Saint Joseph's players huddle during a game earlier this season. (File photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
March 24, 2024
Big5Hoops.com
The Philadelphia Big 5 went 44 consecutive seasons with a representative in the NCAA tournament from 1978 through 2022. (There was no tournament in 2020.) Over that stretch, the five schools combined for 92 trips to the Big Dance that included national championships in 1985, 2016 and 2018 for Villanova.
Add in Drexel’s five appearances during that stretch and the combined number of NCAA berths is 97. (Drexel was not part of the Big 5 until this season.)
But this season marks the second straight year without a Big 5 team in the Big Dance. The reasons for Philly schools’ absence have some to do with each of the schools and some to do with the changing landscape of college basketball.
Let’s take a look at each school’s season, why they are not in the tournament and how they might get back there.
Here’s the schedule:
Friday: Villanova
Saturday: Temple
Today: Saint Joseph’s
Monday: Penn
Tuesday: La Salle
Wednesday: Drexel
Thursday: All-Big 5 Selections
Saint Joseph’s
NCAA tournaments between 1978-2022: 10
2023-24 record: 21-14, 9-9 Atlantic 10
Leading scorers: Erik Reynolds II 17.3, Xzayvier Brown 12.7, Cameron Brown 11.0, Lynn Greer III 10.9, Rasheer Fleming 10.7, Christ Essandoko 8.2
Leading rebounders: Fleming 7.4, Essandoko 5.7, Greer 4.7, Cameron Brown 4.1, Xzayvier Brown 4.0
What went right: Saint Joseph’s won the first-ever Big 5 Classic title with a 74-65 win over Temple on Dec. 2 at the Wells Fargo Center and got a banner raised to the arena’s rafters. That was a special moment for the school. (The banner-raising was a phenomenal idea by WFC GM Mike Sulkes.) The Hawks got there by winning at Villanova, 78-65, on Nov. 29. At the time, the Wildcats were riding high, coming off an impressive run to the title in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. St. Joe’s also earned a very good 74-70 home win over Princeton on Dec. 10. After an underwhelming conference run, the Hawks, as a No. 9 seed, rallied to play their best basketball of the season in the conference tournament, knocking off No. 8 George Mason 64-57 in their opener before bouncing top-seeded Richmond 66-61 in the quarterfinals in a game in which Reynolds went off for 30 points. They bowed out in the A-10 semifinals to VCU, 66-60, in a very good game that could’ve gone either way before ending the season with a strong performance in a 75-72 overtime loss at Seton Hall in the opening round of the NIT.
What went wrong: The 57-54 home loss to Texas A&M-Commerce on Nov. 17 stuck out like a sore thumb all season. Commerce ended up being ranked No. 333 of 362 Division I teams in NCAA NET ranking. Without that defeat, St. Joe’s likely would’ve been in the NCAA tournament at-large conversation entering conference play. Bad losses happen to just about everyone, but schools outside of the Power 6, like St. Joe’s, have much less of a margin for error to impress the NCAA Selection Committee. To their credit, the Hawks pushed aside that defeat to finish 10-3 in nonconference play. But they stumbled out of the blocks in A-10 competition, losing their first three games: 78-74 at Rhode Island on Jan. 3; 88-85 at St. Louis on Jan. 10; and 78-75 vs. Loyola-Chicago on Jan. 13. The game at St. Louis was the toughest to swallow for Hawks fans, as St. Joe’s gave up 55 points in the second half to a team that would finish with five league victories that resulted in the firing of coach Travis Ford. Ultimately, St. Joe’s ended up 9-9 in A-10 play.
My thoughts: From the first time I saw St. Joe’s this season, I thought the Hawks had the potential to win the Atlantic 10 and make the NCAA tournament. In Reynolds, St. Joe’s has a guard selected to the All-A-10 First Team who could start on any team in the country. In Xzayvier Brown, they have a talented point guard who was named the A-10 Rookie of the Year. And there was much more talent on the Hawks roster this season. At times, everything clicked really well for the Hawks in the regular season, like at Villanova. But there was frequent inconsistency in their performances.
By the middle of February, after watching Dayton drop 94 points on them in a home loss, St. Louis score 86 at Hagan in a close Hawks win and George Washington get 75 in another St. Joe’s victory, my feeling about the team started to turn. At that point, I was thinking that coach Billy Lange had brought talented recruits and an NBA offense to Hawk Hill that was exciting and fun to watch. But college basketball is not the NBA. The Hawks couldn’t stop anybody. How could they possibly win four games in five days in Brooklyn and capture the A-10 title?
To his credit, Lange addressed the defensive troubles head-on. St. Joe’s altered its defensive scheme on the perimeter, with guards staying on shooters rather than sagging into the lane to provide help on the interior. There also appeared to be more of a determination to defend the perimeter. The results were immediate.
St. Joe’s held VCU to 21 first-half points on Feb. 25 in a game the Hawks ultimately lost. But the transformation started. They steadied themselves, winning two of the final three in the regular season, and entered Brooklyn with confidence. The best example of the new brand of basketball was against Richmond when St. Joe’s struggled mightily in the first half, missing 23 of 30 field goals and nine of 10 3-pointers, but entered the locker room down just two points because their defense held the Spiders to 24 points. Reynolds got hot after halftime, and the Hawks advanced. They would lose their next two games but showed they have a team capable of contending. Besides the defensive adjustment, I was impressed with how Lange took advantage of offensive mismatches in Brooklyn and versus Seton Hall. Lange already has proven he can recruit, and the the last couple of weeks really elevated my opinion of his coaching. I think St. Joe’s is in great hands with him at the helm.
So, now what? On paper, St. Joe’s should be a favorite to win the Atlantic 10 next season and should be a contender for the NCAA tournament. Cameron Brown is the lone major contributor out of eligibility. With Reynolds, Xzayvier Brown, Greer, Fleming and Essandoko, the Hawks are going to be a tough out for everyone in the league. The tricky thing for Lange and his staff is going to be keeping everyone in the fold. That’s the reality of college basketball today, where programs like St. Joe’s can be essentially breeding grounds for Power 6 conferences. The good news for Lange is two-fold: 1) The Hawks have a very good NIL situation that will keep them in the ballgame with their own players and 2) Lange has built a culture in which players can thrive. (Another thing: Lange’s NBA connections from six years on the 76ers bench can’t hurt for players with hopes of playing at that level.) Will that be enough to keep everyone? Time will tell.
Besides the NIL and the transfer portal, the big issue for the Hawks is scheduling. In order to get into the NCAA at-large conversation, St. Joe’s needs to play more Quad 1 games. They are in a pretty good situation for next season. They have the Big 5 game against Villanova and will play in the Legends Classic in Brooklyn Nov. 21-22, along with Power 6 entries Syracuse, Texas and Texas Tech. That’s at least three games against Power 6 opponents. Will that be enough for the Hawks? Maybe. Especially if they win two of those three.
Ideally, St. Joe’s would get another game or two against a Power 6 school, but that is easier said than done. Lange has offered those programs 2-for-1, home-and-away deals, with the Hawks making two road trips with St. Joe’s one game at a neutral site. He didn’t get takers. It’s understandable, from their perspective, why Power 6 schools are reluctant to schedule St. Joe’s. They know the Hawks are good and know that a loss to them will be given greater negative weight than a victory positive weight.
So, how can the Hawks get back to the NCAA tournament next season? Well, it’s really simple and hard at the same time. If Lange can keep his players in the fold, St. Joe’s will have the team and the schedule to do it. At that point, it will all be in their hands.
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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.