Take a trip down memory lane with the St. Joseph’s team that rallied an entire city

An undefeated regular season record, a No. 1 ranking, an NCAA Elite Eight appearance, and a national player of the year.

If you guessed the 2003-04 St. Joseph’s men’s basketball team, then you can readily recall one of the best seasons from a Big 5 men’s program — not named Villanova — in the past 20 years. It was a Hawks collective that rallied an entire city, and one that will continue to be discussed for decades.

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“What this team did, and I’ve had others do this, is this team reached the zenith of their abilities, and, looking at myself in the way they were coached, they had nothing left. They had nothing left,” former St. Joe’s head coach Phil Martelli told The Inquirer during the Hawks’ 20th anniversary celebration.

“So when people say, ‘Are you disappointed that you didn’t go to the Final Four?’ Yeah, I’m devastated. But, I always think the measure of a coach is the day after their last game. And if you say they gave me everything that they had, and I gave them everything that I had, I could walk away with saying that, for myself, personally, [it was the] best team I’ve ever coached? Yes.”

The Hawks entered the season No. 17 in the AP poll and quickly showed they belonged with a win over No. 10 Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden. From there, St. Joe’s was rolling. The Hawks finished the regular season undefeated, including only three one-possession games. For the most part, they were steamrolling teams, but, outside of the Gonzaga game, St. Joe’s didn’t play another ranked opponent until the Sweet 16.

All season, they climbed the AP poll. They jumped to No. 13 after the first week and slowly made it into the top 3 after holding St. Bonaventure to 35 points and winning at Xavier, an eventual Elite 8 team.

In the last AP poll of the regular season, the Hawks finally cracked the No. 1 spot after Stanford lost.

St. Joe’s had over a week off before its first Atlantic 10 Tournament game against Xavier, and that was when the Hawks got their first blip. Xavier dominated St. Joe’s, winning, 87-67, but the Hawks had still done enough to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Their first-round matchup with Liberty was an easy 19-point win. Then came a five-point win over eighth-seeded Texas Tech to advance to the Sweet 16. In East Rutherford, N.J., St. Joe’s topped Wake Forest, 84-80, setting up a matchup against second-seeded Oklahoma State.

With just under 30 seconds remaining, a three-point shot from Pat Carroll gave the Hawks a one-point lead, but on the other end, with under 7 seconds left, Oklahoma State made a three for the lead. Jameer Nelson pushed the ball up and shot a long two that missed short — and ended the historic season.

Without Jameer Nelson, there’s no chance the 2003-04 St. Joe’s team would have become what it did. Nelson averaged 20.6 points, 5.3 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.8 steals on his way to winning the John R. Wooden Award, given to the NCAA Division I national player of the year.

But he had help.

The team’s second-leading scorer was Delonte West, who went on to have an eight-year NBA career, and Pat Carroll, who was third on the team in scoring, and was Atlantic 10 Player of the Year the next season. West revealed in 2009 that he was battling bipolar disorder, and has lived a nomadic lifestyle since his exit from the NBA.

“I just think everybody played a part. Everybody had a great role; everybody starred in their role,” Nelson said at the celebration. “We weren’t the strongest, the fastest, the most athletic team, but we really liked each other. We enjoyed playing alongside one another. The one thing was, we just competed. We competed our tails off and had fun.”

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