2008 Woodie Awards
Time to get off the roller coaster
Matthew De George '10
Issue date: 2/14/07 Section: Sports
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Welcome to the roller coaster we know as Atlantic 10 basketball. Where 12 teams make it to the tourney, not eight.
Here's how week went for Saint Joseph's basketball: a career highlight for Phil Martelli, hitting rock bottom on the season, and recovering for a rivalry win that may prove to salvage the rest of the season.
Let's start from the beginning. Super Bowl Sunday's victory over Dayton was the 235th win in Martelli's illustrious career, placing him second on the St. Joe's all-time win list.
After this victory, the Hawks faced a difficult week, with two tough tests against local rivals Villanova and LaSalle.
First came the Holy War, where the Hawk staff had just one day between games to prepare for the Wildcats.
On Tuesday night, when the scores for this first test came back, it was a resounding failure, in every imaginable facet.
To truly understand the enormity of this flop, let's look at the three key points that Coach Martelli outlined prior to the game on Tuesday's edition of "Hawk Talk".
"Can we keep Villanova in front of us because of their speed?" (Fast break points: 11-2' Nova)
"Can we make passes to exploit some of our offensive advantages?" (21 turnovers, most of which came on intercepted passes)
"Can we keep the ball out of Mike Nardi's hands?" (11 points and 7 assists in keying the victory for Nardi)
0 for 3.
It was the kind of loss that can derail a season and undermine months of confidence that a team has built; the kind of loss that causes every aspect of a team to be questioned.
These questions ranged from doubts about Martelli's preparation timetable of a mere one hour and 15 minute light practice, to speculation as to whether he had lost confidence in his young squad.
The debate was by no means quelled by his comments in the post-game press conference, where he apologized for his team's poor performance, adding that "we got our asses handed to us from the start," and that the game represented a match-up of "proverbial boys against men, and we had all the boys."
Here's how week went for Saint Joseph's basketball: a career highlight for Phil Martelli, hitting rock bottom on the season, and recovering for a rivalry win that may prove to salvage the rest of the season.
Let's start from the beginning. Super Bowl Sunday's victory over Dayton was the 235th win in Martelli's illustrious career, placing him second on the St. Joe's all-time win list.
After this victory, the Hawks faced a difficult week, with two tough tests against local rivals Villanova and LaSalle.
First came the Holy War, where the Hawk staff had just one day between games to prepare for the Wildcats.
On Tuesday night, when the scores for this first test came back, it was a resounding failure, in every imaginable facet.
To truly understand the enormity of this flop, let's look at the three key points that Coach Martelli outlined prior to the game on Tuesday's edition of "Hawk Talk".
"Can we keep Villanova in front of us because of their speed?" (Fast break points: 11-2' Nova)
"Can we make passes to exploit some of our offensive advantages?" (21 turnovers, most of which came on intercepted passes)
"Can we keep the ball out of Mike Nardi's hands?" (11 points and 7 assists in keying the victory for Nardi)
0 for 3.
It was the kind of loss that can derail a season and undermine months of confidence that a team has built; the kind of loss that causes every aspect of a team to be questioned.
These questions ranged from doubts about Martelli's preparation timetable of a mere one hour and 15 minute light practice, to speculation as to whether he had lost confidence in his young squad.
The debate was by no means quelled by his comments in the post-game press conference, where he apologized for his team's poor performance, adding that "we got our asses handed to us from the start," and that the game represented a match-up of "proverbial boys against men, and we had all the boys."
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