Anthony Pugh entered the Beeghly Center from the northwest corner, following his Robert Morris University men’s basketball team in a single-file line before a 2015 game against Youngstown State University.

Pugh, a McDonald native and Robert Morris graduate, took the floor as a walk-on with the Colonials.

He spent his free time honing his skills, working with one of his teammates. Eventually, he developed his current business — Clockwork Athletics — on the western Pennsylvania campus.

Pugh has cultivated his business and works with basketball players, helping their respective games improve.

Monday, Robert Morris did its own improvement by moving from the East-Coast based Northeastern Conference to the Horizon League, located mainly in the midwest.

Pugh said the NEC was a great conference with quality coaches and players, but coming to the HL is another level — especially heading to the Beeghly Center every season.

“Selfishly, I’m looking forward to that,” Pugh said. “I think both the men and the women are going to do a really good job. I think it’s going to be an upgrade in talent and competition.”

NEC men’s basketball tournament games were held at the highest remaining seeds, while in the HL, only the first round and quarterfinals were held on campus sites. The four remaining teams for both the men and women advance to the Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis to play for an automatic NCAA Tournament berth.

RMU men’s coach Andrew Toole, whose team won the NEC Tournament this past season, won’t have to worry about being part of the first four in Dayton to start the NCAA Tournament. Pugh said the Horizon winner hasn’t participated in this play-in game in the past.

“If you can bypass that first four and hop right into the big tournament and get a one seed, whoever that may be, I think that’ll be great,” Pugh said. “In some cases, they’ve been lucky enough to get higher seeds. You’re going to get at least a 16 seed, which I think is huge for both the men and the women’s teams.”

Western Reserve senior Danielle Vuletich has verbally committed to Robert Morris. The All-Ohio basketball player looks forward to playing top tier competition in women’s basketball in the Horizon like Green Bay, YSU, IUPUI and Wright State.

Robert Morris looks to be up near the top of the league next season after winning the NEC regular-season title the last four seasons and going to the NCAA Tournament in 2017 and 2019.

“They had a such an amazing career in the NEC, winning championship after championship, making the NCAA Tournament,” Vuletich said. “Under coach B (Charlie Buscaglia), he’s a great coach, alongside the other assistant coaches. It’s just going to be a good fit for them, too. It’s going to help them with the university with their athletics taking a step forward and having that competitive edge. It’ll be more competitive entering the Horizon League.”

She’s excited to play a game every season at the Beeghly Center in Youngstown. Seven of the 12 schools in the Horizon League, which includes Purdue-Fort Wayne (coming in with Robert Morris on July 1), are within four hours of the YSU campus.

That’ll make it easier on Vuletich’s parents making more than an hour trip to the RMU campus for home games. Most of the NEC teams are based on the East Coast.

“Now that we’ve joined the Horizon League, they could come to more of my games,” Vuletich said. “When Robert Morris was in the NEC, they were the furthest team west. All the teams they played were east. It would’ve been harder my parents to watch some away games. Now they’re in the Horizon League, it’s going to be easier for them to come watch.”