Zags expect another dilly in Philly

PHILADELPHIA – At last count, Saint Joseph’s basketball coach Phil Martelli said 17 NBA scouts have requested credentials for tonight’s game against No. 19 Gonzaga. He figures they’re the lucky ones. It’s the rest of the basketball community here that is having trouble getting inside the doors and into one of the 3,200 seats at old-school Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

“This is the toughest ticket in my 13 years here,” Martelli said, “and that includes the night we were going to end the regular season undefeated and we had people lined up for 12 hours before the game.”

Martelli attributes the enormous interest in part to the four wildly entertaining games staged by these two programs since 2001.

“The Philly fan is very intrigued, respectfully intrigued, by what Mark (Few) and his staff have done,” he said. “People are anticipating they’ll see a game they won’t forget.”

That tends to happen when these teams collide.

“Just look at the guys who played in those games – Jameer Nelson, Delonte West, Blake Stepp, Ronny (Turiaf), Dan Dickau, Adam (Morrison),” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “There’s been a lot of NBA guys in this series.”

Few has vivid memories of GU’s last trip to Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

“Our locker room was 120 (degrees) the last time, literally, and the locker room was probably 10 feet wide and something like 60 feet long,” Few said. “Just a classic deal. It was bone-chilling (outside) and we had to open up all the windows.”

This will be GU’s first true road game after playing three at home and three at a neutral site.

“It’s a crackerbox of a gym and it’s going to be a crazy environment with us being ranked,” Few said. “It’ll be a huge challenge.”

Both coaches expressed a desire to continue the series but admit it might be tough to do.

“I’ve always seen the Gonzaga game as an event,” Martelli said. “It has a different feel, a different flavor than just another game on the schedule. There’s a mutual admiration, not just coach to coach, but player to player and fan to fan.”

“In a perfect world, we’d play them every year,” Few said. “We’re playing in Florida next year and with some of our other commitments we have to make sure we’re not traversing back and forth over and over.”

The origin of the series stems from the two coaches meeting at the Final Four.

“He had heard that I was interested in playing anyone as long as it was fair and we could play home and home,” Martelli said. “He told me he wanted to do that. Since then, there’s been a mutual admiration and certainly I’ve gotten to know him through Coaches vs. Cancer and Nike trips. The night they lost to UCLA, I don’t know if I was the first call, but I was certainly in the first three or four.”

Martelli has guided Saint Joseph’s to four NCAA tournaments – including the Nelson-led 30-2 team that made it to the Elite Eight in 2004 – and four NITs. The Hawks (3-1) appear to be on an upswing after missing out on the postseason last season.

The frontcourt features 6-9 junior Ahmad Nivins, who is on the preseason Naismith Trophy watch list, and 6-10 senior Pat Calathes, who is averaging 17 points and led the team in assists last year. Senior forward Rob Ferguson averaged 11.3 points last season.

Iowa State transfer Tasheed Carr had 12 assists in his first game. Guard Darrin Govens had made 15 3-pointers in four games. Martelli concedes his team isn’t overly deep, but he likes their potential.

“I think I put us third (in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll behind Xavier and Rhode Island),” Martelli said, “but if we progress the way I think we can, it’s going to take a heck of a team to beat us.”