In men’s basketball, it’s easy to grade outgoing St. Joseph’s president Mark Reed

As Mark Reed, president of St. Joseph’s University, leaves for a similar post in Chicago leading Loyola University, it will take years to judge his tenure on Hawk Hill. The school’s merger with the University of Sciences may top that eventual judgment determination … again, it could take years.

One important aspect of Reed’s time can be judged right now. When it comes to men’s basketball, Reed’s leadership gets an F.

Maybe an F-plus, or a D-minus? Nope. Straight F. Not just for how it all played out under his watch. How Reed handled it himself. Straight F.

If you had told most people when Reed took over the job in 2015 how these recent years would play out, most would not have believed you. A 28-win season for Phil Martelli in the president’s first year, then a slide to irrelevance.

Moving on from the Martelli era was inevitably going to happen. But Reed’s decision to move on with a clean cut, straight firing him, with no meaningful attempt to celebrate what Martelli had accomplished, that badly hurt the school, badly hurt the basketball program, and completely hurt Billy Lange’s chances of quickly succeeding when he took over in 2019.

For those Hawks fans who want to place all the blame on athletic director Jill Bodensteiner, I don’t share that opinion. (She took the gig, though.) Anyone interested in the job replacing longtime AD and Philly sports institution Don DiJulia point-blank knew they were going to have to handle Martelli’s succession. Top university leadership, I’m told, wasn’t hiding that it was ready to make a change.

I’ve written this before directly about Martelli: Coaches don’t get lifetime contracts. Succession plans eventually get discussed, even for the iconic coaches. If things had gotten stagnant inside Hagan Arena late in Martelli’s tenure, discussions would be needed. If the St. Joe’s brain trust decided years back that it was time to move on, some finesse was required to handle it. Martelli had done enough for the school over the years to earn that. More to the point, the program needed that.

Reed declined to be interviewed for this piece but provided this statement through a university spokesperson: “Philadelphia is a basketball town and I knew that when I returned here. St. Joe’s has a proud and storied athletics history. I am confident in the leadership and vision of Jill Bodensteiner, as evidenced by conference and NCAA tournament appearances across multiple sports, as well as significant fund-raising success. While our basketball wins and losses are not where I, or any devoted Hawk fan, would like, we are moving in the right direction. Billy Lange and Cindy Griffin are building a sustainable culture of excellence. This is not a quick fix, but an intentional and measured path forward. I look forward to watching these teams continue to improve, compete and win.”

Reed added, “The Hawk Will Never Die.”

Reed, known as a strategic thinker, botched this from a strategic sense. Easy to see now how the connection lost from the Martelli years isn’t just frayed, but completely cut. It was so apparent during this past college basketball season. When Juwan Howard was suspended at Michigan, Martelli, the associate head coach in Ann Arbor now, had to coach a stretch of games that required some victories for the Wolverines to get in the NCAA Tournament. They got those victories.

Meanwhile, Jameer Nelson Jr., who had originally committed to St. Joe’s to play under Martelli, was the point guard at Delaware, which reached the NCAA Tournament. What a story, Jameer’s kid doing his thing. Just not on Hawk Hill.

» READ MORE: How Jameer Nelson, ‘that little kid from Chester,’ became a Philly sports icon

Up at Providence, Hawks transfer Jared Bynam was named Big East sixth man of the year as the Friars won their first-ever Big East regular-season title. In the same city, at Bryant, Phil Martelli Jr., a Hawks alum, was top assistant for a team that also made it to March Madness. Even the St. Peter’s Cinderella ride had a Hawk Hill connection. Top Peacocks assistant Ryan Whelan had been a JV player and “student coach” at St. Joe’s.

None of this could be properly touted on Hawk Hill, given the torn connection. St. Joe’s is one of those places that loves to celebrate its many contributions to the basketball world. Nope, can’t do that.

Meanwhile, with Martelli out, Lange took over with only three Hawks who had played under Martelli the year before there to play for him. Some strategic thinking at the highest level should have seen that coming. Three seasons with just a total of 22 wins means there has been no return of any enthusiasm to Hagan Arena. Lange’s job only gets harder. Put all that right on the president.

There must have been a misguided belief, which must have extended to the St. Joseph’s board of trustees that approved moving on from Martelli, that the school could do better than averaging an NCAA appearance every four years. In the current Power 5-driven era, that’s actually a high bar for an Atlantic 10 program. Martelli’s seven NCAA appearances in 24 years got over that bar, even if his 41 victories in his last three seasons had much of the fan base looking for more, which was their ticket-buying right.

I’ve often wondered if the St. Joe’s brass knew that Martelli had a strong recruiting class coming in. If they did, it meant they didn’t want to see him push the boulder up the hill again. More likely, they didn’t, since it wasn’t in their job description to read recruiting rankings.

It’s been pointed out to me that in other places, coaching removals often are more transactional, but in Philadelphia, that’s not the way it’s usually done.

“He deserved a parade on City Avenue,” one veteran Hawk once put it to me about Martelli leaving.

Instead, there was a press conference Martelli called at his house in Media, and Martelli hasn’t been back to Hawk Hill for a public event. That should not have been surprising. For all his gifts, and all he has done in this city and for that school, Martelli never took losing well, and this was going to be the toughest loss of his career. Maybe there was no way to handle it well. There were, however, people willing to try, people who cared both about Martelli and the school, who understood this needed to be handled deftly.

» READ MORE: Martelli vs. Villanova in the NCAA Tournament

Mark Reed decided not to try. Any offers to help smooth a transition were rebuffed. The cord would be cut cleanly. An important Philadelphia basketball institution has suffered for it. By leaving, Reed ensured he won’t be part of fixing it.

Reed doesn’t officially leave until August, but, when it comes to this all-important aspect of life on Hawk Hill, the final grade is in. Straight F.