You want to talk pressure? There will be a bunch on Robert Morris coach Mike Rice Jr. when his Colonials play Mount St. Mary's in a Northeast Conference tournament semifinal game tomorrow at the Sewall Center. It's not just because he'll be coaching in front of his father -- Mike Rice Sr. is a fairly legendary name in Pittsburgh basketball -- for the first time. It's what the Colonials have to do to get his mother, Kathy, to a game. They must win tomorrow, then beat Wagner or Sacred Heart in the NEC championship game Wednesday night at the Sewall Center.

"She said she'd go to an NCAA tournament game," Rice Sr. was saying yesterday. "I asked her, 'What about the NIT?' She said, 'I don't know about that.' "

That's pressure.

If you think the Rices are a tough-minded sports family, you don't know the half of it. Rice Jr.'s sister, Susan, who lives in Boardman, Ohio, was at the Sewall Center for Robert Morris' NEC tournament game Thursday night against Monmouth and telephoned their dad at halftime to tell him his son's team wasn't playing worth a spit, although she did predict a win, which the Colonials delivered in a struggle, 64-50. Apparently, that isn't unusually harsh coaching criticism from Susan, who, along with her sister, Stephanie, played tennis at Syracuse. Stephanie played well enough to get into the Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame. Anyway, after Pitt came from 11 points down to beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome last week, Susan called her dad and said, "Same ol' [Jim] Boeheim. He never changes. He always loses games like that."

Said Rice Sr.: "I think we're all nuts."

The family gets its naturally.

Mike Rice Sr. was a fierce competitor when he played and coached at Duquesne. He and Pitt coaches Tim Grgurich and Dr. Roy Chipman, and West Virginia coach Gale Catlett didn't especially like each other and passed on their animosity to their teams. The Duquesne-Pitt, Duquesne-West Virginia and Pitt-West Virginia games in the 1970s and '80s were as good as any the glitzy Big East Conference offers today. You were emotionally and physically drained just watching them.

Even as a player, Rice Sr. was -- in a word -- crazy. He and Grgurich were kicked out of a summer league because of a brawl between the Duquesne and Pitt teams. "I always tell Grg that was his fault, that he started it because I had all of the talent and he didn't have any, and he had to foul to keep up with me," Rice Sr. said.

Legend has it Rice Sr. punched out a bass drum during a game at Canisius. "The kid would bang it every time we shot free throws," he said. "I thought that was unsportsmanlike. I just happened to fall into it. I made sure he couldn't bang it again after that ...

"No, they didn't throw me out of the game. It was like when I stepped on the glasses of the leading scorer at Carnegie Mellon. The refs couldn't do anything to me because they couldn't say for sure that I did it on purpose."

Rice Sr. laughed.

Anyone who knew him as a player or coach knows that wicked laugh.

You bet his kid comes by his intensity honestly.

They call Rice Jr. "Coach Clipboard" -- behind his back, of course -- because he tends to throw down his clipboard when he's upset, which is just about every timeout. But they're also calling him a winner these days and the NEC Coach of the Year. In his first season as a head coach, he has led Robert Morris to 14 consecutive victories and the NEC regular-season title, which guarantees a National Invitation Tournament bid, not a bad consolation prize if the Colonials fall short of the NCAA tournament and a big deal to a lot of the team's fans.

His mom aside, of course.

"He's worked hard for this," Rice Sr. said. "He loves coaching. It's what he always wanted to do. He always was a gym rat, following me everywhere I went. I don't think he ever contemplated any other occupation."

Rice Sr. will be one proud father when he walks into the Sewall Center tomorrow. His job as a broadcaster for the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers has made getting to a Robert Morris game impossible, but he caught a break with the schedule this time. After a game in New York tonight against the Knicks, the Blazers will travel to Cleveland for a game Monday night. Rice Sr. said he will make the drive on the Turnpike tomorrow morning.

"I'll be nervous," he said, "but I'll enjoy this game more than any I ever coached in."

Rice Sr. is hoping it's just a warm-up act for his next Robert Morris game.

An NCAA tournament game March 20 or 21, should the Colonials get there.

"The whole family is waiting to buy plane tickets for that one," Rice Sr. said.

And the Blazers' home game against the Los Angeles Clippers March 21?

"I think I might be sick that night," Rice Sr. said, fairly giggling. "I haven't missed a game in 18 years with the Blazers, but I'm hoping I have to miss that one."

Rice Sr. laughed that evil laugh again.

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed he doesn't screw it up," he said.

The poor Robert Morris coach.

As if dealing with a good Mount St. Mary's team isn't enough pressure.