BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Phil Martelli didn’t want to play around. He opened by saying that one option was for him to “give you the nonsense” with predictable cliches about the game, but that wasn’t his preferred route. There was a simple thing he and his team wanted on Saturday night, and there was no getting around the fact that they didn’t get it: a win over Florida State in the championship game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
Martelli has never been one to look for moral victories, and he wasn’t about to start doing it Saturday night. When asked about Ronald Roberts’ performance, mainly his seven offensive boards, he made even clearer how he felt about the result.
“I think it’s a remarkable achievement to get seven offensive rebounds against that front line, but there’s not going to be any head holding high on the bus going home. We lost,” said Martelli. “So Ron’s rebounds and All-Tournament are kind of empty, to be honest with you, and that’s the way he would approach it, because we didn’t get what we wanted tonight, and that was a win.”
It’s not just from a simple competitive standpoint that one can understand Martelli’s feeling. The reality is that, as he noted, he has an older group this season, a veteran team that he led through some painful rebuilding. For two years the Hawks were a very young group before starting to grow up last year, although they had their chances for it to be an even better year. Now they enter this season as favorites in the new and improved Atlantic 10, and when they scored a big overtime win over Notre Dame a night earlier, it looked like the growth process was continuing.
Saint Joseph’s hasn’t stopped growing as a result of the loss. But the fact that this was a veteran team and how they lost a game that was there for the taking speaks to the coach’s disappointment.
“What I just said to the players is, you get 30 chances,” said Martelli. “When you get a chance – your chance might be 38 minutes, your chance might be fewer than that – you have to empty your tank, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Certainly, the overtime game a night earlier may have drained a little more out of the Hawks than if they won in regulation. They’re also not very deep right now, as they have a definite six-man rotation that Martelli would probably like to add at least one more to for significant minutes. The only evidence that fatigue came into play was in the final minutes, but that may speak to Florida State simply having superb depth more than this team being worn out from Friday night’s win.
Saint Joseph’s started four juniors and a sophomore on Saturday night. Soon, the sophomore should become a senior as Carl Jones, who was suspended for the first three games, is back in the lineup and should be starting again soon. Junior Daryus Quarles and sophomore Papa Ndao are the others who got in the game. Jones looked a little like someone playing their first game of the season, but that should change soon.
The Hawks tied the game at 52 with under 12 minutes to play, and they trailed the rest of the way. They got within two with over eight minutes left and were never within a possession again after that. They missed their next four shots, three coming from long range, and had just two more field goals in the final five minutes.
Martelli’s disappointment would be there in any event with a loss. But that’s probably magnified a bit given that this is an experienced group, one that should, as he put it, empty their tank every time out and understand that it must be done. If the Hawks learn that lesson from this loss, they would resume growing and look like an understandable pick as the favorite in the Atlantic 10.
