February 1st Odds and Ends

Instead of putting up a number of short articles, I decided to include everything in here. The topics range from the Hawks' roster on Wednesday to Justin Crosgile's departure from the team to local high school hoops to SJU recruiting.

On his Hawk Talk radio show Monday evening, head coach Phil Martelli announced that the starting line-up tomorrow night at Richmond will have a different look. Tay Jones, Langston Galloway, Daryus Quarles, and Idris Hilliard will remain in the line-up, but freshman forward CJ Aiken will be replaced by fellow freshman Ronald Roberts. In Saturday's loss to Temple, Roberts had 17 points and 3 rebounds in 28 minutes of playing time.

News broke yesterday that Saint Joseph's sophomore Justin Crosgile is taking a "leave of absence" from the team to take care of personal issues. A link to Dick Jerardi's article can be found here . The sophomore guard from New Jersey was averaging just under 5 points per game for the Hawks. It remains to be seen when, or if, Crosgile will return to the team.

Head coach Phil Martelli spent Sunday on the road recruiting. Martelli was one of several coaches in Pittsburgh at the Pittsburgh Basketball Classic. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Martelli was there along with son, and current Rutgers assistant, Jimmy Martelli. Coaches from Wisconsin, Temple, West Virginia, and Robert Morris were also in attendance according to the Post-Gazette (linked here ). Who was Martelli watching? The sophomore and junior classes in the Pittsburgh area feature a number of talented players. The biggest name in the area is 6'3 sophomore guard Geno Thorpe, who the Wisconsin coaches were on hand to watch. In the junior class, some of the bigger names playing yesterday were 6'7 forward Sheldon Jeter, 6'9 wing Devontae Watson, and 6'10 forward Barnett Harris.

Locally, Saint Joseph's Prep head coach Speedy Morris got his 600th win as a high school coach last night. The Prep throttled West Catholic 70-31 behind 23 points from junior Gene Williams and 15 points from sophomore guard Steve Vasturia. On Sunday, in the PrimeTime Shootout, Trenton Catholic defeated Friends' Central 69-61, despite 23 points from senior guard Devin Coleman. I wrote a piece on Coleman Friday that can be found here .

This Sunday, the Hakim Warrick Classic will take place at Philadelphia University. At noon, Neshaminy and Penn Wood face off. At 1:45, Saint Anthony (NJ) and Friends' Central will play. The day's final game, between Lower Merion and Shabazz(NJ), is a 3:30 tip. Those game times are from the Scholastic Play by Play website linked here . I will be on hand covering the games. Solid planning by the event organizers to have the games early in the day so everyone can make it home for the Super Bowl.

Holy War Recap; Odds and Ends

Again, apologies for the lack of content up here lately. Sometimes other things pop up that make blog updates fall a bit lower on the list of priorities.

Before going into the game, just a quick thought. How nice was it to have Bill Raftery (pictured to the left) on the play-by-play last night? In my opinion, he's the best in the business.

The Hawks played a hard-fought game last night against Big 5 rival Villanova at a sold-out Palestra. The Hawks fell to the Cats 97-89 in a high-scoring affair. In his postgame comments, Hawk coach Phil Martelli said, "Not all losses are losing experiences," and that quote does a lot to sum up the game. While the Hawks did not win, and winning is the ultimate goal, there were a number of positives to take out of the game.

The strengths and weaknesses of this team were apparent to all last night. Guard play, in the form of Darrin Govens and freshmen Tay Jones and Justin Crosgile was a strength. Govens had 19 points, while Jones and Crosgile contributed 16 and 12 respectively. It was one of Govens' best games in his four years on Hawk Hill. What Hawk fans saw out of freshmen Crosgile and Jones, especially in the second half, is hopefully a sign of things to come. Junior forward Idris Hilliard had a monster game, putting up 22 points and 7 rebounds. While guard play was a strength, the frontcourt, aside from Hilliard, was a glaring weakness. Todd O'Brien and Bryant Irwin combined for only 4 points and 9 rebounds in 37 total minutes. The Hawk frontcourt was without freshman forward Carl Baptiste, who was unable to go due to injury

Next year, the Hawks will be receiving help in the frontcourt in the form of Plymouth-Whitemarsh senior CJ Aiken. I should have an article up on Aiken in the coming day or two.

Dick Jerardi's article from today's Daily News is linked below. There is post-game video of Jay Wright, Tayor King, and Phil Martelli on the page as well.



Jerardi Article on the Holy War.



After the Hawks game ended last night, I flipped over to the Kentucky-UConn game. We keep hearing about how good John Wall is. Guess what? He's better than you thought.