Saint Joseph's and Loyola Chicago tip off at Hagan Arena on Saturday. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
January 11, 2025
PHILADELPHIA – When you looked at Saint Joseph’s on paper in the preseason, this is what you saw.
Erik Reynolds II scoring and draining three-pointers.
Xzayvier Brown brilliantly running the point, scoring, dishing, shooting.
Rasheer Fleming being a force inside and outside.
Derek Simpson, using his experience from the Big Ten, to lock down the opposition and chip in with points, rebounds, and assists.
Justice Ajogbor manning the paint, making it a cautionary place for opponents driving to the basket.
Key reserves Anthony Finkley, Dasear Haskins, and Shawn Simmons II chipping in with shooting, scoring, and athleticism, respectively.
It all came together for the Hawks in a dominating performance against Loyola Chicago on Saturday, a game that was not as close as the final score:
Saint Joseph’s 93, Loyola Chicago 57
“I think that’s our brand of basketball,” Reynolds said after leading four Hawks in double-figures with 20 points. “We just have to make that our identity.”
Identity is something that has been hard to come by this season for Saint Joseph’s. At times, like against Villanova, Texas Tech, and Virginia Tech, they have looked very good. Other times, like against Central Connecticut and at St. Louis, they’ve been head-scratching. And then they’ve been less-than-stellar (Princeton, Charleston) and pretty good (La Salle, UMass) in spots.
What are they? Still to be determined.
What can they be? It was on display on Saturday.
“We were united,” coach Billy Lange said. “We played like Hawks.”
Saint Joseph’s (11-6 overall, 2-2 Atlantic 10) burst out of the gate, taking the game to the Ramblers. By the half, four players were in double-figures, the Hawks scored 53 points, had seven blocks, five steals, nine assists on 19 field goals, and looked every bit of a team that can win the Atlantic 10. (Click HERE for final stats in box score.)
The Hawks looked nothing like the team that was blown out at St. Louis, 73-57, on Friday and dropped an 85-81 overtime decision at Duquesne on Wednesday. On the long bus ride back from Pittsburgh, Lange thought deeply about what ailed the Hawks. He determined they needed to get back to an attacking style, and let the results be what they would be.
“I thought what we did well was we started with that mentality, and it kept going the entire half,” Lange said. “We want pit bulls out there.”
The coach harped on it in the two days of practice leading up to Saturday, and the players responded.
“Today (Brown) was the first pit bull to start,” Reynolds said. “As soon as he attacked, we all attacked. The pit bull mentality to me is staying in that attack mode and not letting up.”
Playing that way, the Hawks looked like the Hawks Lange knows they can be. He also coached the way he knows he can coach, admittedly something that hasn’t always been the case.
“I have to trust myself,” Lange said. “There’s a certain way that I like to play basketball. I’ve tried to reinvent to try to look like I’m doing my job. Sometimes I’m tricking myself.
“What you just watched is who Billy Lange is, that’s how I was raised, the coaches I worked for, those are the people that mentored me. Sometimes I’m so afraid what the result will look like that I don’t do it. What’s going on right now is I’m looking at a really good team…How do I help them to be aggressive and to attack? And we’re just going to live with the results.
“Just be who I am. If it’s not good enough, I’ll do it somewhere else. If it’s not good enough, then we lose. But we can’t be tricked and confused.”
There was no trickery and no confusion on Saturday. Lange and the Hawks showed just what they can be.
Now, can they continue it?
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages. His book on the 2003-04 Saint Joseph’s men’s basketball team is expected to be published on March 1, 2025. Read a summary and preorder it by clicking HERE. Contact him at aaron@big5hoops.com.