City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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With the season at its midpoint and most of the non-league games in the record books, the CoBL staff is taking a peek around the City 6 to see how each of the teams have fared this far.

Here’s a look at the Saint Joseph’s Hawks, which lost to George Washington, 70-64, to open conference of play.

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Record: 5-7 (0-1 Atlantic 10)

Key Players: James Demery (17.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg), Shavar Newkirk (17.1 ppg, 3.2 apg), Taylor Funk (13.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg)
Big wins: vs. Princeton, vs. Bucknell
Bad losses: vs. Harvard (Wooden Legacy)

Things we learned...

Hawks can’t shake the injury bug

St. Joe’s 2016-17 season was marred by injury. Forward Pierfrancesco Olivia missed the entire season with a knee injury. Demery missed 11 games early in the year. Newkirk suffered a season ending ACL injury 12 games in. Guard Lamar Kimble broke his foot and missed the Hawks’ last seven games to add to the injury woes. The 2017-18 campaign was supposed to be a year the Hawks returned to full health, but before the season began, the injury woes reappeared. Charlie Brown, who averaged 12.8 points and five rebounds per game in 2016-17, fractured his hand before the season and hasn’t played in any of St. Joe’s first 12 games. Kimble, who averaged 15.5 points and 4.5 rebounds a season ago, broke his foot again in the Hawks’ first game. Brown is out at least another three weeks, the team announced, but Kimble is out for the year. Once again the Hawks will not be at full strength for any contest this season.

Taylor Funk might be even better than expected

ESPN rated Funk as a 3-star recruit and the seventh best recruit in Pennsylvania coming out of Manheim Central last season. Hawks’ coach Phil Martelli sung the sharpshooting 6-foot-8 forward’s praises during the preseason, still what Funk has done the start the season has bit unexpected. The freshman is averaging 13.5 points per game, while shooting 47 percent from the field and 92 percent from the free throw line. He leads the team with 37 triples and is making 44 percent of his shots from deep. Funk has reached double figures in nine of 12 games for the Hawks and has 15-or-more points six times. He scored 23 points in 24 minutes against Princeton on Nov. 18.

Things we still don’t know…

Can the Hawks start pulling out more close games?

Other than a season-opening loss to Toledo and a lopsided defeat at the hands of Villanova, most of St. Joe’s losses this season have been winnable games. The Hawks lost to Washington State by four, Harvard by six, Temple by three, St. John’s by four and George Washington by six. Only two of their victories have been by single digits, a double overtime win against Illinois-Chicago and fiv-point victory against Sacramento State. The Hawks might be able to help themselves in close games by shooting better from the free throw line. On the season, St. Joe’s is shooting 66 percent from the foul line, which ranks 309th in Division I. They missed six free throws against Washington State, 11 against Harvard and 10 against Temple.

Will we see Charlie Brown this season?

After fracturing his left wrist, Brown underwent surgery on Oct. 24 and was expected to miss a few weeks. On Tuesday, St. Joe’s announced that he will miss at least three more weeks as the injury hasn’t healed as quickly as expected. By that time, Brown will have missed 18 games with just 12 more left on the Hawks schedule. Brown averaged 12.8 points and five rebounds per game during his freshman season. Expectations were very high for him as a sophomore. He was supposed to play a key role for the team this season.

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Updated Prediction
This team had NCAA tournament aspirations before the season began. With Kimble done for the season and Brown missing for 12 games, the preseason hype surrounding this team has faded. The recent Brown news makes things even less optimistic for the Hawks, but with the emergence of Funk and the presence of Newkirk and Demery, St. Joe’s has enough talent to turn things around.