St. Joe's and Loyola tip off at Hagan Arena on Friday night. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
December 29, 2003
Big5Hoops.com
Philadelphia has two NBA offenses in town, and one resides at 54th and City Avenue.
With players that now can play his system, fifth-year coach Billy Lange has the Saint Joseph’s Hawks passing and shooting like the Philadelphia 76ers.
No lie.
Lange knows how to do it. Knows what great offense looks like. He sat next to some of the greatest offensive minds in professional basketball for nine seasons as Brett Brown’s assistant coach with the 76ers. As Philadelphia’s offensive coordinator, he studied offense day and night. Lived it. Breathed it.
As a longtime freelancer for the Associated Press, I have covered hundreds of 76ers games, including probably 150 or so while Lange was on the bench at the Wells Fargo Center. I have seen my share of NBA offenses working beautifully and rhythmically.
Lange’s Hawks play an NBA game. They have the look and feel of a team that can light you up in the blink of an eye.
That’s what they did to Loyola on Friday night, crushing the Greyhounds 97-56 despite Lange emptying his bench with more than four minutes to play. The Hawks had 20 assists on 33 field goals, made a season high-tying 15 3-pointers and put six players in double figures.
A staple of the NBA today is having every player on the floor capable of hitting a 3-pointer. No less than four Hawks hit at least three 3-pointers against Loyola. Rasheer Fleming led the Hawks with 19 points and nine rebounds, Lynn Greer III had 15 points, Cameron Brown scored 13, and Anthony Finkley and Shawn Simmons II each chipped in 10.
Now. Let’s hit the pause button for a second. Loyola is not good. The Greyhounds dropped to 2-11. They were picked sixth in the 10-team Patriot League. St. Joe’s was a 17 ½-point favorite. A blowout was expected and a blowout they gave the very-good crowd of 2,872 that featured Hawks legend Jameer Nelson, standout Marvin O’Connor and WNBA players Natasha Cloud, another Hawks legend, and superstar Sue Bird, who served as The Hawk mascot in the first half.
Now. Let’s continue. Yeah, Loyola isn’t good. But the Hawks made them look even worse than they are with an offense that had the look, the feel and the smell of the next level.
Offensively, these Hawks can play with anybody in college basketball.
“An impressive showing by our guys,” Lange said afterward. “They love to pass the ball. They love to play with each other on the court.”
It has taken Lange some time to not only get players to fit what he wants to do on offense, but also to understand what can – and cannot – translate from the pro to the college level.
Now, he is using everything he learned from Brown, from Mike D’Antoni, Monty Williams, Lloyd Pierce, Jim O’Brien and others, as well as all of his film and on-court study, and putting it into a beautiful display of how the game can be played on offense.
It’s fun and exciting to watch.
“I think it’s that we all trust each other,” said Brown, who passed O’Connor for fifth place in school history with 234 career 3-pointers after draining four triples. “Billy emphasizes ball movement. We all believe in each other. If we’re open, shoot 3’s. Any shot anybody takes, we believe in.”
It’s fun and exciting to play.
“It’s just fun,” Brown said, “because if you share the ball, everybody is going to touch it, everybody is going to score.”
The Hawks did a lot of scoring on Friday night.
A lot of passing.
A lot of shooting from long range.
A lot of looking like another team in town.
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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.