"What we have to do is lift our expectations-- and then exceed those expectations."
Those were the words of Saint Joseph's head coach Phil Martelli as quoted by Brendan Quinn in the 2012-13 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, which was released prior to this past season.
Just a few months later, after the Hawks failed to meet the expectations of the Atlantic 10 Conference's media and coaches, who picked Saint Joseph's to finish at the top of the conference, Martelli's thoughts on expectations seemed to do a 180 degree turn.
After a win over Fordham late in February, Martelli accused the media of hyping up the Hawks to be better than they actually were, seemingly telling everyone that their expectations of this Saint Joseph's team were too high.
Martelli also accused the media of covering the team in a negative tone during the same press conference after he was asked questions about not having clinched a berth in the Atlantic 10 Tournament heading into the team's final two games.
In the matter of only a few months, Martelli went from wanting to lift and exceed their expectations to telling the media that their expectations were too high. How did things unravel in such a quick span?
It seemed to be a defensive reaction from the all-time winningest coach in program history. Martelli had been supported wildly by the vast majority of the Saint Joseph's fan base during most of his career on Hawk Hill. Any whispers of discontent that Martelli may have faced after having three straight losing seasons in the late 90's were erased with a 26-7 campaign in the 2000-01 season and a run to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament. This started a stretch of six straight seasons where the Hawks would reach postseason play, including three NCAA Tournament appearances and of course the dream season of 2003-04 where Jameer Nelson and Delonte West help lead the Hawks to a 30-2 mark while falling one basket short of a Final Four appearance.
But after the disappointment of this season, there are more than just whispers of discontent that Martelli, as well as the program's administration are dealing with now. The "Phil Mart-elli" chant from the student section was less prevalent at home games, with some fans even booing the head coach at the start of games.
In fairness, Martelli is far from the only person to blame for the Hawks lack of success this season. The players have to take a certain level of blame as well, as certain players proved to be a distraction over the course of the season. Two prominent Hawk players, Carl Jones and Halil Kanacevic, were both suspended for multiple games.
At the same time, Martelli did not seem to get the best out of his players. With Kanacevic, Ronald Roberts and C.J. Aiken typically starting games in the frontcourt, the Hawks seemingly had an advantage on the inside in the majority of their match-ups. However, with the exception of their one-point win over Temple in early February, the Hawks rarely took advantage of their superiority on the inside.
In particular, Martelli failed to get the most out of Aiken. Aiken did not develop much of an inside game during his time on Hawk Hill. Despite being freakishly athletic, Hawk fans only saw glimpses of his true potential. Instead of sticking around for his senior season, Aiken has declared for the NBA Draft and at the least, will likely be playing basketball professionally in Europe next year.
While criticisms of the coach are certainly valid at this point, the bigger problem lies with the administration of the athletic department.
The disillusionment of the fan base would likely not be as significant if the athletic department did more of the "little things" correctly. Instead, Saint Joseph's has shown on numerous occasions that they are out of touch with the evolution of NCAA Division I athletics.
The most recent example of the administration being out of touch with reality was with their pricing of tickets for the Hawks NIT home loss to St. John's. While most, if not all other programs which had NIT home games discounted their tickets substantially, Saint Joseph's kept their seats at their normal prices of $20 and $30, the highest charged by any home venue for any NIT game. While Saint Joseph's did admit students free with their IDs for the game, not reducing the prices for other tickets led to Hagan Arena being a ghost town for the Hawks two-point loss against St. John's.
Saint Joseph's fans pay the highest ticket prices in Philadelphia and the product on the court since the renovations of Hagan Arena have not come close to justifying paying the highest prices in the city.
Besides the product on the court, Saint Joseph's simply gets other parts of the game day experience totally wrong. It is absolutely inexcusable for a school that plays high-level Division-I basketball to run out of most of their concessions prior to halftime of every game. Its also inexcusable for the food and drinks that are available not to be heated or cooled properly. Another common complaint of the fan base deals with ticket snafus for season ticket holders. Too often fans don't receive their tickets on time, or on other occasions they even receive tickets for Hawk games at The Palestra that they never ordered. These are very simple and basic things that Saint Joseph's consistently gets wrong.
On top of those little things, the athletic department in general has struggled on the majority of their respective fields and courts. One of Saint Joseph's mantras is "Developing Everyday Champions" and in this regard, the university does a fantastic job. All of the student athletes at Saint Joseph's are given a quality education and all of the resources necessary to graduate. Athletic Director Don DiJulia is extraordinarily loyal to the coaches that work under him. But one has to wonder if that is a hindrance to the advancement of summer of the school's athletic programs on the field/court.
Here are some staggering statistics: The Hawks baseball team has not finished higher than 4th in the Atlantic 10 since 1992 while their last NCAA Tournament appearance came in 1974. The field hockey team has not won an A-10 title since 1995. The men's soccer team has not had a winning season since 1994. This season's A-10 Tournament appearance for the women's soccer team was their first since 2005. The men's lacrosse team has had two winning seasons in the 20 seasons the program has been in existence. The women's lacrosse team is off to their best start in program history at 6-3, but has only made two A-10 Tournament appearances in the 13 years the women's lacrosse team has been a member of the Atlantic 10.
At almost any other Division-I university, those results would result in regular upheaval. However, at Saint Joseph's, there have been very few coaching changes with all of those programs, despite the far from impressive results.
How does this tie into basketball? There is an obvious fear that if things continue to spiral downhill for the Hawks on the hardwood, that DiJulia will not act.
One of the best recruiting classes in the history of Saint Joseph's basketball heads into its senior season next year, minus Aiken. A core of Roberts and Kanacevic in the frontcourt, along with Langston Galloway, should yield some dividends. However, that same core plus Aiken and Jones, who leaves Hawk Hill as the third leading scorer in Saint Joseph's history, were not able to take the program back to the NCAA Tournament this season. The Hawks also add an impressive recruit in DeAndre Bembry, a 6'6 wing player from The Patrick School who was named 1st-team All-State in New Jersey by The Star Ledger and is rated #92 in the ESPN100 for the Class of 2013. Saint Joseph's will also be hopefully that point guard Kyle Molock, who missed this season as a medical redshirt after suffering an ACL tear in a summer workout, can contribute in the backcourt.
It is more than likely that the 2013-14 season will be the Hawks last chance at an NCAA Tournament berth for a couple of seasons, as they will graduate a significant amount of talent after next season.
Despite the fact that expectations from outside of the program will likely be lower, Hawk fans should not accept anything less than an NCAA Tournament appearance next season. The administration at Saint Joseph's University should not accept anything less either.
Without sustained success, the tradition-rich basketball program at Saint Joseph's risks falling into perhaps the worst description for an athletic program. With how conference realignment seems to be changing the landscape of college athletics, and college football and basketball in general, the Hawks are risking becoming irrelevant on the national college basketball landscape without improvements.
If the Hawks have another unsatisfactory season next year, the university will be left with a critical decision to make. Would DiJulia make the decision to relieve Martelli of his duties if the Hawks don't deliver next season? Based on his record with the Hawks other athletic programs the answer to that question would most likely be no. That would put the upper administration in the difficult spot to consider not only Martelli's position, but DiJulia's as well if the Hawks fail to deliver on the hardwood once again next season.
Saint Joseph's is at a crossroads right now not only with their men's basketball program, but their athletic programs in general. However, men's basketball is the main revenue generator for the school's athletic department. Instead of lowering expectations, like Martelli did during the latter stages of the season, expectations need to be raised on Hawk Hill.
If things do not improve quickly, the program risks plunging into irrelevancy.
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