The Hawk

Issue date: 3/19/08 Section: Sports

Martelli will be leading his team back to the NCAA?Tournament for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

It was a tale of two nights for the Saint Joseph's men's basketball team. But then again, after the roller-coaster season they experienced, why would you expect any different?

In less than 24 hours, the Hawks went from the emotional low of losing the Atlantic 10 Championship game to Temple and possibly seeing their shot at the NCAA Tournament gone to the highest jubilation in finding out they had done enough to sneak into the Big Dance.

The latest twist on the roller coaster that has been the 2007-08 Hawks basketball season started with Friday night's upset of Xavier, 61-53, their third win in three days in the A-10 tourney and in all likelihood the final defining win on an NCAA Tournament resume.

All of that was dashed the next day as Temple took down the 69-64 Hawks to take the automatic bid and leave the Hawks' postseason aspirations in serious jeopardy.

But as has been the case all season, things turned around in the blink of an eye on Selection Sunday, with the Hawks earning an 11 seed in the East region, the first to be revealed during the Selection Show.

"I'm flying right now," said Rob Ferguson, '08. "We went crazy, like little kids in a candy store."

Much like everything else for the Hawks this season, even the announcement didn't go off without a hitch. The team gathered in different rooms at head coach Phil Martelli's house and watched the brackets being unveiled. Martelli, watching on his analog cable television, knew the results several seconds earlier than his players, who watched the announcement on HD-TV.

"By the time I hit the living room, they looked at the door I came through and looked at the television to see it," said Martelli. "It was the way it should be; it was spontaneous combustion in some ways."

But the hours leading up to the revelation that they would be in the Big Dance were anything but enjoyable for Martelli and his players.

"Watching it was nerve-wracking," said Ahmad Nivins, '09. "Are we in it? Are we not in it? But seeing our names go across the screen was great and then everyone just lost it. It's a wonderful feeling. I'm still on cloud nine."

"Time went really slow today," said Pat Calathes, '08. "I made a mistake and got up really early this morning. I just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, I was just too anxious."

Continued...

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