WORCESTER, Mass. – There’s a full-fledged youth movement at Saint Joseph’s for the second year in a row. If last season is any indication, as well as some of what the Hawks have gone through this season, one could be forgiven if they think it’s been a little taxing on the soul for the coaching staff. But despite the Hawks’ 4-8 record and a recent six-game losing streak that they ended on Tuesday night, that hasn’t quite been the case.
What was difficult for them was going a month without a win, as the Hawks last won on November 26 against Rutgers at the Palestra. At that time, the Hawks were 3-2 and had a three-game winning streak. Then a 12-point loss at Drexel started the six-game slide. While only one loss was at home and all six came against teams with postseason potential, that’s little consolation.
“This team has been easy, but you feel badly for everybody to go a month without a win. That’s hard,” head coach Phil Martelli said after the 65-54 win at Holy Cross.
The Hawks start three freshmen and sophomore Carl Jones alongside senior Idris Hilliard. Of the eight players who average double-digit minutes, Hilliard is the only upperclassman and five are freshmen. The other player besides Jones in that mix is sophomore Justin Crosgile, who is talented but missed some crucial time at the beginning of last season that probably slowed his development.
Crosgile could be a key to this team as one of their more talented guards. He had a career-high 19 points against Holy Cross, going 5-6 from long range, and looking like they player they originally recruited. As one of the older players on this young team, he’s a guy who could be a leader, especially if he sees how games mirror practice. Martelli said he practiced well before scoring 15 points at Creighton, then practiced poorly before scoring just two against Boston University. The trend continud after that.
“Now he’s practiced well the last couple of days,” Martelli noted, “and one of the things we’re going to discuss with him is that if he could give us an older perspective – which sounds funny as a sophomore – and score the ball coming into the game, that would be a plus for our team going forward.”
One thing Martelli is doing is being hard on this team as many make the transition to college. A lot of the issues have been more intangible than anything, such as being able to address issues in-game as opposed to in practice. He feels the team picks things up well in practice, but one gets the sense that picking them up inside of a game is different.
Last year, one big difficulty for Martelli was not seeing a daily improvement, which he said he built the program on. That may be one reason freshmen are getting so many opportunities, with three starting every game thus far. As such, they’re getting a little trial by fire, especially with the non-conference slate being what it has been.
“The only way for them to be exact is for us to lean on them and not baby them,” said Martelli, who added that they need to build the young players up. “I have to remind everybody of that. This is what we have, this is the age of the group that we have. Missed plays can’t happen. We’re looking at small steps, small improvement, and I’m going to tell you the truth, when I go into tomorrow’s plus-minus, the minus is going to be big.”
Martelli added that he wasn’t sure the players’ mindset was what it should be with a six-game losing streak still in progress. It wasn’t a pleasant trip up from Philadelphia because of that and what he said was a bad practice before the trip.
“I was fuming coming up here because I didn’t see the anger and angst that should come with a six-game losing streak,” he recalled.
While the Hawks had a 31-23 halftime lead at Holy Cross, they didn’t play well. They were better in the second half, shooting 50 percent from the field and leading by double digits for most of the half.
The Hawks will be better for a win in the mix of trying to get better. One win won’t cure all the problems, and a few still showed up against Holy Cross. There was one play in particular that got a reaction out of Martelli on the bench, when the defense fell asleep on an inbounds pass under the basket and Holy Cross got an easy layup. But a win certainly helps, especially with what’s ahead.
“We’re going into the teeth of this thing now with Siena and 16 league games and Penn,” Martelli said. “We can’t afford to take a step back, and some guys did tonight. Some guys didn’t play as well. But you come out of here with a win, and it’s going to be a little easier. It’s not fool’s gold, they can’t walk around thinking everything’s solved. It’s not solved, we still have a ways to go.”
This time around, the long way to go looks like it could be a little better, and perhaps less taxing on the soul.
