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Steve Donahue and the St. Joe’s Hawks Deserve Some Love
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St. Joe’s put the smack down on George Mason Wednesday night:
Statement win indeed. They totally thumped ’em. GMU was 21-6 coming in and beat the Hawks a few weeks back on their home floor, holding SJU to just 52 points. The Hawks tripped up against Fordham in the following game and then ripped off a three-game winning streak, going 7-2 over their last nine.
You look up for a second and Steve Donahue has the Hawks at 18-10 and third place in the A10. They’re trailing only VCU and St. Louis. It’s such a good job by the head coach and the players considering the circumstances. Donahue was supposed to be an assistant this season, but was thrust into the role when Billy Lange quit on the team a few weeks before the season, tucking tail and heading to New York. Then Deuce Jones exited after 10 games when the Hawks were sitting there at at a mediocre 6-4.
How did they respond? By winning 12 of their next 18 games and fighting their way up the A10 standings. They’re firmly in the mix for a tournament double bye. They’ve got solid guards who can get you a bucket and they’ve overachieved under difficult circumstances. They really have no business being where they are right now considering that Donahue didn’t recruit any of these players and they didn’t come to SJU to play for him.
The only Negadelphia thing I’d say is that the overachievement has brought them largely to the same spot they were in the last two seasons. Billy Lange had them right around 20 wins, competitive in the A10, but there was a gap between SJU and the top 2-3 teams in the conference. So the curmudgeon in me thinks they get to the tournament semifinals and lose again, but let’s play the damn games and see what happens.
The Hawks are playing good basketball and they deserve some love. We see you out there on Hawk Hill.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com