How the Martellis continue to make college basketball a true family affair

In Philadelphia circles, the Martelli name is synonymous with basketball.

Phil Martelli is the winningest coach at St. Joseph’s, where he led the Hawks from 1995 until 2019. Today, he is the associate head coach at Michigan.

Now, another Martelli is rising in the coaching ranks. Phil’s son Jimmy was the director of operations at Virginia Commonwealth for seven years. When coach Mike Rhoades left the Rams to take over at Penn State, Jimmy followed in the same capacity. But after just a week in State College, he was promoted to assistant coach.

“Coach [Rhoades] basically told me don’t unpack anything and move across the hall,” Jimmy said. “It was an awesome opportunity. Being back in Pennsylvania, being in the Big Ten is kind of a dream come true. I don’t think I’ve woken up yet.”

For his father, the overwhelming feeling is gratitude.

“I have this wonder [in that] I wonder how far he can take this,” Phil said. “I’m elated for my son, and very grateful to Mike Rhoades for giving him this opportunity.”

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The Martelli family has basketball in its blood. Phil draws the spotlight for his achievements on Hawk Hill, but his wife, Judy Marra Martelli, is the Martelli in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Judy won three straight national championships at Immaculata from 1972 to 1974, and in 2014, she was inducted along with her Mighty Macs teammates. Both of their sons went into basketball, and Phil Jr., Jimmy’s older brother, is now the associate head coach at Bryant.

Phil Jr. knew from high school that he would become a coach. It took Jimmy longer. There was no pressure from his parents, who advised him to follow his passion, even in childhood — when he wanted to be an astronaut. He started thinking about coaching in high school, but it wasn’t until college that it was clear both brothers had caught the bug.

“We saw what basketball and … college athletics, in general, can do and what doors that can open, not just for ourselves and our family, but to help young men open doors that they didn’t know were even possible,” Jimmy said. “... I think we were able to see that with my dad without ever really talking about it. We saw the impact that he had on a daily basis on so many people on so many levels.”

He got his start coaching at his alma mater, Dickinson College, for a year, then was hired by Rhoades in 2006 to be an assistant coach at Division III Randolph-Macon.

Phil speaks highly of his son as a coach, describing his passion for the game and his work ethic. However, he’s most proud of his son as a father. Jimmy has three daughters, twin 9-year-olds and a 5-year-old, and Phil says he always puts his family first.

The Penn State job isn’t Jimmy’s first assistant coaching job in a major conference. From 2010-13, he was an assistant coach at Rutgers, which was in the Big East at the time. Scarlet Knights coach Mike Rice was fired in 2013 for physically abusing and yelling homophobic slurs at his players, and in a video obtained by ESPN’s Outside the Lines, Jimmy was shown engaging in many of the same behaviors. He resigned a day after Rice was fired, writing in a statement that he was “sickened that as an assistant coach, I contributed in any way to an unacceptable culture.”

“We saw the impact that he had on a daily basis on so many people on so many levels.”

Jimmy didn’t coach in college again until 2017, when he became the director of operations under Rhoades at VCU. He’s grateful for the second chance.

“Every day as a coach, you try to mentor and serve as a role model for 18-to-22-, 23-year-olds and so that’s what I’m going to do here,” Jimmy said. “I’ve learned a lot from Coach Rhoades and from other people along the way and that’s what I’m going to try to do, is just be the best role model I can do for them here at Penn State.”

Penn State will play Michigan once in the regular season next year, hosting the Wolverines. Father has faced son before when VCU played St. Joe’s twice a year in Atlantic 10 play. Both think it will be tougher for their families than for them.

“The beauty is, that at the end of the game, whatever the result is, we’re going to hug, say ‘Love you,’” Phil said. “My hope for Penn State is that they win every game but [one] next year, and I would know that he feels the same way.”

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While at VCU, Jimmy would regularly watch Michigan games with his family. However, his daughters quickly understood that they won’t be rooting for their grandfather.

“They had some Michigan gear from their grandfather that they would wear,” Jimmy said. “… Somehow, that’s not going to make the move up here to State College, I can guarantee you that.”