Robert Morris is the program that refuses to know its place. The Colonials have nine NCAA tournament appearances and a highlight reel of upsets that belongs in a museum: a First Four win in 2015, an overtime classic that nearly toppled Villanova in 2010, and the single most shocking result in NIT history — a buzzer-beating road win over the No. 1 overall seed Kentucky Wildcats in 2013. In Moon Township, Pennsylvania, the Colonials measure themselves in March moments, not preseason polls.
The program's identity was forged at the old Charles L. Sewall Center and carried into the gleaming UPMC Events Center, which opened in 2019 as one of the mid-major's finest arenas. For most of their history the Colonials were Northeast Conference royalty, a program that turned NEC dominance into March invitations with ruthless efficiency. In 2020 they made the jump to the Horizon League — a step up in competition, and in opportunity. The message was clear: Robert Morris wasn't content being a big fish in a small pond.
The NCAA tournament ledger tells the story better than any slogan. The first tournament win came in 1983, a preliminary-round victory over Georgia Southern. In 2010, the 15-seeded Colonials took 2-seed Villanova to overtime in the first round, coming within a possession of one of the great upsets in tournament history. In 2015, they beat North Florida 81-77 in the First Four — their second tournament win — before falling to top-seeded Duke and the eventual national champion. And in 2025, the Colonials were back, a 15-seed once more, this time drawing 2-seed Alabama in Cleveland: a Final Four team the year before, one of the most dynamic teams in the country, and exactly the kind of giant Robert Morris has always loved to face.
But the two results that live in Moon Township forever aren't from the NCAA tournament at all. In the opening round of the 2013 NIT, Robert Morris — as a road underdog at Rupp Arena — beat No. 1-seeded Kentucky at the buzzer, the first No. 1 seed in NIT history to lose its opener, and it happened against the defending national champions. The next year, the Colonials went on the road and beat Big East powerhouse St. John's in the NIT's first round. Both times they lost in the second round, and nobody in Moon Township cared — the banners were the wins themselves.
The architect of the modern era is Andrew Toole, one of the longest-tenured coaches in college basketball. Toole was promoted to head coach before the 2010-11 season, when Mike Rice Jr. left for Rutgers after three seasons and 73 wins. Now 46, Toole enters his 17th season in 2026-27 having compiled more than 250 wins at the school, three NCAA tournaments, and a reputation as one of the mid-major's best program builders. His teams have a personality: tough, physical, defensively relentless, and never, ever intimidated — the 'Cardiac Colonials' of recent years have made a habit of herculean comebacks, even when Toole himself has begged them to play a full 40 minutes.
The 2026-27 non-conference schedule is a gauntlet worthy of the program's tradition. The Colonials open November 2 at Nevada, visit UIC on November 6 and Arkansas on November 10, host Division III Capital on November 15, and travel to Toledo on November 19. A late-November trip to the Jacksonville Classic in Florida includes a date with New Mexico State on November 22, and November 28 brings the first-ever meeting with reigning Missouri Valley Tournament champion Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. December closes with home dates against Monmouth (December 13), Vermont (December 20) and Ohio (December 23) at the UPMC Events Center.
And then there's December 9: the renewal of the crosstown rivalry with Duquesne. The Colonials and Dukes hadn't met in nine years, but they'll square off at PPG Paints Arena as part of the inaugural Hope Gas Backyard Basketball Classic — a Pittsburgh doubleheader that also features Pitt and West Virginia. Toole, who played the Dukes annually for the first eleven years of his RMU career, called it one of the biggest games on the schedule for the alums, the region and attendance. Nine years of silence ends in downtown Pittsburgh.
The roster Toole will lean on blends international length with Atlantic-coast toughness. Senior center Ubong Okon (7-foot-1, Nigeria) is the anchor in the middle. Senior guards Tanner O'Grady (Pittsburgh), Albert Vargas (New York) and Cyril Arvanitis (New Jersey) and senior guard Kaleb Brown (Huntsville, Alabama) bring experience to the backcourt. The junior class is deep: Ryan Prather Jr. (Clarksburg, Maryland), Cam Wilds (Virginia Beach), Ta'Zir Smith (Woodbridge, Virginia), Jeremiah Littlejohn (Gaithersburg, Maryland), Vasilije Serafimoski (North Macedonia) and Nikolaos Chitikoudis (Greece). Sophomores DeSean Goode (Fairmont, West Virginia) and Josh Hill (Laurel, Maryland) and freshmen Eddie Cooke III (Atlanta), Darius Livingston (Orlando) and Samuel Obenjo (Sweden) round out a roster built the Toole way — long, hard-nosed, and ready to guard.
The Horizon League is the next frontier. Robert Morris has already proven it belongs — the 2025 tournament title run, the NCAA berth, the Alabama date in Cleveland. But the league has heavyweights, and the Colonials' ceiling has always been measured by what they do in March. Toole's program has never lacked belief; the question is whether this group has the defensive grit and late-game composure that made the Cardiac Colonials famous.
Nine NCAA appearances. A First Four win. A buzzer-beater over Kentucky at Rupp Arena. An overtime heartbreaker against Villanova. Robert Morris doesn't do polite participation — it shows up in March and swings. In 2026-27, with the Duquesne rivalry renewed and a brutal non-conference slate, the Colonials get another chance to do what they do best: walk into the gym, look at the giant, and refuse to blink.