Robert Morris Basketball: TJ Wainright commitment continues positive momentum

Robert Morris Basketball lands a big commitment from three-star prospect TJ Wainwright. This move sets the Colonials point guard position up for the future.

Considering how much success Robert Morris Basketball has had as a program in the Northeast Conference, it feels weird to celebrate them winning 3 of the last 4 games and 4 of the last 7 seven overall in the past few weeks. But considering how much this program has struggled since joining the Horizon League going on two years now, any kind of success should be recognized.

After beating IUPUI last Saturday, the Colonials passed last year’s league win total (4) and got its second road win in the Horizon League, with the other being a 102-88 win at Purdue-Fort Wayne. Robert Morris, who has lost three players on the roster since the season began (Rasheem Dunn, Ferron Flavors, and Mattia Acunzo), seems to have figured out its core rotation, led by leading scorer Kahliel Spear, point guard Michael Green, and all-around Enoch Cheeks. And while injuries and covid have taken guys out of multiple games, we’ve seen guys like Kam Farris, Justin Winston, and Brandon Stone play very well have led the team at times in wins.

This core has shown that they can compete and even win games at the Horizon League level. And while other teams have dealt with injuries and covid issues as well, it feels as if this team has played fewer than three games with a full roster. At this moment, everyone seems ready to go for an important two-game homestand against Detroit Mercy and Oakland.

The team will be focused on the upcoming games but I want to take a quick look at next year’s roster, thanks to a new addition set to join them. The Colonials got a commitment from TJ Wainwright, a 6’3 point guard out of Los Angeles that is currently playing a post-grad year at Montverde Academy.

He’s a solid defender and passer and should be a key piece early on for the Colonials. It’s a rare three-star commit for the program but Wainwright is the kind of player the team needs to be successful in the Horizon League. He solves the current and future point guard position question for RMU, as he can play behind junior starter Michael Green off the bench and get 10-15 mpg as a freshman, before taking over the year after in the 2023-24 campaign. This will allow the team to not have to worry about adding a ball-handler from the portal and focus on replacing a couple of departures.

The Colonials had to bring in a bunch of newcomers last offseason but may not have to do that this time. This current roster only has two seniors (Kahliel Spear and Jaron Williams), and both technically have the option to return next season. And considering that this year’s squad hasn’t had a lot of continuity and the Horizon League is set to lose a ton of talent almost everywhere in the offseason, Robert Morris could be set to make a fairly decent jump in the league hierarchy.

Of course, the Colonials could very well lose players as well since they already lost three. But this current group is playing well and there don’t seem to be many issues. TJ Wainwright doesn’t appear to think so since he committed and with several winnable games left in the regular season, Robert Morris Basketball could look even more appealing as a program heading into the offseason.