Mike Rice had a message for his team before Robert Morris played at Syracuse in the NIT.

"I talked a little bit about how this team came together," the first-year head coach said after the Colonials' season ended with a loss at the Carrier Dome. "I think people know a little more about Robert Morris up and down the East coast. But I take pride in how this team came together as a unit, and that warms me the most.

"All the little things that this team had struggled with in the past, they put all of that aside and everything was a team aspect. From practice to shoot-around to games to the way our guys interacted with each other in every possible moment and situation.

"They were all in it for each other, and it started with our seniors. That's a good thing, because I hope my juniors and my sophomores and my freshmen learn from this experience in how you go about leading. But overall, the way this team came together is something I'll never forget."

It didn't end the way Rice might have liked.

To Rice, the end for this team, which won 14 straight games (a school-record 26 overall) before losing to Mount St. Mary's in the semifinals of the NEC tournament, wouldn't have been in the NIT.

The Colonials fell at Syracuse in their first NIT appearance and their first trip to the postseason since 1992.

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