CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Saint Joseph’s has largely completed non-conference play, with only a Big 5 game against Penn remaining in less than three weeks. The Hawks are 10-4, with a few good wins, so considering where this team was the past two years it looks good. But in some sense, Saturday’s tough 74-69 loss at Harvard is indicative of the team: good, but still needing a good deal of work.
“We’re not good enough. Plain and simple,” said head coach Phil Martelli. “What we did wasn’t good enough. 9-16 from the foul line, two guys in double figures, it’s not good enough. I’ve been honest with this team, we’re inching up on being good, but we’re not there yet, and this is another indication that we’re not there yet.”
The Hawks shot a sizzling 79.2 percent from the field in the first half, but didn’t play very good defense and as a result went into the locker room with just a ten-point lead. Gradually, they wore down at both ends, especially the offensive end, and the Crimson chipped away at what was still an 11-point lead near the halfway point of the second half. Harvard shot 50 percent in the first half to stay in it, then shot 52 percent in the latter frame while the Hawks shot an ice cold 29.6 percent.
Martelli said he felt the Hawks lost their edge in the second half, and also thought his team wore down. He did all he could to manage the team’s rest, as he didn’t bring them over for a shootaround, but in the end it was all about managing the minutes come game time. In particular, Carl Jones played 36 minutes and Langston Galloway 35, and neither was the same player in the second frame.
“I’ve got to do a better job of shortening the stints that some of those guys, particularly (Jones) and Langston,” said Martelli. “I’m really conscious of getting them out in the first half, and should have done a better job of that.”
Saint Joseph’s doesn’t have a senior on the roster, while bringing back much of last season’s team. While that team struggled for a while, they were clearly better than the young group from a year earlier, and the freshman class from that team is largely gone now. With only three juniors on the roster, this is still a very young team, and players like Jones and Galloway need to be leaders as juniors.
The Hawks came out of Saturday’s game with some good things, much like the non-conference slate. They had a very good stretch offensively into the second half, and at times their frontcourt gave Kyle Casey fits in the first half before he took the game over in the second. C.J. Aiken is another Hawk who played well early but wasn’t a big factor in the second half, and they need him to be a better rebounder to go with his shot-blocking.
Likewise, the Hawks showed a lot of reason for optimism over the first couple of months. They have wins over CAA favorite Drexel, Creighton and Villlanova. The only remotely questionable loss came at American, as Seton Hall, MAAC contender Iona and Harvard are the teams to beat them. The loss at American isn’t unforgivable as the Eagles have had a respectable non-league showing. The Hawks have had a favorable draw in the sense of having seven home games, and they are 7-0 at home, but this team didn’t win a lot of those games the past two seasons. The wins have helped the confidence of this team, and the effect of that can’t be underestimated.
“Everybody on the team has a confidence and a swagger about themselves,” said Jones. “We all know how good we can be, we’ve just got to keep working to get better each and every day.”
Saint Joseph’s might have an outside shot at an NCAA Tournament bid if they have a good run through the Atlantic 10 that includes a couple of wins over the likes of Xavier, Saint Louis, Temple and Dayton. They play the Musketeers only once, in Cincinnati, so that will be easier said than done, but they get two cracks at Temple and have the Billikens and Flyers only at home. The key stretch for this team may come in the middle of the month, when they play three straight on the road at UMass, Xavier and Penn.
Thus far, the Hawks have shown good progress. They could be better, and they know it, but they’re not in a bad place and Martelli is looking forward to what is ahead.
“We’re getting on the bus 10-4 because that’s what we earned, to be 10-4 over the first six weeks,” said Martelli. “Now let’s see what the next six weeks bring.”
