Billy Lange’s trust in Erik Reynolds II and Xzayvier Brown is key to success for St. Joe’s

NEW YORK — The theory was that if St. Joseph’s could win one of its two games against big-conference teams at the Legends Classic, it would be mission accomplished.

It didn’t take long to prove the theory right. The Hawks’ 78-77 win over Texas Tech in the tournament’s semifinals was more than enough: a mix of skill, grit, and down-to-the-wire entertainment against the best team on paper in the field.

Of course, coach Billy Lange didn’t want to say so aloud at first. But he knew how important the win was and how important these two games were.

After a 67-58 loss to Texas in the final that was close until late, he finally said it.

“I’ll take from it that really smart basketball people hopefully are looking at St. Joe’s basketball as like, ‘Hey, we would want that type of program in these type of events,’” he said. “I just believe in iron sharpens iron. So we want this. I’d rather win, but I would rather get better.”

» READ MORE: St. Joe’s topples Texas Tech, 78-77, for a signature non-conference win

If he had tried to say he was only talking about November events, someone might have politely asked about events in certain other months.

March, for example. And to no surprise, he was asked anyway.

“I have no fear — like, literally, no fear,” he said after the Texas Tech game. “This is a time for us, because of these people that we have, and I am just proud of them.”

Lange likes to say that he doesn’t call many plays. Letting his players create and improvise is a kind thing to do, but it also can be a gamble against big-time teams.

He did it anyway, trusting star guards Erik Reynolds II and Xzayvier Brown. They mostly delivered again, with one obvious exception.

Reynolds scored 32 points over the two games: 26 vs. Texas Tech, then just six vs. Texas on 1-of-10 field-goal shooting. Of all the reasons for the loss to the Longhorns, that naturally was at the top.

Brown scored 35 points combined, including a 13-for-13 night at the free throw line vs. Texas Tech earned by driving relentlessly at the Red Raiders’ defense.

After the first game, Lange sat at the podium with Brown and Reynolds next to him. After the second, he sat alone, presumably because it was a loss. But the bigger-picture stuff he said while with his players stood through both nights.

“We’ve got this guy, you know, and he’s unflappable — he’s been here four years. He’s been a transformational spirit,” Lange said of Reynolds.

“And then we’ve got this guy, you know,” he said of Brown. “And he lets me get on him and he lets me coach him, and he’s not results-driven. He wants to keep getting better.”

» READ MORE: Erik Reynolds II’s bad shooting night dooms St. Joe’s in 67-58 loss to Texas

He praised Rasheer Fleming, too, and for good reason: 14 points and seven rebounds vs. Texas Tech, then 16 points and a whopping 20 rebounds vs. Texas.

The rest of the frontcourt has a lot of pieces, but they’re flawed. It still bears saying how young a lot of them are: Steven Solano is a freshman, Dasear Haskins is a redshirt freshman, and Anthony Finkley and Shawn Simmons II are sophomores. But Justice Ajogbor is a grad student, and the Harvard transfer hasn’t risen to the needed level at the offensive end.

Lange didn’t need to name names when he chided his team from the podium after the Texas game.

“This is a generation of basketball players that are tricked by thinking that being good is something different than the basic, elementary fundamentals,” he said. “Free-throw shooting, layup making, boxing out, playing off two feet in the paint, making a good decision. That’s it right there.”

His players can expect a hearty film session before Tuesday’s home game vs. Coppin State (7 p.m., ESPN+).

“I take that as evidence to our guys that the stuff we spend time on is important,” Lange said. “We need to take it maybe more seriously.”

But in his next breath, he embraced the upside of the bigger picture.

“Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, our team played like we had been invited to be here and we had earned the right to be here over the last five years,” Lange said. “Hopefully that will be a sign [that] we belong. And so how do we continue to get better off of that?”

He had answered his own question by then in various ways. And he had answered various forms of the same question, mainly from national media, but, well … yeah, we all know what it is.

See you in the NCAA Tournament, St. Joe’s?

» READ MORE: Back-to-back Big 5 wins give St. Joe’s another title game trip — and important momentum

“I just can’t focus on that,” Lange said, and he said his players “don’t want me to focus on that. They don’t need me to focus on that. They need a leader, they need a steward, they need a truth-teller.”

He then revealed some truths he told before this tournament tipped off.

“I told them I don’t care if we win,” he said. “They know that I want to win — I’m sweating, they know that. I said it with a lot more color.”

What Lange really wanted, he said, “was to make sure that when we left here, these teams felt us. People saw us. We knew we belonged. We earned the right to be here.”

They certainly did that.