Nestled in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, the defending Horizon League champions, the Robert Morris Colonials, call Moon Township home. Nearly the entire 2024-25 roster, however, resides elsewhere.
Head coach Andy Toole, after losing all but three players to graduation or the transfer portal, had to essentially create his 2025-26 team from scratch as he looks to lead the program to back-to-back championships.
Of the three returners, just one saw the floor during the 2024-25 season. Vasilije Serafimoski
and Cyril Arvanitis each redshirted last season, but Ryan Prather Jr. played in all 35 games, starting 12, averaging 8.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists, as a key part of the championship rotation.
Prather has taken a significant jump in a full-time starting role, helping Robert Morris get out of the gates strong in 2025-26, looking like a team that is a threat to earn the Horizon League’s automatic-bit.
While nearly everyone left in the offseason, it was Prather who jumped at the opportunity to seek a second-consecutive title, and he is now enjoying a critical role for the Colonials.
“I wanted to step into that leadership role,” Prather said. “Obviously, we have a whole new team, but the coaching staff trusted me and gave me the opportunity to be able to lead a team, hopefully to another championship.”
Prather has been rewarded for staying with the increased leadership role, but his play on the court has benefitted from his familiarity with Toole’s system. Through 13 games this season, he is second on the team in scoring at 12.8 points per game, also adding 4.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.1 steals per contest.
In addition to the continuity for Prather, the talented transfer duo in the frontcourt has made his life easier. IU Indy transfer DeSean Goode is averaging a team-high 13.6 points and 9.2 rebounds, and NC A&T transfer Nikolaos Chitikoudis is averaging 11.8 points and 7.2 rebounds.
“Nikos and DeSean have been doing a great job,” Prather said. “If they’re in the post and they get doubled, they’re kicking it out, or if they’re setting screens, defenses are focused on them which leads to us getting more open shots or drives. They have definitely been a dominant factor for our offense.”
Goode is up to five double-doubles on the young season, and Chitikoudis is just behind him with four. In a recent non-conference tilt with Toledo, Chitikoudis notched a 12 point, 14 rebound double-double, and it was Prather who joined him logging a double-double, scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, six of which were offensive.
After being a part of a championship team as a role player off the bench for the most part, Prather has learned what it takes to win and wants that to be reflected in his leadership, both on and off the court.
“You have to affect the game in different ways, even if shots aren’t falling or certain things aren’t going your way,” Prather said. “I always think, ‘How can I affect the game and make it easier for my team?’ No matter if it’s playing defense, getting steals or rebounding–whatever it is, what can I do to lead my team and help win the game?”
Despite being willing to do the team’s dirty work, Prather’s scoring has come through for Robert Morris numerous times this season. In wins over UIC, Stetson, Toledo and Youngstown State, Prather led the team in scoring, highlighted by a career-high 25-point outing against UIC.
Not only is Prather scoring more this season, he’s had the opportunity to play a critical role in the Colonials’ late game offense, coming through in big spots along the way. No spot, however, was bigger than Wednesday night’s game against Youngstown State when he hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 11 seconds to play in overtime, pushing Robert Morris past the Penguins for a massive win.
Each of the Colonials’ first three Horizon League games have come down to the final possession. They stormed back from down 11 in three minutes to win at Green Bay, then fell at the buzzer to Milwaukee and outlasted Youngstown State in overtime. As the defending champions, Robert Morris knows it has a target on its back, and is welcoming the challenge of getting every team’s best effort.
“Every game is going to be a dog fight just because we’re the defending champion and all the teams have the same goal of trying to win a championship,” Prather said. “We understand that, and if we just stay together and rely on each other, we have a really good chance to win.”
The mission is clear for the Colonials, but with so much roster turnover, there have been some expected bumps in the road already, including some mistakes running Toole’s offensive sets. But as the roster continues to play together, Prather is confident it can improve as players learn how each other reads defenses and communicate defensively.
“We want to get some of those games back that we lost, but I think it helped us learn and showed us that in order to win, we need each other,” Prather said.
There is a lot of basketball to be played before the Horizon League crowns a champion and Robert Morris competes to go dancing, but for a team which is still learning to play with one another, an early road win in the conference and a 1-1 split in two winnable games against teams expected to compete for the league crown is a strong start.
Prather knows he stands alone as having played on the championship squad a year ago and having a significant role on this year’s team, but he has continued to lead in a way which emphasizes winning another championship, despite most of his teammates not having been a part of last season’s run.
“It’s a really big deal just because last year set a high standard for us,” Prather said. “Winning that championship helped guys realize they wanted to come and be a part of that. That set a standard for us to where we don’t want to achieve anything less than that.”
