Mike Rice to Rutgers.

On April 9th, Robert Morris extended head coach Mike Rice's contract through the 2016-17 season. Less than a month later, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced that Rice was leaving Moon to take the head coaching vacancy at Rutgers. It's a real tough break for Colonial fans as the Scarlet Knights' job was filled by Fred Hill, but he resigned after an altercation at a Rutgers baseball game.

After winning 73 games in just three years at Robert Morris, Rice was a candidate for many coaching vacancies in the off-season. The most likely destination was two other Big East schools - Seton Hall or St. John's - but they spurned the former Fordham guard and went with Kevin Willard and ESPN analyst Steve Lavin respectively.

Under Rice, the Colonials have won two regular-season NEC titles (2008-09), a share of a third (2010), and two NEC tournaments (2009-10) which resulted in automatic bids into the NCAA Tournament. Receiving a 15 seed both times, they weren't completely overmatched like most of the other lower seeds, losing by 15 to national runner-up Michigan State in 2009 and losing to Villanova by just three in overtime this season.

Now as big of a loss this is for Robert Morris, they should be alright if they hire the right guy to replace Rice. They have some very good assistant coaches in house, especially Andy Toole (who was rumored to be a candidate for the Penn vacancy) and Jimmy Martelli (son of St. Joseph's head coach Phil).

Whoever inherits the position will have a lot of talent to work with, starting with NEC rookie of the year Karon Abraham. Joining him in the projected starting lineup are fellow sophomores Velton Jones and Russell Johnson and senior Gary Wallace; Jones being a starter last season. In addition to those four, they return sophomores Brad Piehl and Lijah Thompson and might get a pleasant surprise if Jimmy Langhurst gets granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.

Five players either have given verbal commitments or have signed a letter of intent to play for the Colonials next year, including Canadian forward Yann Charles, who chose Robert Morris over multiple schools, including Notre Dame. So fear not Colonial fans because with the right hire, Robert Morris should continue to run the NEC for years to come.

Although Mike Rice left kind of unexpectedly, I knew this would come sooner or later and am happy for him. I wish him the best of luck with the Scarlet Knights and believe he will resurrect that program.