City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Saint Joseph’s enters the Atlantic 10 Tournament on its first two-game losing streak of the season. But it’s not entirely uncharted waters for a few members of the Hawks’ roster.

Two seasons ago, St. Joe’s lost its final two regular season games and went to the A-10 Tournament in Brooklyn needing a win or two to solidify its spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Hawks ended up winning the conference tournament.

With their first conference tournament game looming on Friday, and the Hawks closer to the NCAA Tournament bubble than they were eight days ago, some players are recalling the run of 2014.

“The same thing happened my freshman year,” said forward DeAndre’ Bembry, who was named the conference’s Player of the Year earlier in the week. “We lost on senior night and all of that was getting talked about. We just came in and got better. We tried to just stay focused on the first game. And that’s what we’re doing this week. We’re zoned in to whoever we’re going to play Friday. If we play some defense, we’ll be a very good team in the tournament.”

That’s what the St. Joe’s faithful are hoping as the team opens the Atlatnic 10 Tournament in the quarterfinals on Friday at 2:30 p.m. after a double bye. The fourth-seeded Hawks will play the winner of Thursday’s George Washington-Saint Louis tilt.

And while St. Joe’s had to prepare for a potential of three different first-round opponents (St. Louis downed George Mason in Wednesday’s first round), the Hawks also had to find themselves after two losses in four days last week.

St. Joe’s fell on the road last Wednesday to St. Bonaventure and followed it up with its worst loss of the season, falling 78-70 to Duquesne at Hagan Arena. The two losses dropped the Hawks to 24-7 and at 13-5 in the A-10, they missed out on a tie for first place in the conference.

After the back-to-back defeats, practice this week was a lot about getting the team “back to center” in the eyes of 21st-year coach Phil Martelli.

“We’ve been razor sharp all year,” Martelli said. “We played ahead all year, but in both of those games last week, we had to come from behind. We didn’t look as comfortable. We just looked uncomfortable in that situation. So we have to address it, we have to acknowledge it and we have to get back on the track.”

The team also had to devote some of its attention to prepping game plans for three different opponents. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the Hawks spent one-third of the practice focusing on one different team each day.

“We have three days to practice, so we focus on the three different teams a little bit,” senior forward and second-team All-A10 pick Isaiah Miles said on Monday. “(Monday) it was St. Louis, (Tuesday) it’s Mason and (Wednesday) it’s George Washington. We’re practicing our defense for every team, because we don’t know.”

On Wednesday, St. Joe’s scouted George Washington, the five seed and most likely foe the Hawks will see. And the Colonials are also fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives. As of Wednesday, George Washington was listed on the “Next Four Out” by ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi.

St. Joe’s, meanwhile, was one of the teams in the tournament and the third-to-last to not have to play in the “First Four.” But that’s not Martelli’s concern in the Big Apple.

“I don’t think that they feel any pressure. They don’t feel any pressure,” the coach said. “I have not looked at a mock bracket. I’ve encouraged them not to. I know they’re young guys and they might wander on to the internet to try and figure something out. But what is written doesn’t mean anything. It’s only about 2:30 on Friday. We want to play at 1 o’clock on Saturday, the only way to do that is to play well.”