‘The power of now’: Billy Lange has his best St. Joe’s team yet, and expectations are high

Billy Lange doesn’t wish to erase his first two seasons at St. Joseph’s.

It was a time of transition on Hawk Hill, and there were players, Cameron Brown especially, who gave Lange and St. Joe’s everything they had in the early years. But when it comes to framing the place his Hawks find themselves in entering the most anticipated season of Lange’s tenure, it’s fair to look at this as Year 4.

Erik Reynolds II is a senior. He’s a first-team all-league player who could be the conference’s player of the year this year, who, assuming he stays healthy, should pass Jameer Nelson as the program’s all-time leading scorer before February ends. He was Lange’s first real recruit as far as a normal recruiting life cycle goes, from his junior year of high school in Maryland until now. He could have left St. Joe’s, too, to play anywhere else via the transfer portal.

Reynolds, however, is back, and it’s reason No. 1 of quite a few that the hype train isn’t slowing down as the St. Joe’s season begins. It tips off Monday night with a home game against Navy with what is the best roster Lange has assembled. It is equal parts experienced and young. It is versatile and befitting of the way Lange wants to play basketball. When Lange thinks of St. Joe’s, he thinks about attacking guards and the energy they create inside Hagan Arena.

“I want a team that reflects that,” he said.

He has it. While St. Joe’s lost Lynn Greer III to Temple in the portal, it has Atlantic 10 freshman of the year Xzayvier Brown back running the point and Rutgers transfer Derek Simpson as the third guard. Junior Rasheer Fleming is back to play his two-way and inside-out power four game, and Harvard transfer Justice Ajogbor is the replacement for center Christ Essandoko, who transferred to Providence.

And while that is without question the best starting five Lange has had, the Hawks will not have an upperclassmen coming off the bench to play meaningful minutes. To be clear, there is plenty of bench talent in redshirt freshman Dasear Haskins, sophomore forwards Anthony Finkley and Shawn Simmons, freshman seven-footer Steven Solano, and others.

» READ MORE: Early-season rust shows for St. Joseph’s in narrow exhibition loss to Bucknell

All of it is worthy of where the Hawks are ranked. They were picked third in the preseason A-10 poll and are a trendy potential at-large NCAA Tournament selection in the way-too-early bracket projections that are as useless as they sound in early November.

After St. Joe’s beat George Mason in late January last season, Lange was reflecting on the state of things. His team had been picked fifth last season, but he thought it was premature. The Hawks were young, even with an all-league junior in Reynolds.

This time around?

“Where we are now in my opinion is a reflection of a buildup of what this trajectory has been,” Lange said.

Trajectory was probably on Lange’s mind when last season came to a close in the semifinals of the conference tournament. St. Joe’s dealt with some injuries and went 9-9 in conference after a nonconference slate that had some people wondering if cracking the Associated Press Top 25 was on the table. They were the No. 9 seed no one wanted to face — top-seeded Richmond learning that the hard way as Reynolds poured in 30 points to get the Hawks to the semis.

There was disappointment that Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn when it all ended, and some unease about what the future could bring and what the roster could look like. But Lange — who sat on the Sixers bench and is trained in Process — looked at things holistically.

The job maybe wasn’t what he thought he had signed up for in 2019. The pandemic and NIL disruptions were a bit unpredictable. But Lange said he had a vision when he took the job of building something sustainable. His program has seemingly adapted on the fly to all the changes. Keeping Reynolds wasn’t going to be free, but it was, obviously, more than possible.

» READ MORE: St. Joe’s strong Atlantic 10 run shows these Hawks are ‘headed in the right direction’

“We have inched closer to the vision with every passing year, regardless of what the results have looked like,” Lange said. “I know that. And because of that I’m proud of what we’ve done and we just have to keep going.”

The wings on the Hawk mascot do just keep flapping along. Home games at Hagan could be home to some of the best and most exciting basketball in the Big 5 this season.

Consider all the components of just the starting five: Reynolds, who Lange says “has another level and layer” to his game, will be chasing Nelson. Brown’s second act could surpass his opening one. Simpson has something to prove after transferring down from the Big Ten. Fleming is raising the eyebrows of NBA evaluators. And Ajogbor is the perfect screen-setting, lob-catching rim presence for the way Lange wants to play.

On the day Reynolds announced he was coming back to Hawk Hill, he said St. Joe’s was going to play faster. The Hawks usually play fast, but they’re not usually a top 50 tempo team. They shoot threes and move the ball.

“He’s really putting some pressure on me,” Lange joked. But what does faster look like?

“Faster pace on offense,” Lange said. “More five out. More guys making plays. More aggressive defensively in the half court. That’s what it looks like and hopefully we can stay healthy enough to do that.”

It all starts Monday night with Navy. Then comes next Friday night against Central Connecticut State. Two tune-ups before the big one: Nov. 12 against Villanova at home. There hasn’t been a more anticipated St. Joe’s-Villanova game at Hagan since Phil Martelli and Jay Wright roamed the sidelines.

» READ MORE: Phil Martelli has a new podcast and it’s not just about basketball: ‘There will be ripples from this’

Lange said he wasn’t worried about his group overlooking anything on the way to next Tuesday. The Hawks need not look too far back: They lost a home game to Texas A&M-Commerce last season before traveling to play Kentucky at the famed Rupp Arena.

But earlier in the conversation, Lange had flashed his neuroscience savvy when talking about the difficulty of keeping a roster together when it’s “in vogue” to post your transfer announcement on social media.

“We’re dealing with 18- to 22-year-old men whose frontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that develops reasoning, does not hit its peak until 25, so I’m behind the curve,” he said.

On this topic, circling that Villanova game, he feels a bit more confident and in control.

“Everything we’ve talked about since we reconvened in August is the power of now,” Lange said. “We have no right to feel confident if we are not present. It’s not coach speak, it’s the reality of human nature.”