Billy Lange earns a couple more seasons with 2023 St. Joseph’s recruiting class

If the seat is hot under Billy Lange, remove it. Well, at least cool it, considerably.

This St. Joseph’s men’s basketball 2023 recruiting class committed to play on Hawk Hill starting next year – it’s a game changer.

It should also be a pressure changer. Whenever a new university president shows up to replace Mark Reed, presumably sometime in the next year, the status of the men’s basketball coach should not be on the agenda.

If you think about it, college basketball essentially works on two tracks: The games on the court, and the game that is recruiting top talent. It’s hard to win on either track without succeeding on the other. SJU has recently had some legit wins in the area that can lead to long-term success.

We don’t want to oversell what’s going on. Shawn Simmons announced his commitment Saturday, following Xzayvier Brown and Anthony Finkley.

» READ MORE: Simmons commits to St. Joseph's

Are we talking Power 5-level players?

“I don’t think any of the three are Power 5 level,” said Ari Rosenfeld, who runs the locally based Elite High School Scouting service.

That’s not a knock, Rosenfeld made clear. Simmons is “a Power 5 athlete,” and all can be upper-level Atlantic 10 players.

“Xzayvier definitely,” Rosenfeld said. “X is the key … the one you can really build around, on and off the court.”

So we’re not suggesting Jameer Nelson and Delonte West are showing up. We are 100% saying this looks like the best SJU recruiting class since Hakim Hart and Jameer Nelson Jr. (and, yes, Bones Hyland) were supposed to show up before Phil Martelli got fired and they all went elsewhere.

And that brings us to Lange’s status.

Ashley Howard was let go after his fourth season at La Salle, the Explorers finishing 11-19 despite beating St. Joe’s three times last season. That would suggest Lange is on the hot seat entering his fourth season after three years of 6-26, 5-15, and 11-19.

The difference? Lange started on the back foot after all those Martelli players fled. Scratch a line through at least those first two seasons. This class is a true opportunity to prove Lange can get the Hawks back in NCAA contention, and if Lange isn’t given the chance for a couple of seasons with these players, the top administrators at St. Joseph’s would simply be repeating past sins. (We’ve written about the bungled coaching transition, putting the blame squarely on Reed, who just left St. Joe’s to take over as president of Loyola University in Chicago.)

Nobody gets a lifetime deal. Martelli shouldn’t have … Lange shouldn’t. Hoops just matter at St. Joe’s and here’s a chance to get it right, building around legit ballplayers. Anyone who saw Brown play for Roman Catholic High or this summer understands he plays older than his years. (If I’m forced to make a comparison, I’ll go Langston Galloway. Not in the way he plays, but in his makeup and maturity on the court.)

You could argue that there’s always a next class coming in, that you can always point to the future, giving the coach another chance. That’s not the point. If the 2023-24 season is a complete bust, that would be factored into Lange’s job status. By 2024-25, the Hawks need to at least be contending for March Madness.

But in 2022-23, this season right in front of us, with Lynn Greer Jr. in from Dayton and several other new players in the fold, the Hawks should not be worrying about the job status of their head coach.

A bonus to it all: These latest recruits are Philly kids. This could be a Philly team the city could root for inside Hagan Arena. SJU just needs a little patience now.

Don’t let this group get away.