Saint Joseph's and George Washington tip off at Hagan Arena on Wednesday night. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
February 21, 2024
Big5Hoops.com
PHILADELPHIA – This was not a performance by Saint Joseph’s to hang in a museum. Not by any means.
Entering losers of three of their last four, including a pair of road defeats last week at Loyola-Chicago and Duquesne that had you re-thinking your assessment that this Hawks team will be a for-sure contender in the Atlantic 10 tournament next month in Brooklyn, there was a fragility about this team that was evident.
George Washington brought an eight-game losing streak, was without two of its three leading scorers and told by oddsmakers that there was hardly any chance of a victory as 11 ½-point underdogs.
But there were the Hawks down five points with just over 10 minutes left, looking every bit like a team that would just be playing out their season over the next few weeks.
Who were these Hawks? And what happened to that early-season team that, while not perfect, surely looked like a problem for Atlantic 10 opponents?
The image of that team in your head didn’t exactly show up in the final 10 minutes, but the Hawks as currently situated made some really good winning plays down the stretch, pulling out 79-75 victory over the Revolutionaries at Hagan Arena on Wednesday night.
The win was important for confidence and mojo. An NCAA at-large bid is out the window, but the Hawks need to bring a swagger to Brooklyn to win four games in five days. Doable? Not if they play like they did against GW. But you still think there’s really good basketball in there for these Hawks, who are 17-10 overall and 7-7 in the A-10.
What looked good was the resilience down the stretch, turning that five-point deficit into a six-point advantage when Cameron Brown drained a crucial 3-pointer with 2:36 left that made it 74-68. Xzayvier Brown and Erik Reynolds II combined to make 5 of 6 free throws when they counted the most in the final 32.3 seconds to ice the game.
That is an especially great sign for Reynolds, whose shot hasn’t been falling in the last two weeks. Still, he got to 20 points by getting to the foul line eight times, making six, on a night when he missed 6 of 8 from the arc. Reynolds also did other things well, dishing six assists and grabbing five boards. That’s what you need to do when your shot isn’t falling. Just find ways to help your team win until your shot starts going down again. Reynolds did that.
What didn’t look good, once again, was the teflon defense on the perimeter that helped GW make 12 3-pointers on 27 attempts. James Bishop IV scored 32 points, making 10 of 22 field goals. Whether because of the Hawks’ better defense or Bishop getting tired – and it was the latter from my seat that looked most responsible – the GW star cooled when needed most by the undermanned visitors.
As the Revolutionaries were raining down triples and points, I kept looking behind coach Billy Lange’s bench at Tyrone Barley, there on a night in which Saint Joseph’s recognized the greatest team in school history, in his 2003-04 warmup suit wondering what Barley was thinking. I also believed with all my heart that if Lange called Barley on the court on Wednesday night that Barley, 20 years past his playing days without warming up, would defend Bishop as well as anyone in Crimson and Gray while showing these Hawks what great defense looks like.
While the next game, at VCU on Sunday, has all of the focus of the players and coaches, as it should, this season is going to come down to what happens in Brooklyn for these Hawks. If they want any chance to cut down the nets, the defense just has to get better.
Lange said postgame that the Hawks schematically can make some minor tweaks defensively, but wholesale changes aren’t coming at this point. What he needs, at times, is simply more effort. Maybe put on a tape of Barley guarding someone in 2003-04. Talk about effort defensively. Barley’s was as good as I’ve ever seen at any level. Not that any of these Hawks will get there, but watching Barley will give an idea of what it takes to stop someone. As much as anything else, it’s a mentality. That has to be present more consistently for these Hawks to have real success.
On the plus side, the Hawks did enough to win on Wednesday. When you’re not at your best, that itself can be a huge boost and help you get to playing the way you want.
“I liked the grit,” Lange said. “I liked the resilience.”
Undeniably, that was there at winning time.
Now, the Hawks need to put it together, better offense, tighter defense on the perimeter, and maybe, just maybe they’ll still be contenders at Barclays.
“I think we just need to get back to how we’re flying around (defensively) at the beginning of the year,” Cameron Brown said. “Being energetic and flying around. We’ve shown signs the past three games. On the offensive end, we’re pretty fine against anybody.”
“I think we’re in a pretty good spot,” Reynolds said. “We have to lock in on the defensive end, take pride. Offensively move the ball like we did all season.”
It’s not all that complicated really. Lange and Company know what they need to do: Keep playing offense at a high level and get better at making stops.
So, yeah, don’t put a frame around this one, but happily chalk it up as a needed win.
Stay in the offensive flow, get out in guys’ grills on the perimeter. Start it at VCU Sunday.
Then, start looking for frame stores on City Line Avenue.
You want to win in Brooklyn? You’re going to need pretty performances that are worthy of hanging in a museum.
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. His byline regularly appears on Associated Press stories. Big5Hoops.com is his second website dedicated to Philadelphia college basketball. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages.