City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)

St. Joseph’s is in the best position the program has been in since winning the Atlantic 10 Tournament nearly two years ago.

The Hawks are on a seven-game winning streak, playing their best basketball of the season and garnering national attention. They received three votes in this week’s AP poll and were also featured as one of the “last four in” in CBS Sports’ latest Bracketology.

But Phil Martelli knows the conference schedule can make or break a team. And while the 21st-year coach is happy where his team is currently, he has no idea where St. Joe’s or any other team in the conference will be in two months.

“If anyone out there knows how this is going to finish come early March, then you’re wasting your time covering basketball,” Martelli said Monday. “Go play the powerball and buy an island somewhere, because I have no idea how it will play out.”

The Hawks (11-2) opened their A-10 slate with a 77-73 road win at Richmond – a game the team trailed for most of the first 30 minutes. For a team playing itself into NCAA Tournament talk, every game is a meaningful one, and the Hawks have two favorable opportunities this week at Hagan Arena where they’ll host VCU on Tuesday and Rhode Island on Sunday.

Both conference opponents start the week with 9-5 records, and both were picked ahead of the Hawks in the preseason A-10 poll. So this week can be the one that really puts Martelli’s bunch in the conversation as one of the top teams in a conference that will likely receive three or four NCAA bids.

So what’s the mood been like for a St. Joe’s team that has been the most pleasant surprise of the City 6 so far this season? As Martelli put it: happy but hungry.

“We want the next opportunity,” he said. “And the next opportunity for us is practice (Monday) afternoon and then against VCU. There are a lot of smiles, but we’re not giddy. We know we’ve had good fortune but one player could send you in another direction. We want to keep everyone on the same ship in the same direction.”

That next challenge will come against a VCU squad that is known for defense, even in the first year without Shaka Smart. First-year Rams coach Will Wade has switched the style from fullcourt pressure to an aggressive half court defense, and it still gets results.

As of Monday, VCU was fourth in the country in steals, forcing 10.6 per game and opponents average 18 turnovers per game against the Rams.

“The way I’ve described it to my team is a frenetic pace in half court defense, that means they’ve accepted the coaching change and are willing to go about it in a different way,” Martelli said. “And the goal is the same, they always want to dominate the Atlantic 10, and I respect that.”

Offensively, VCU is led by senior guard Melvin Johnson, who averages 18.6 points per game – a mark that ranks fifth in the conference. St. Joe’s is led by a pair of All-Atlantic 10 candidates in Isaiah Miles and DeAndre’ Bembry, who both stood out against Richmond.

Miles continued his prolific senior season with 17 points and a career-best 16 rebounds. Bembry, on the other hand, finished with 16 points and all of them came in the second half, including a jumper with 27 seconds left which gave St. Joe’s a 75-73 lead. Bembry’s performance and season caught the eye of Wade.

“He’s doing a good job of being really patient and letting the shots and the game come to him and not forcing things,” Wade said. “I thought the Richmond game was a nice example of that.”

But one of the biggest changes in St. Joe’s game plans lately have been the use of Papa Ndao. The senior forward has played in only seven games this season due to a hand injury, but has come on as of late.

In his last two games, Ndao has scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds after pulling down just 11 in his first five games. He’s also taken his offensive game inside more, shooting five of his seven attempts below the 3-point arc in the last two contests.

“When he first came back, he was trying to play one-handed and get as many 3-point shots up as he can,” Martelli said. “But now, even at practice, he’s engaged defensively, he’s getting on the backboard. …He is wearing less of a brace or a wrap on his hand, in fact some days he practices without it, and the challenge now is his conditioning needs to get better so we can stretch his minutes.”