Another day, another opponent that wasn’t originally on the 2020-21 basketball schedule. Such are the joys of attempting to complete a season in the midst of a 100-year pandemic, and thankfully, we’re about to see game #5 when it had almost began to look like we wouldn’t get to game #1. So, in the spirit of the last couple of these posts, I’ve already written a lot about the opponent’s team below. Let’s talk about the opponent’s program, in five bullet points:
- The Saint Joseph’s Hawks, for much of your and my lifetime, were coached by Phil Martelli, who was fired in 2019 and later became an assistant for Michigan.
- Under Martelli, the Hawks reached highs they hadn’t seen in 20+ years, including the ultimate coup: a perfect regular season and an Elite Eight run in 2003-04.
- They never quite reached that high, but the Hawks made the NCAA Tournament seven times under Martelli and produced a slew of great memories.
- Now they are coached by Billy Lange, a former 76ers assistant who designed the offense Philly ran under Brett Brown.
- Lange is…6-30 so far.
To alleviate pressure from various media members’ mentions, here is a list of important game information.
- THE OPPONENT: Saint Joseph’s of Pennsylvania (0-4).
- THE TIME: 6:00 PM ET.
- THE CHANNEL: SEC Network.
- THE SPREAD: Tennessee -22.
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Stats by Will 