Colonials adjust to new league, absence of coach
Longtime assistant stresses team culture
Two years ago, the Robert Morris women’s basketball team seemed poised to make the NCAA tournament for what would have been the fourth time in five seasons.
The top-seeded Colonials already had qualified for the semifinals of the Northeast Conference tournament, and were favorites to win out, when COVID-19 halted the event altogether.
Still, coach Charlie Buscaglia had built a program focused on day-to-day progress, building toward ultimate achievements. Robert Morris has since moved to the Horizon League, a tougher level of competition. COVID-19 altered the Colonials’ debut season in the new conference last year, and they haven’t reached the same level of dominance in their second season, either.
Robert Morris has had games canceled this season, too. Plus, Buscaglia took a medical leave of absence that began at the end of November. Longtime assistant Scott Schneider stepped in to replace Buscaglia, beginning with a 63-44 loss Dec. 2 to Green Bay.
Luckily, Schneider understands the program Buscaglia has built, and is trying to help the Colonials churn along without missing a beat.
“The beautiful thing is the culture,” Schneider said. “I’ve been here for a considerable amount of time, since ’09 and had that opportunity to really know what we’re about, what we value, what our culture stands for, and that’s been the big piece. Even though Coach B’s not around, the culture remains the same.”
Schneider conceded that he thought he was completely prepared to sit in the big chair before the game against Green Bay, but things are much tougher than they seem. There is more pressure on the head coach to make final decisions, and Schneider said it’s a lot easier to make suggestions from the bench than to actually decide who will play, what plays to call, when to call timeouts, things like that.
Robert Morris still has a young roster on hand, too, during this trying time. Nine of its 13 players are freshmen or sophomores. It isn’t as if this is a fully seasoned group of players who could basically steer themselves through tumult.
There are some, like fifth-year senior Nina Augustin and seniors Esther Castedo and Natalie Villaflor, who were around before the program switched conferences and saw through the transition. It is beneficial for Schneider that he can lean on these players, too, but in the end it is a group task to move forward in an abnormal situation.
“It’s definitely different,” Castedo said. “Not having your head coach is definitely something unique, but I think that Coach Schneider is doing a great job of filling that place, and I don’t think things have changed that much. I think it’s more of a team effort, the coaches, the players, working all together for the same goal.”
So far, results have been hit-andmiss. The Colonials are 4-5 in conference play this season and 6-8 overall following Friday night’s 6344 defeat at the hands of conference foe IUPUI.
One of their wins was via forfeit against Wright State last Sunday. Another conference game against Northern Kentucky was canceled.
It is already improvement over last season, though, when Robert Morris was 4-12 as a Horizon debutante. Castedo reflected the team’s belief in itself, emphasizing that the Colonials’ goals remain attainable with plenty of the season left.
Really, Robert Morris sees it as a matter of continuing to promote the standards that brought them such consistent success in the NEC in the first place, the idea of process over results. Perhaps this could be considered the biggest test of that tenet, whether or not they can continue pushing along with Buscaglia away.
“When we really started to reach our pinnacle in the NEC, we brought in a terminology and a mindset to our program that everything that we do, we do to prepare in a way for the opportunity to be successful,” Schneider said.
“... Success can sometimes be victory, sometimes be defeat, but it’s having that mindset. We often talk to them about how you can win a game and not feel really good about how you played, or you can go out there and put everything on the line, give your best effort, do the best that you do, and your shots just don’t seem to fall, and you can be happy with the output that you did. It stinks that you may not have won the game, but we really look at that holistic truth of doing things to the best of their ability. That’s something that’s unique to us.”