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Hawks Win First-Round Thriller

March 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Led by 14 points by Langston Galloway, including a pair of clutch free throws with 1.4 seconds remaining, Saint Joseph’s defeated Xavier in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Brooklyn. The Hawks blew a late five-point lead and were down by one until Galloway’s free throws. Isaiah Philmore missed a layup at the buzzer that would have won it for Xavier.

Both teams shot poorly from the field in the first half but the game heated up down the stretch. Staten Island-raised Halil Kanacevic led a Hawk surge before fouling out. He ended the game with 11 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. His back-court mate Ron Roberts finished with only 8 points and missed three key free throws near the end that nearly cost St. Joe’s the game.

In what was almost his last game in college, senior Tay Jones continued his slump with a 1 for 10 night from the field scoring 11 points, mostly on free throws. Despite his struggles, Jones surpassed Ahmad Nivins for third place on Saint Joseph’s all-time scorers list.

The Hawks will now face VCU at the Barclays Center on Friday.

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Saint Joseph’s Beats Temple in Important Rivalry Game

February 2, 2013 By 2 Comments

The Hawks finally put together a full, efficient team effort in their defeat of city and conference rival Temple. By pounding the ball inside rather than relying on three-pointers, Saint Joseph’s was able to display a cohesive half-court offense. SJU improved to 13-7 overall and 4-3 in conference.

Ron Roberts led Saint Joseph’s with 18 points and 12 rebounds and Halil Kanacevic continued his own personal hot streak with 12 points and 9 rebounds. The two forwards combined with CJ Aiken and his 16 points to give the Hawks a dominant presence in the paint. Only 21% of St. Joe’s attempts against Temple were three-pointers, compared with 41% on the season, and it paid off. Saint Joseph’s scored 40 points in the paint compared to only 16 by Temple.

The game was remarkably well-disciplined as there were only 16 total turnovers including only 5 by Temple. The Hawks only recorded 9 fouls on the night.

The Hawks eliminated a 9-point deficit late in the second half to go up by 4 on the Owls who were led by an outstanding performance by Khalif Wyatt who ended up with 34 points. Wyatt made a long three to cut the deficit to one point with under 10 seconds to go and Tay Jones missed the front end of a one-and-one but Temple was unable to score with 7 seconds remaining.

Team captain Langston Galloway continued his puzzling regression with 8 points and no three-pointers. The only major contributor from the Hawk backcourt with Jones who scored 16 points to go along with 4 assists and 5 rebounds.

Saint Joseph’s now travels to Dayton for a Wednesday night tilt.

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#13 Bulldogs Stomp the Spiders

January 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Butler forward Roosevelt Jones (21) shoots over Richmond forward Greg Robbins in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Butler forward Roosevelt Jones (21) shoots over Richmond forward Greg Robbins in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

INDIANAPOLIS – The Butler Bulldogs were without their top scorer, but that didn’t seem to matter as they handled Richmond 62-47. No. 13 Butler (15-2, 3-0) retained their status as one of the league’s unbeatens as they climbed to 12 consecutive victories with their win over the Spiders (11-7, 1-2). This was Butler’s first Atlantic 10 home game.

Led by Senior Andrew Smith with 15 points and Freshman Kellen Dunham with 11, the game was close in the first few minutes until the Bulldogs pulled away with thirteen minutes left in the first half. The Spiders pulled within four at the 8:24 mark in the first half, but the Bulldogs responded with an 8-0 run to lead 23-11. Butler built a 20 point lead in the second half before the Spiders made their final run, but the score was never closer than nine points.

Richmond was led by Senior Darien Brothers with twelve points, but the rest of the team was balanced with five players making at least one three-point goal and all nine players seeing at least twelve minutes. However, Brothers was the only Spider to reach double figures. Ultimately, the Spiders’ inability to pull down rebounds is the most telling statistic, as they pulled down only 20 rebounds (6 offensive) to Butler’s 53 (20 offensive).

Richmond’s 47 point performance was its lowest output this season. They came into the game averaging 71.2 points.

Richmond faces another unbeaten A10 team at home on Saturday when they take on Charlotte (15-2, 3-0).  Butler will become the first A10 program to host ESPN’s College Gameday on Saturday as they take on No. 8 Gonzaga (16-1) in the Bulldogs’ last nonconference game of the regular season. The Bulldogs will be without Rotnei Clarke, who may return Jan. 23 when they travel to La Salle.

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Greg’s Game of the Week: Week 2

January 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The first week of conference games is in the books and we’re down to four unbeaten conference teams. Four other teams are still waiting on their first conference win while half of the league sits at .500. In the preseason, I assumed the conference would be tight and there’s no indication otherwise. Perhaps this week we’ll see teams separate themselves. Here’s what’s on deck:

Wednesday, January 16
Richmond at #13 Butler
Temple at George Washington
Dayton at La Salle
Fordham at Charlotte
Xavier at St. Bonaventure

Thursday, January 17
Duquesne at Massachusetts
Saint Joseph’s at #22 VCU

Saturday, January 19
Rhode Island at Saint Louis
St. Bonaventure at Temple
La Salle at Xavier
George Washington at Massachusetts
Charlotte at Richmond
#22 VCU at Duquesne

I had some trouble figuring out which game would be my game of the week. I’ll be honest, none of the matchups seem all that exciting this week, except for Gonzaga at Butler, but I want to limit this to conference games. I thought about the Richmond game at Butler, since it’ll be interesting to see how Butler adjusts without Rotnei Clarke, who was injured by a flagrant foul by Dayton’s Derenbecker. Ultimately, I decided I don’t want to feature a Butler game two weeks in a row. Thus, this week’s game of the week is Fordham at Charlotte. Fordham (1-1) has been more competitive in its first two conference games than I anticipated, and Charlotte (2-0) has been more competitive all season than I anticipated. I think it’ll be a close game.

The Rundown: Fordham

Fordham (5-12, 1-1) is a curious case, having struggled throughout the season until beating Duquesne by seven and narrowly losing to Massachusetts by four. The Rams are led by Brenden Frazier (no, not Encino Man), who is averaging 16.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game. That’s an increase from almost 12 points per game last season, when Fordham lost to Charlotte at home by seven. However, the Rams only have one other player with a scoring average in double digits.

The Rundown: Charlotte

Charlotte (14-2, 2-0) looks to keep its perfect conference record. Led by Chris Braswell with 11.9 points per game, the 49ers only have one other player averaging double digits (DeMario Mayfield – 10.9 ppg). The key to Charlotte’s season has been balance, with eight players averaging more than 15 minutes and only one player, Pierra Henry, averaging more than 30 minutes.

The Smack:

If history is any indication, the 49ers should be 3-0 in conference on Thursday morning, as Fordham only has one win against Charlotte in the history of the series, and Charlotte is 4-0 at home. However, although Charlotte has the better record, the Rams have faced tougher tests than the 49ers. Fordham’s SOS is #150, compared to Charlotte’s SOS of #294. Pretty easy to rack up the wins when you play bad teams. The Rams also have Branden Frazier, who is 1st in the A-10 in points and 36th nationally in assists. On the other hand, Charlotte has a significantly better RPI than Fordham (#85 vs. #244), has a better scoring average (45.9% vs. 41.1%), and has a better scoring defense (61.5 vs. 73.7 allowed per game).

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The Hawks and Expectations

January 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Through fifteen games, Saint Joseph’s has been, in a word, disappointing. The undeniably talented Hawks have shown great potential at times (Notre Dame) and have looked terribly mediocre (Fairfield) at others. More often than not, the half-court offense has been stagnant and the defense has given up far too many offensive rebounds. The short bench has led the fanbase to refer to SJU as having a 6.5 man rotation, at times, and it has arguably caused the Hawks to falter late in games. In the win against Duquesne, Saint Joseph’s made one field goal in the final six minutes of the game and were lucky to leave Pittsburgh victorious.

In a recent article on Philahoops, Aaron Bracy frames this year’s St. Joe’s team as being a victim of expectations. “The problem, though, is many Hawks fans and college basketball observers expect Phil Martelli’s unit to be 14-0”, Bracy writes. This is simply false. I’d argue that most Hawk fans expected SJU to be anywhere from 10-4 to 12-2 at this point, which is perfectly reasonable considering the talent this team possesses. When national writers said the Hawks had their best team on paper since 2004, they didn’t mean they expected Saint Joseph’s to go undefeated throughout the regular season.

Hawk fans probably expected a loss to a very good Creighton team on the road. A home loss to ranked Butler was not expected but was understandable and forgivable. Consecutive losses to Fairfield (at home) and Villanova however, were unacceptable to a fanbase that hasn’t seen a tourney appearance since 2008 and is getting more and more restless.

Bracy himself had the Hawks ranked as the best team in Philadelphia at the beginning of the season. Now he ranks them fourth. Were his expectations too high?

Statistically, the Hawks have regressed in many categories. Points per game, assists per game, field-goal percentage, and three-point percentage are all down. The team’s offensive efficiency has marginally improved but the defensive efficiency has plummeted. How does one explain that for a team that has returned every player and now includes six upper-classmen compared to last year’s one? Was it really too much for the fanbase to expect an improvement from last year’s 20-win team?

Numerous media outlets have pointed out that starters have been absent for a good part of the season. This would be a valid point if Saint Joseph’s hadn’t been playing at full strength in three of its four losses. The lone loss coming without a starter was the game against Fairfield in which Saint Joseph’s shot just 33%. Spinning the narrative to say the Hawks have not had a chance to “mesh” would be silly as the core of this team has been playing together for three years now.

There were good reasons there were lofty expectations surrounding this team and, thus far, they simply haven’t lived up to those expectations. The blame should not fall on the fans. It falls on the players but mostly the coaching staff for their inability to take advantage of the obvious talent they possess and improving only marginally since last season. Much of the lack of player development falls on the coaches.

Do the Hawks have an opportunity to make up for their slow start? Absolutely. The majority of their conference slate remains and potential quality wins against VCU, Temple, Saint Louis, and others await. Was it really too much for the fanbase to expect enough of an improvement from last year’s 20-win team for an NCAA birth and a top-four A10 finish? Not in the slightest.

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Clarke and Smith Combine for 52

January 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

PHILADELPHIA – The Butler Bulldogs (#14 AP/#17 USA Today) were led by the senior duo of Rotnei Clarke and Andrew Smith, who scored 28 and 24 points, respectively, in the Bulldogs’ first official Atlantic 10 Conference game, culminating in a 72-66 win over Saint Joseph’s (8-5, 0-1 Atlantic 10).  The Bulldogs (13-2, 1-0 Atlantic 10), who entered the court to jeers from the Hawks’ student section, withstood a barrage of 3-pointers from St. Joe’s, which scored 8 of 13 in the first half. The Hawks led 40-35 at the half.

The second half was a different story as the Bulldogs held Saint Joseph’s without a field goal for a 9-minute stretch. Rotnei Clarke hit six 3-pointers, fueled by the boos that roared from the crowd every time he touched the ball.

“I didn’t really hear them booing me until I was down on the baseline by them,” said Clarke. “But I think that’s what you work for. That’s why you put in all the extra hours in the gym, so you can go on the road to tough venues, make big shots and quiet the crowd.”

Saint Joe’s twice came within one possession of the Bulldogs during the closing minutes, but failed to take the lead.

This was the first meeting between Butler and St. Joseph’s since the 1940-41 season. Butler next travels to Dayton on Saturday.

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#14/17 Butler Beats St. Joe’s For First A-10 Win

January 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Once again, Saint Joseph’s failed to put two quality halves together and lost to Butler after leading 40-35 after the first half. Butler opened their A-10 slate in style on the road after trailing for most of the contest.

Butler’s star guard Rotnei Clarke led both teams with 28 points on 21 shots. Chris Wilson led Saint Joseph’s with 15 points, all of which came in the first half. He inexplicably took zero shots in the second and sat out for large portions of the half in a baffling decision by Phil Martelli.

Early on, SJU lived and succeeded by the three but they would ultimately go cold and their lack of half-court cohesion eventually became obvious to the restless sellout crowd. After shooting over 50% in the first half, the Hawks finished at 36%. Saint Joseph’s shot 5-25 in the final 20 minutes of the game. It is a loss that will haunt SJU if they are ultimately left on the wrong side of the bubble. As SJU announcer Matt Martucci tweeted post-game, “I think there’s no other way to describe tonight except a missed opportunity….big time”.

Another telling quote came from Chris Wilson, “I definitely think coaching is what sets them on another level… That was the main thing I noticed, just how together and how well-coached they were”. It’s not anything many Saint Joseph’s faithful would necessarily disagree with after this frustrating season but it is telling coming from a key player.

A fast-paced game slowed to a lull in the second half for most everyone but Clarke who even appeared to forget how big he was in a tussle with 6’8″ Ron Roberts. Roberts finished with 12 points, 9 boards, and 4 blocks for the Hawks. His teammate CJ Aiken added 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

Saint Joseph’s now looks to travel to Duquesne on Saturday after the home letdown.

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Greg’s Game of the Week

January 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The conference season officially starts on Wednesday, January 9, with six league games on the slate. Here are the league match-ups for the week:

Wednesday, January 9
#14 Butler at Saint Joseph’s
St. Bonaventure at George Washington
Rhode Island at Richmond
Duquesne at Fordham
Dayton at VCU
La Salle at Charlotte

Thursday, January 10
Temple at Xavier
Massachusetts at Saint Louis

Saturday, January 12
Saint Louis at Temple
#14 Butler at Dayton
Charlotte at Rhode Island
Richmond at La Salle
VCU at St. Bonaventure
George Washington at Xavier
Saint Joseph’s at Duquesne

Sunday, January 13
Massachusetts at Fordham

Saint Joseph’s hosts #14 Butler in the Bulldogs’ first Atlantic 10 Conference game, while VCU plays its first league game at home against Dayton. A tough choice between the two games but the game of the week has to go to the Bulldogs/Hawks match-up. It’s been a while and a lot of basketball has been played, but there’s a reason Saint Joe’s was chosen the preseason favorite to win the league, so it should be a good game between them and the conference’s highest ranked team.

The Rundown: #14 Butler Bulldogs

The Bulldogs (12-2) have won nine games in a row, including a marquee win over then-number-one Indiana and a blowout win over the SEC’s Vanderbilt. Their lead scorer is Senior transfer Rotnei Clarke (11/26 A10 Player of the Week), who is averaging 16.2 points per game and is a 43% three-point shooter. Kellen Dunham is another Bulldog sharpshooter, especially from the charity stripe where the Freshman is hitting 94.2% of his attempts. He is a three-time A10 Rookie-of-the-Week and is Butler’s second leading scorer behind Clarke. The other key players for the Bulldogs are Sophomore Roosevelt Jones (12/27 A10 Player of the Week), Junior Khyle Marshall, and Senior Andrew Smith. Smith is the only current player in the NCAA to have played in multiple final fours, and his experience has been invaluable as he epitomizes toughness and a team-first attitude.

The Rundown: Saint Joseph’s Hawks

The Hawks’ (8-4) leading scorer is Langston Galloway, who is averaging 15 points per game and is hitting 36.7% of his three point attempts. The Hawks only have five players who have seen minutes in all twelve games of their season, including Galloway, and they have six players averaging more than 31 minutes per game. When playing the Bulldogs, they might run into trouble with a weak bench because of Butler’s physical (i.e. foul-inducing) style of play. Thus far, the Hawks have a marquee win against Notre Dame, but had a 29 point loss to Creighton, close losses to mediocre Florida State and Villanova teams, and an inexplicable loss to Fairfield.

The Smack:

Butler beats real teams. Butler has more wins over top 50 teams (2) than Saint Joe’s (0). In fact, Butler has a a better record than St. Joe’s while also playing a significantly stronger schedule (RPI SOS #5) than Saint Joe’s (#75). On the other hand, in head to head matchups, the Hawks leader in rebounding (Ronald Roberts Jr.) has more rebounds than the Bulldogs’ leader (Khyle Marshall); the Hawks leader in assists (Chris Wilson) has more assists than the Bulldogs’ leader (Roosevelt Jones); the Hawks leader in steals (Langston Galloway) has more steals than the Bulldogs’ leader (Roosevelt Jones); and the Hawks leader in blocks (C.J. Aiken) has more blocks than the Bulldogs’ leader (Andrew Smith).

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Saint Joseph’s Defeats City Foe Drexel

December 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

In a game that was more highly anticipated in the preseason than it was the day of, Saint Joseph’s decided to come out to play but not until the second half. The Hawks were up 23-18 at the half but both teams shot poorly and there was little flow until the second half. SJU went on a 13-0 run at the end of the half but it was far from pretty.

Led by what was arguably CJ Aiken‘s best game of the season, the Hawks won 63-49. The junior forward scored 19 points on a perfect 6-6 shooting night. He also had six blocks to increase his season average to 3.2. Over the past two games, a rare aggressiveness has overtaken the NBA prospect and he has heavily contributed to the Hawks short two-game winning streak. Langston Galloway and Tay Jones both shot poorly from the field but contributed at key moments and added 13 and 11 points respectively.

Before the season began, Saint Joseph’s and Drexel were both favored by many to win their respective conferences but coming into this New Year’s Eve contest, they had a combined record of only 10-11 which, added to each student body being away for break, took much of the luster out of the matchup.

Halil Kanacevic returned in a non-starting role from his two-game suspension but he struggled offensively and defensively and played less minutes than he is accustomed to. He finished 1-8 from the field with 2 turnovers.

The Hawks return to action against Morgan State in Baltimore on January 5th before their highly anticipated home matchup and A10 opener against #17 Butler.

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St. Joe’s Outruns, Outshoots Iona in High-Scoring Game

December 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Chris Wilson readies for a free throw against Iona

After two brutal and unexpected losses, Saint Joseph’s desperately had to win a game against a team that beat them in triple overtime last year. At 96-91, it was close yet again, but they got the job done and avoided falling to .500 with a frenetic game against the Iona Gaels. Iona led 47-45 at the half but SJU jumped out to a quick lead that they slowly built after the half.

Tay Jones scored a season-high 32 points and surpassed 1,500 for his career in a hot-shooting night that saw him go 12-19 from the field and 4-7 from three. Jones, who had been suffering from a sore groin, was held to 3 points in the Hawks home loss to Fairfield last time out. His injury appeared to be fully healed as he consistently beat his man off the dribble and created shots for himself and his teammates. He also had four assists and four steals.

SJU received a stunning five points out of their 96 total but three starters scored over 20. Langston Galloway shot 50% from the field and from the perimeter for 23 and CJ Aiken added 22, including a few impressive dunks to go along with his 9 rebounds and 4 blocks. Most importantly, however, was that he “was assertive” as Phil Martelli put it after the game. For much of the season, Aiken has been secluded in the corner, beyond the perimeter and it clearly makes a difference when he spends time in the paint.

Due in part to the absence of Halil Kanacevic, who was serving the second game of a two-game suspension, the Hawks were out-rebounded overall and especially badly on offense. The difference seemed to be the pace of the game which favored SJU as they’ve failed all season to get their half-court offense consistently in sync. Even though they again relied heavily on three-pointers (11-22), this time making them, the Hawks also scored 40 points in the paint even without their biggest player. Their ability to penetrate regularly led to more open opportunities than they’ve had in many games this season. In his post-game press conference, Martelli alluded to reducing the reliance on threes as the season progresses.

Coming into the game at fourth in the nation in scoring, Lamont Jones finished with 25 for the Gaels.

Saint Joseph’s will next travel a few miles to West Philly as they face City Six rival Drexel on New Year’s Eve for a 4 PM tip.

Notes
-96 points was the most the Hawks have scored in regulation since 2008
-Tay Jones became the 16th player in Saint Joseph’s history to surpass 1,500
-Hagan Arena posted a sellout of 4,200 even as the students were away for holiday break

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