Colonials’ Toole signs contract extension

Now that he, apparently, has decided to stay put, Andy Toole’s next order of business appears to be a reconstruction of the Robert Morris men’s basketball roster, decimated by the loss of seven players into the NCAA transfer portal, including the entire starting lineup.

If anyone, particularly at the mid-major level, has proven they can make it work, it’s Toole, the Colonials’ longtime coach, who reportedly has agreed to a multi-year contract extension following RMU’s historic run to an NCAA Tournament bid.

“He has stood the test of time. We’re happy to have him at RMU,” athletic director Chris King told TribLive in a prior interview. “His longevity here, the success this year is going to propel us to be able to sustain that success for this program for some time.”

Messages left with King and Toole were not immediately returned Wednesday, but a source confirmed to TribLive that Toole had received the extension, though the school, in an unusual move, would have no official announcement.

The move, first reported by CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, would keep Toole, the Horizon League Coach of the Year, at Robert Morris well beyond his current contract, which King has said was signed through at least the 2025-26 season.

After Robert Morris’ spirited 90-81 loss to Alabama in an NCAA Tournament firstround game in Cleveland, there had been speculation that Toole would move on, perhaps to Penn, where he played his final two college seasons.

That opening, however, went to former Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. Yet, all the while, RMU appeared committed to retaining Toole.

Days before the Colonials’ third NCAA Tournament appearance March 20 in Toole’s 15 seasons as coach, King told TribLive, “We are working on a (contract) extension for Andy at this moment.”

With much of Toole’s rotation entering the transfer portal this week, including Horizon League Player of the Year Alvaro Folgueiras and defensive player of the year Amarion Dickerson, Toole must retool his lineup.

Again. After a fourth unproductive season in 2023-24 since three years earlier joining the Horizon League, Toole rearranged his coaching staff and pulled together a talented group of transfers for this season to engineer one of the biggest turnarounds in Division I.

Robert Morris (26-9) tied a school record for victories, won its first Horizon League Tournament championship and finished the year with 16 victories in 18 games.

Toole, 44, came to Robert Morris in 2007 as an assistant on former coach Mike Rice Jr.’s staff and was promoted to associate head coach the following year.

He succeeded Rice as coach of the Colonials, when Rice left to become coach at Rutgers before the start of the 2010-11 season.

“They gave me a chance to be the head coach of the university at 29 years old, which, most places, that doesn’t happen,” Toole said after RMU’s nine-point loss to Alabama. “It’s a unique place filled with special people. So the 15 years that I’ve been there as a head coach — 18 years overall — feel like they’ve gone by in a blink. Through good and bad, we’ve always been supported.”

Toole, who played two seasons each at Elon and Penn, has compiled a record of 252-241 at Robert Morris with two Northeast Conference regular-season and tournament championships each in addition to the Horizon Tournament title this year.

His teams also have made two appearances in the National Invitation Tournament.

In a 2013 NIT first-round game, Toole and Robert Morris notched arguably the program’s highest-profile victory by beating Moon native John Calipari and Kentucky, 59-57, at the former Sewall Center a year after the Wildcats had won a national championship.