Phil Martelli

Phil Martelli
Sport(s) Basketball
Current position
Title Head coach
Team Saint Joseph's
Conference Atlantic 10
Biographical details
Born (1954-08-31) August 31, 1954
Playing career
1972–1976 Widener
Position(s) Point guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1977–1978 Widener (asst.)
1978–1985 Bishop Kenrick HS
1985–1995 Saint Joseph's (asst.)
1995–present Saint Joseph's
Head coaching record
Overall 403-273 (.596)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
3× Atlantic 10 Tournament championship (1997, 2014, 2016)
4× Atlantic 10 regular season championship (1997, 2001, 2004, 2005)
Awards
AP National Coach of the Year (2004)
Naismith Coach of the Year (2004)
Henry Iba Award (2004)
4× Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year (1997, 2001, 2004, 2005)

Phil Martelli (born August 31, 1954) is an American college basketball coach and current coach of the Saint Joseph's Hawks men's basketball team. He has led Saint Joseph's to seven NCAA Tournaments and six NITs in 21 seasons as head coach.[1]

Playing career

Martelli was a point guard for Widener University. As point guard, he was part of the NCAA Division III Tournament teams in 1974-75 and 1975–76, and set the school's single season and career assist marks.[2]

Career at Saint Joseph's

Martelli began his career on Hawk Hill with SJU's 1985-86 NCAA Tournament team. In his decade as an assistant, he was part of the Hawks' NIT teams in 1992-93 and 1994-95. After 10 years as an assistant under Jim Boyle and John Griffin, Martelli was named the 14th coach in school history on July 20, 1995, and just the third non-alumnus to coach the school.

In his first season as head coach (1995–96) his team reached the final game of the NIT Tournament. In his second year, under the floor generalship of Junior point guard Rashid Bey, and help from Arthur "Yah" Davis and Dmitri Domani, Martelli's Hawks captured the Atlantic 10 crown and made it into the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA tournament.

They would not duplicate that success until landing future Naismith College Player of the Year Jameer Nelson and current NBA players Delonte West and Dwayne Jones. With Nelson as point guard, Martelli led the 2003-04 Hawks to the greatest season in school history. The Hawks went 27-0 regular season. The Hawks lost to Xavier in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, and reached the Elite Eight, ultimately losing to Oklahoma State to finish with a record of 30-2. This is "officially" the deepest run that St. Joseph's has ever made in the tournament; the 1960-61 team went all the way to the Final Four and won the third-place game, but that run was scrubbed from the books due to a gambling scandal. That year, Martelli was named Naismith College Coach of the Year.[3]

In 2004-05, Martelli led the Hawks back to the final game of the NIT, where they lost to South Carolina. During the season, Martelli won his 235th game on Hawk Hill, passing Hall of Famer Jack Ramsay as the winningest coach in school history.

In 2005-06, the Hawks returned to the NIT, eventually losing to Hofstra University. In 2008, Martelli led Saint Joseph's to its first NCAA Tournament since 2004 with a team led by Pat Calathes and Ahmad Nivins. In 2014, the Hawks returned to the NCAA Tournament after winning their second Atlantic 10 Championship under Martelli, led by Langston Galloway, Ronald Roberts and Halil Kanacević. The Hawks went on to lose in overtime to the eventual 2013-14 National Champion Connecticut Huskies in the Second Round of the Tournament.

In 2007, Phil Martelli's first book Don't Call Me Coach: A Lesson Plan For Life was published.[4] Students at SJU often say "In Martelli We Trust" about their beloved basketball coach. Martelli has a weekly show during the basketball season called Hawk Talk which discusses the standing of the university and the basketball team.

In October 2008, Martelli signed a contract extension at St. Joe's through the 2015-16 season.[5] Martelli also surpassed Hawk legend Dr. Jack Ramsay for second among SJU coaches in wins 2008. Martelli has won the most postseason games of any Hawk coach and his teams.

In December 2011, Martelli was referenced in an article on SI.com in which former player Todd O'Brien details his side of a story about his former coach holding a grudge. O'Brien has applied for a graduate student waiver, where he is allowed to transfer to pursue a post graduate degree in a field not offered by their original institution, but SJU will not release him to play. The NCAA denied O'Brien's appeal and SJU is legally unable to comment on the details of the case.[6] Martelli refuses to honor O'Briens request and is keeping him in his contract for undisclosed reasons. Martelli has been universally characterized by most reporters as being unreasonable about this for holding a grudge against O'Brien.[7]

With a win against Morgan State in 2011, Martelli became the all-time winningest coach in Saint Joseph's history with his 310th victory.

Martelli has also lost more games than any coach in Saint Joseph's history, eclipsing Bill Ferguson's 208 losses in 25 seasons. Martelli has lost 241 games in 18+ seasons at Saint Joseph's as of December 8, 2013.[8]

In December 2013, after two disappointing losses to Big 5 Rivals Temple and Villanova several alumni launched a Petition to fire Phil Martelli due to what many consider to be several seasons of mediocre play and a failure to meet expectation.[9] The website contains a letter to Phil Martelli applauding his achievements and his representation of the university, but imploring him to resign.[10]

This website quickly lost credibility when the majority of "signers" were anonymous and worse when the signatures of some well-known long-term SJU supporters were forged onto the site that had no system in place to verify the identity of the signer.

The site was taken down after Saint Joseph's won the 2014 Atlantic 10 Championship at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with the season's second victory over Shaka Smart and VCU.

Saint Joe's announced October 29, 2015 that Martelli received another contract extension (though the terms of the deal were not immediately released).[11] On March 13, 2016, Martelli claimed his second A-10 title in 3 years as the Hawks defeated Will Wade and VCU 87-74 in the 2016 Atlantic 10 Championship at the Barclays Center.

Coaching tree

Numerous assistants of Martelli have gone on to become coaches at other programs.

Players coached by Martelli who were drafted and/or played in the NBA

Head coaching record

Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Saint Joseph's Hawks (Atlantic 10 Conference) (1995–present)
1995–96 Saint Joseph's 19–13 9–7 3rd NIT Runner-up
1996–97 Saint Joseph's 26–7 13–3 1st NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1997–98 Saint Joseph's 11–17 3–13 5th (East)
1998–99 Saint Joseph's 12–18 5–11 5th (East)
1999–00 Saint Joseph's 13–16 7–9 4th (East)
2000–01 Saint Joseph's 26–7 14–2 1st (East) NCAA Round of 32
2001–02 Saint Joseph's 19–12 12–4 1st (East) NIT Second Round
2002–03 Saint Joseph's 23–7 12–4 1st (East) NCAA Round of 64
2003–04 Saint Joseph's 30–2 16–0 1st (East) NCAA Elite Eight
2004–05 Saint Joseph's 24–12 14–2 1st NIT Runner-up
2005–06 Saint Joseph's 19–14 9–7 5th NIT Second Round
2006–07 Saint Joseph's 18–14 9–7 6th
2007–08 Saint Joseph's 21–13 9–7 5th NCAA Round of 64
2008–09 Saint Joseph's 17–15 9–7 5th
2009–10 Saint Joseph's 11–20 5–11 T–11th
2010–11 Saint Joseph's 11–22 4–12 12th
2011–12 Saint Joseph's 20–14 9–7 5th NIT First Round
2012–13 Saint Joseph's 18–14 8–8 T–8th NIT First Round
2013–14 Saint Joseph's 24–10 11–5 T–3rd NCAA Round of 64
2014–15 Saint Joseph's 13–18 7–11 10th
2015–16 Saint Joseph's 28–8 13–5 4th NCAA Round of 32
2016–17 Saint Joseph's 3–0 0–0
Saint Joseph's: 406–273 (.598) 198–142 (.582)
Total: 406–273 (.598)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

Career highlights

References

  1. ↑ http://www.sjuhawks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=208734096
  2. ↑ http://articles.philly.com/2004-03-25/sports/25385459_1_widener-phil-martelli-guard
  3. ↑ http://espn.go.com/espn/print?id=1771551
  4. ↑ http://www.collegeinsider.com/dontcallmecoach/press.html
  5. ↑ http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3647272
  6. ↑ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/12/19/todd.obrien/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t12_a2
  7. ↑ http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/7479960/todd-obrien-last-waiver-appeal-denied
  8. ↑ http://www.sjuhawks.com/fls/31200/pdf/mbasketball/2013-14/MediaGuide/Section1Coaches.pdf?SPSID=750595&SPID=127360&DB_OEM_ID=31200,
  9. ↑ http://www.philmustgo.com
  10. ↑ http://www.philmustgo.com/dear-phil/
  11. ↑ http://www.csnphilly.com/ncaa/st-joes-phil-martelli-agree-multi-year-contract-extension

External links

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