The little school raises a major-college flap
by Tony Basilio
With March Madness upon us, I think it’s time someone recognized the undefeated St. Joe’s (Philadelphia, Pa.) Hawks of Coach Phil Martelli as by far the most intriguing story of this college basketball season. Led by humble, diminutive, All-American guard Jameer Nelson, this tiny Jesuit school embodies team-oriented values in a hoops age where those concepts are often eschewed.
A senior who elected to return for this season rather than leave early for the NBA, Nelson is a throwback. He’s a team-first superstar who still managed to lead the Hawks in nearly every offensive category. An example of Nelson’s commitment to team unity was an instance this past off-season wherein the superstar actually called Martelli and begged the coach not to cut a determined walk-on from the roster, but rather to keep the hard-working but less gifted player as a member of the team.
The fact that the Hawks are the first men’s team in 13 years to finish with a perfect record is remarkable, especially considering the disadvantages inherent to being a small, financially strapped program in the upstart Atlantic-10 basketball league. For instance, Nelson is the only player on St. Joe’s roster who was considered a top D-1 prospect in high school, and he was only a fringe Top-100 player at that. (With CJ Watson, John Winchester, and Stanley Asumnu, Tennessee has three top 100 recruits on its current team.)
The Hawks’ hoops budget, meanwhile, is just under $2 million (by contrast, Tennessee spends over $4 million), and the entire recruiting budget of the St. Joseph’s athletic department is $65,000—about what UT would burn on two recruits.
I had an opportunity to tour the St. Joe’s facilities last summer, and they were similarly lacking in ostentatiousness. The St. Joe’s Fieldhouse has a capacity of 3,200, and the “Media Room” doubled as a broom closet in the off-season.
None of this sits well with college basketball’s media elite.
St. Joseph’s is so tiny and seemingly unworthy that their very presence at the top of the polls offends the sensibilities of talking heads everywhere. Analysts like Billy Packer have gone out of their way to point out that the Hawks are a fraud, propped up by a weak schedule. National columnists from Dallas, LA, New York, Chicago and Atlanta have decried their No. 1 national ranking as an embarrassment.
Why so much fuss? One of the reasons is Martelli himself. In an age when most coaches are at pains to maintain a façade of false dignity and political correctness, Martelli—a homely guy to start with—is loud, plainspoken, unafraid to take on the establishment media. He’s been a frequent guest on my radio show, and on a recent airing I asked him why he thought his school has been afforded such harsh treatment in the national press.
“I don’t really understand why the national media doesn’t like us,” he responded. “It seems like it’s become the flavor of the month to rip us. The fact of the matter is that they aren’t held to back up their numbers... We’re 27 and 0. Enough talking about it. Put up somebody and we’ll play ‘em. We aren’t afraid of anyone.”
During that same conversation, Martelli held forth on why his program has been so successful, and why his hard-nosed approach might not work so well at a higher-profile university like Tennessee.
“The first thing I look for is a kid who wants to be coached,” he said. “There are a lot of kids out there who don’t want to be coached. They are looking for a babysitter. That’s not me.... The second thing I require is someone who loves the game. Not likes the game, but loves the game. If you love it, you will work to get better.
“I don’t know how my approach would work at a place like Tennessee that has all the facility advantages, because in those situations, you are dealing with a different type of kid... I sell the game and my ability to take a young man and make him a better person and player... Many of the kids that you deal with in a recruiting situation in an SEC job would be more interested in style over substance.”
Whether you love Martelli or hate him, St Joseph’s is still the best story of this college basketball season. An incident involving the school’s mascot (a student in a hawk costume who flaps his wings non-stop) during a recent road game perhaps best exemplifies what St. Joe’s is all about. In the middle of the contest, the hawk was attacked by an opposing mascot. Though he was pummeled in the exchange, the hawk had the presence of mind to continue flapping his wings from the bottom of a pile of bodies. Now, that’s heart. That’s March Madness.
Tune in and talk sports with "The Tony Basilio Show" each weekday from 3-6 p.m. on the network (670 WMTY-AM, 850 WKVL-AM, 1140 WLOD-AM, 1290 WATO-AM, or 1400 WGAP-AM).
March 11, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 11
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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