [this year]. You’re going to lose some guys, you’re going to gain some guys. That’s part of how college recruiting and college rosters are being shaped. This is the latest that we’ve had to continue to recruit and I think it’s going to become more of the normal, where kids are at the end of spring semesters figuring out where they stand and where their opportunity will be, deciding if they want tobe there or not.”
“Josh is a guy we were fortunate to get pretty shortly after the season was over and we’re excited to have him,” Toole added. “Again, sometimes you’ll lose some transfers, sometimes you’ll gain them. It’s all part of the way recruitingwill be done now.”