I graduated from Saint Joseph’s in 1957. Even though I played varsity baseball at Saint Joseph’s, basketball was the sport I followed fervently. Nothing compared to Hawk basketball! I was not alone in my passion for the Hawk basketball teams. The student body then, as it does today, shared my passion. For years I have collected everything I read concerning the Hawks. The “Jameer era” was so satisfying that I wanted to experience it again by creating a definitive story. It was material that I did not want to tuck away and perhaps not ever read again. What follows is the result of my effort. Putting this together was enjoyable. I hope you enjoy it as well. Let’s Go Hawks! Stanley J. Glowacki TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 1 Forward 2 In The Beginning―2000-2001 5 The Best College Mascot In The Country 13 2001-2002 15 The Atlantic 10 Tournament 23 The 2002-2003 Season 25 A Season Opening Win At Boston College 34 Wins Over Canisius, Old Dominion, and Boston University 35 Hawks’ Win Streak At Seven 37 A Stinging Loss At The College Of The Pacific 38 Away at Gonzaga 39 The St. Bonaventure Game 40 The Massachusetts Game 41 The Temple Game 43 The Rhode Island Game 46 On Delonte West 47 The Fordham Game 48 The University Of Pennsylvania Game 49 The George Washington Game 51 Some Answers 53 Delonte West Suspended 54 The Road To The “Holy War” 56 The Villanova Game 59 The Fordham Game 62 The Hawks Reach No. 25 In The Polls 64 Defense, Defense, Defense 66 The Temple Game 68 The Hawks Lose A Key Game At Dayton University 70 Out Of The National Rankings 72 A Look Back 73 Injured Delonte Absent For St. Bonaventure Game 77 Hawks Beat LaSalle For The Big 5 Championship 78 Hawks Honor Mike Bantom At Richmond Game 81 Preparing For Xavier 83 Saint Joseph’s Meets Xavier On Senior Night 85 The Final Game With Massachusetts 90 The Atlantic 10 Tournament 91 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Be Careful Of What You Wish For 92 The Atlantic 10 Semifinals Against Dayton 95 The State Of College Basketball 99 March Madness 101 Was The Coach Superstitious? 103 The Opening Round Of The NCAA Tournament 105 A Look To The Future 109 A Welcome Decision By Jameer 112 The Undefeated 2003-2004 Season 116 The Hawks’ New Recruits 120 The Pete Newell Challenge 121 A Renewed Penn State Rivalry? 123 Jameer Helps A Teammate 124 Midnight Madness 126 More About Jameer 130 The Gonzaga Game At Madison Square Garden 131 At Boston University 135 At Old Dominion 137 San Francisco At The Hawks’ Home Opener 138 The Big 5 Classic 140 Penn At The Palestra 141 Boston College At The Palestra 142 Rap Curry―Assists Leader 144 Drexel At The Palestra 145 The Critics And Analysts Have Their Say 147 The Pete Newell Challenge―University Of California 149 College Of The Pacific 151 At The University Of Delaware 152 The Hawks Host George Washington 153 University Of Richmond 155 Martelli Recounts His Discovery Of Jameer 157 Duquesne University 159 The National Polls Notice 160 Fordham University―A Chance At A Record 161 The Fans And Media Begin To Notice 163 Playing At Xavier Is Tough 164 Some Stories 167 Another Lofty Ranking 170 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE The University Of Massachusetts 171 Gearing Up For Villanova 173 The Big Money Schools 174 St. Bonaventure Hosts The No. 3 Team 175 The Statistics That Got The Hawks Here 178 On Delonte West 180 Jameer, Player Of The Year? 181 At Temple University 182 The Hot Villanova―Saint Joseph's Rivalry 185 The Meaning Of Being Undefeated 192 LaSalle At The Palestra 194 The Questions Abound 197 The Dayton Flyers At The Fieldhouse 199 Jameer―Sports Illustrated 201 The Rhode Island Game 208 Important Message From Phil Martelli And The Hawks 210 And Then They Were No. 2 212 The Hawks At Fordham 214 Temple At The Palestra 218 Dealing With The Attention An Unbeaten Record Earns 224 At Massachusetts 227 At Rhode Island 229 The Hawks vs. St. Bonaventure And Senior Night 233 The Hawks Are Voted No. 1 In The Nation 242 The “Best Guards” Debate 244 The Atlantic 10 Tournament 245 Selection Sunday For The NCAA Tournament 250 The Opening Round―Liberty University 254 The Second Round―Texas Tech 256 The Sweet 16 And Wake Forest 263 More About Defense 268 The Elite Eight―Oklahoma State 269 Epilogue 276 Appendix 277 INTRODUCTION This is the story of the Saint Joseph’s University basketball program during the era of Jameer Nelson, the wonderful point guard and consensus national player of the year, who made so many Hawk fan’s dreams come true. During his memorable four-year career on Hawk Hill, it was, perhaps, the most rewarding period of Saint Joseph’s rich basketball history. I have made an effort to bring that era into focus by consolidating material that chronicled the Saint Joseph’s basketball program for the period starting just prior to the 2000-01 season and ending with the once-unimaginable undefeated (27-0) regular season, the team’s run to the Elite Eight in the 2004 NCAA Tournament, and its 30-2 overall record. This is not a story created by me. This presentation is a factual account of those 2000- 2004 seasons. It is the record of those seasons, woven together, in a story-like fashion, based on information found in the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News, The Saint Joseph’s Men’s Basketball Media Guide, notes written on the Hawk Forum Web site, and from many other articles published all over the country. Obviously, I could not include every article written, nor did I include, in their entirety, the material I used. I did extract from those many sources, items that provide a complete picture of the team’s accomplishments and an insight into what was being felt and said at each stage of the four seasons covered. In parts of this work, to assure accuracy, I did use, liberally, the thoughts and actual language of the items I relied on. I hope you enjoy what I have done, as it creates a comprehensive source of information about an era in Saint Joseph’s University’s basketball history and an opportunity to recall the special moments you may have had as a Hawk basketball fan during the Jameer Nelson years. FOREWARD If you are a Philadelphian, you probably know about Saint Joseph’s storied basketball tradition. Unfortunately, the Hawks, outside of Philadelphia, were known, but were not famous. Not famous, because they had not made Final Four runs and were not a program that had won or challenged for a national championship. But, after their unblemished regular season (2003-04), and with the exposure provided by the high-powered television market, everybody knew about Saint Joseph’s University and their basketball team. In March 2004, the Saint Joseph’s University Hawks became the first Division I college basketball team to survive the regular season undefeated (27-0) since the University of Nevada-Las Vegas did it in 1991. More than that, no school, without major college football, had ever had an undefeated season in major college basketball, until Saint Joseph’s accomplished it. Winning them all, that is, beating everyone that has faced you, is quite a season’s work, and it is not an easy thing to do. The fact that the Hawks had played without a letdown is incredible, and worthy of respect. If going undefeated in your regular schedule of games were easy to do, why was it not done in 13 years? The very fact that so few have ever done it, also speaks to its difficulty. A perfect season is not considered a realistic goal by college basketball coaches. To have an unbeaten season, so many things have to go right, and there are so many things that can go wrong. Because whole decades go by without even one unbeaten team in a season, most, if not all, coaches don’t even think about winning them all. They know better. A perfect game is what they might strive for and that too is almost always unattainable. It is rare that a coach or player will tell you that they were satisfied with a victory on the basis that it was a game where there was little to improve upon. The most you may get in a response to their assessment of a game is, “we liked the way we played, but”… there is always a but as there will always be room for improvement. To play a perfect game or near perfect game is hard to do, and on some rare day it may happen. But, to go an entire season without losing a game, that is only dreamed about. Coach Martelli understood such improbabilities and preached to his teams that every minute on the court was a challenge. He even resorted to a strategy wherein he urged his teams to try to win four-minute segments of games because he knew how difficult it was to maintain total concentration and physical effort for long stretches. There is a fine line between winning and losing and that line is easily crossed. The following was written by Bill Lyon, Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/2/04. [Winning college basketball games requires complete effort because there is not much room for error. Perfect may be more difficult to attain in college basketball than in any other sporting endeavor, because it is such a wildly emotional game, played in venues of exquisite hostility; because the season spreads itself out from Thanksgiving through April Fools’ day; and because all it takes to turn perfection into imperfection is one off-game, one night when all those shots that have been straight and true, suddenly, perversely, strike iron and are not netting.