Tony Lee is a bit difficult to describe as a basketball player.

Is he a two-guard? Is he a point guard?

Or something else?

"You look at him, and he looks like he should be playing football," former Robert Morris coach Mark Schmidt said.

Lee is listed as 6 feet, 205 pounds, and it's not difficult to imagine him as a hard-hitting defensive back. But he plays basketball for the Colonials, and he's a ...

"Six-foot power forward," current coach Mike Rice said, maybe only half jokingly.

Lee almost defies description.

"I don't shoot it well," he said. "I don't dribble it well. But put me out there and I'm going to go by somebody. I'm going to make a play. I'm going to get that rebound. I'm going to dive on the floor and get that loose ball.

"Just put me out there and good things are going to happen. I'm going to get things done. I'm going to make things happen. That's how I was in high school. That's how I've been here."

He has been that way for four seasons -- four highly productive seasons that have made him one of the best players to wear a Colonials uniform.

Lee will make his 108th career start tomorrow night when the Colonials entertain Monmouth in the first round of the Northeast Conference tournament at the Sewall Center.

Only two players rank ahead of Lee in number of career starts for Robert Morris -- Andre Boyd (114) and Forest Grant (110) -- and not many players rank ahead of Lee in any career statistical category.

He's sixth in career points (1,454), third in career assists (469) and third in career steals (268). Most incredibly, Lee ranks second in career rebounding (with 741) behind Anthony Dickens, a 6-5, 245-pounder who had 751 rebounds in his career that ended in 1990.

"To have a chance to be the all-time leading rebounder at 6 feet?" Lee said. "That's unheard of. I don't think anyone would have thought that."

So how did it happen?

"The young man is a pit bull on the boards," Rice said. "He's as tough as they come. He's the grittiest of gritty guys."

"Pound for pound, the toughest player in America," Schmidt said. "There's nobody 6 feet who does what he does."

"I think it's just my toughness," Lee said. "I think it's my wanting to get the ball. Rebounding isn't a skill. You're not taught to rebound. Rebounding is just a matter of who wants it more.

"I can jump pretty well. I'm pretty athletic. But, when the ball is up, it's anybody's ball. It's whoever wants it more. I think a lot of the time when the ball is up, I want it more."

Lee's toughness is what sets him apart. It's what attracted Schmidt to him in the spring of 2004 when he recruited him out of Boston's Charlestown High School. Lee had considered going to Maryland-Eastern Shore.

"But I pretty much knew the team was going to be sorry and wasn't going to be a contender for anything," Lee said. "I was used to winning in high school and I didn't want to go there."

The only other school that wanted Lee was Division II Merrimack. But Lee wanted to play in Division I.

"When we saw him that April, he was a tough kid playing point guard," Schmidt said. "He could score, but what he really had was toughness. And he did all those intangible things."

"I remember coach Schmidt always saying, 'Well, he's not a point guard. He's not a two-guard. What is he?' " Lee said. "I think he took a chance. He knew I could get things done. But I don't think he ever knew I would do the things I've done since I've been here."

He is one of six NEC players to amass 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 assists -- and the only one who did it by his junior season. He also had back-to-back triple-doubles this season in games Feb. 9 against Long Island and Feb. 14 against Central Connecticut State. Only five other Division I players have had back-to-back triple-doubles.

"He's arguably the best overall player in the league," said Central Connecticut State coach Howie Dickenman. "He does everything."