FILE – Villanova’s Jalen Brunson (1), Mikal Bridges (25) and their teammates celebrate after the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game against North Carolina, Monday, April 4, 2016, in Houston. Villanova won 77-74. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
Phil Martelli still remembers, nearly two decades later, the exact moment when he realized that the team he was coaching at tiny Saint Joseph’s in Philadelphia was about to become the No. 1-ranked team in college basketball.
“I was at home, watching Stanford play somebody in the Pac-10, and they were the other team — they were 1 and we were 2,” Martelli said. “And I was watching the game and I realized that they were going to lose, and I remember turning to my wife and saying, ‘Let’s go get something to eat. We’re about to be the top team in the country and it’s going to get crazy.’”
They went to Bertucci’s, a pizza joint in the Philly suburbs, and had a relatively peaceful dinner. The next morning, they went to Mass, then headed to Staten Island to watch Central Connecticut State, where Martelli’s son was an assistant coach.
“Then on Monday,” Martelli recalled in an interview with The Associated Press, “I gathered my team. And I said to them, ‘At some point in practice our athletic director, Don DiJulia — he’s going to come in and tell us we’re the No. 1 team in the country. But that does not change who we are. There may be more attention on us. Just be ready to be thankful.’”
Indeed, when the fresh AP Top 25 was released on March 8, 2004, the Hawks were No. 1.
The stay would be brief — they lost to Xavier that week in the Atlantic 10 Tournament — but it left an indelible impression on Martelli and the entire program. Saint Joseph’s had become one of just 61 schools to ever reach No. 1 in the 75-year history of The Associated Press men’s basketball poll, even if it was destined to become one of seven to be there for a single…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply