MOON TOWNSHIP— As No. 15 Robert Morris gets set to take on No. 2 Alabama in the Round of 64 in the NCAA Division I tournament, Robert Morris guard Josh Omojafo might not be in the situation he is today if didn’t bet on himself.
Omojafo spent his first two seasons of his collegiate career at Gannon, but after his sophomore campaign he decided to hit the transfer portal instead of staying in a great situation at his former home.
After the historic season that Gannon put together, which included a berth in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight, Omojafo was named to the All-PSAC West first team, tournament MVP, D2CCA All-Atlantic Region First Team, NABC First Team All-District, D2CCA All-American Second Team and NABC All-American Second Team.
He also set a single-season school record of made free throws and scored 699 points, which was the second-highest mark in a single season in program history.
But the junior trusted himself and took a chance with a program that has struggled since making the move to the Horizon League back in 2020 with a mostly new group of transfers coming into the season.
“This journey that I took here is something that I am going to remember for the rest of my life,” Omojafo said. “Coming off of a great year at Gannon, when I transferred here, it raised a lot of questions from people of ‘why would you transfer to someplace that is not known for winning?’ But I trusted the process and my decision and coach [Andy] Toole brought in a lot of guys that experienced winning, too.
“We created the culture which has led to our success.”
That trust in himself paid off as Omojafo is averaging 11.4 points and 3.8 rebounds per game with his biggest game of the year coming in the Horizon League Championship game against Youngstown State, where he paced all scorers with 24 points and collected a career-high 13 rebounds to punch Robert Morris’ ticket to the tournament.
“Throughout the year, I just accepted my role with the team,” Omojafo said. “Whether that be on offense or defense, I just tried to do that to the best of my abilities and if I am not, I have my teammates to hold me accountable.”
Now, with the team getting set to play in the NCAA Division I tournament, not many players have been able to see a resurgence of two different programs like Omojafo.
In his freshman season, Omojafo was on a Gannon team that (3-23, 3-19 PSAC). Fast forward to last year and he helped Gannon set an NCAA-record 24-game improvement.
Now in his first year with Robert Morris, he played a key role in the team’s drastic improvement from the ninth-place team in the Horizon League last year to now conference regular season and tournament champions.
While the lights are certainly brighter and the level of player is higher, Omojafo can see the similarities of both the Gannon and Robert Morris teams from the past two seasons.
“The chemistry from both teams [Gannon and Robert Morris] that made the NCAA tournament is one of the main things that I see,” Omojafo said. “No matter if it is on or off the court, we are a tight-knit group. This year especially, we like to share the ball a lot and I think when we do that, we are a dangerous team and when you look down our roster, everyone can make an impact when we do.”
On Friday, there will be a large contingent of Robert Morris fans in attendance, along with members of Omojafo’s family who will be making the short trip down from Canada to Cleveland along with some friends from up in Erie.
The junior is excited to have his family and friends in attendance with Robert Morris who is making its first appearance back in the tournament since 2015 outside of clinching a berth in the 2020 season before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the tournament.
“Being able to have my family from Canada and friends from there and Erie in attendance, that is something that I have thought about all week,” Omojafo said. “I think that it is going to be a great game and looking to go in there and make history.
Tip time for the first-round matchup is at 12:40 p.m. at Rocket Arena in Cleveland.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Robert Morris’ Josh Omojafo bet on himself in journey to NCAA tournament
