This preview is part of the Atlantic 10's 2020-21 Men's Basketball Tipoff, which also includes A-10 media day, the preseason poll and awards and the 2020-21 schedule. The previews, written by Patrick Stevens, began on Nov. 10 and will continue through the week. Once released, each preview can be found here.
SAINT JOSEPH'S ESSENTIALS
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Don’t think for a second Billy Lange is discouraged by his debut season at Saint Joseph’s. In fact, Lange is effusive about the progress the Hawks made as a program even if they went 6-26.
And he’s every bit as excited about what is to come.
“I never felt the program was not on firm footing,” Lange said. “I’ve never felt that. I’ve never said that. I’ve never believed that was a part of the transition we had to go through. I look at St. Joe’s basketball as this amazing cathedral and my job is to steward a renovation and an update just like every coach before me had to do when they were the leader of the program.”
Nonetheless, Saint Joseph’s should be different this year. For one thing, the Hawks will be deeper. Three freshmen are in the fold. Transfers Dahmir Bishop (Xavier) and Greg Foster Jr. (Gonzaga) will play after sitting out at least part of last season. And Taylor Funk is healthy after missing the Hawks’ final 25 games due to injury.
And they still have Ryan Daly, the Atlantic 10’s leading scorer a season ago at 20.6 points per game. A preseason Second Team All-Conference pick, Daly is eager to see how the reinforced Hawks’ roster performs.
“I think this year we have the horses to be able to get up and down faster,” Daly said. “I think we have two guards that are probably among the top five athletic guards in the league. We’re going to push the ball, and I think we’re definitely more comfortable with. I’m not the fastest guy, but I like getting up and down and making plays in transition. I think we’ll definitely more comfortable with that and hopefully will put up some points.”
but at the vast majority of the positions.
A LOOK AT THE HAWKS:
Coach: Billy Lange, second season at Saint Joseph’s, 6-26 with the Hawks and 137-160 overall in 10 seasons
Last year: The Hawks went 6-26 overall and 2-16 in the Atlantic, finishing in a tie for 13
th. Saint Joseph’s lost 77-70 to George Mason in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Championship.
They’ll miss: While the top five scorers are all back, the Hawks do have some pieces to replace. Forward Lorenzo Edwards (6.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and guard Toliver Freeman (5.7 ppg, 3.0 rpg) were both starters at the end of the season, and Edwards had a team-high 28 blocks before heading to College of Charleston as a graduate transfer.
Impact returners: Conventional wisdom suggests more even distributed scoring this season, but it’s every bit as possible senior Ryan Daly becomes even more dangerous and efficient with the addition of Dahmir Bishop and Greg Foster Jr. to the backcourt. At the very least, he’s the name everyone around the A-10 will know when the Hawks pop up on the schedule.
“Ryan could theoretically average more points,” Lange said. “Does it mean he’s going to take 20 shots in some games like he did last year? It could if the ball finds him like that. I don’t know that he has to average less than what he averaged last year for us to be more balanced.”
Don’t forget about 6-5 sophomore Cameron Brown, who averaged 10.1 points last year while logging 29.7 minutes per game. Junior forward Myles Douglas (7.8 ppg, 3.0 rpg) and sophomore guard Rahmir Moore (7.3 ppg, 2.8 rpg) also returning after playing prominent roles a year ago.
Newbies of note: Bishop and Foster are the headline additions, though both spent at least part of last season with the Hawks. Bishop is a Philadelphia product who boomeranged back to his hometown after playing in 10 games at Xavier. He was a first team all-state selection at Imhotep Charter in his high school days.
Foster, whose father played 13 seasons in the NBA, got into 28 games for Gonzaga in 2018-19 before transferring to Saint Joseph’s and sitting out last season.
Reasons to be optimistic: One area where the Hawks struggled mightily last year was 3-point shooting, making just 29.7 percent from the outside. Considering Lange wants his team to shoot a lot of 3-pointers --- and 49.7 percent of the Hawks’ field goal attempts last season were 3s, the fifth largest share in the country according to KenPom.com --- the dilemma is obvious.
Redshirt junior Taylor Funk missed most of last season with a hand injury, but he has some history of stretching the floor. The 6-8 forward connected on 39.4 percent of his 3-pointers as a freshman in 2017-18 while averaging 11.8 points. Now he’s healthy, and could have a significant impact this winter.
“Taylor Funk is almost unrecognizable right now physically,” Lange said. “You’ll only know he’s Taylor Funk because you’ve seen him for three years. You wouldn’t know he’s Taylor Funk from 100 feet away. He's going to be given the green light to shoot 10-15 threes a game if he wants to do it.”
X factor: Lange had no qualms with his team’s effort last year. But there’s no getting around the fact the Hawks have to get better at the defensive end.
“That’s been a huge priority for us,” Daly said. “We’re not the team that’s just going to be able to go iso and win one-on-one down the court and try to outscore like that. We can’t get in transition if we don’t get stops.”
Saint Joseph’s should be bigger, longer and faster thanks to its additions, all encouraging signs for improving a defense that was 315
th last year in KenPom.com’s efficiency rankings. As the Hawks’ ability to defend improves, their ceiling this season will rise as well.
Circle the dates: The new-look Hawks sure aren’t easing into the season. They open with a pair of games at the Fort Myers Tip-Off against Auburn (Nov. 26) and Kansas (Nov. 27).
Bottom line: Enthusiasm isn’t a problem on Hawk Hill, and the presence of more options is going to help. Daly has scored more than 1,600 points between Saint Joseph’s and Delaware and should be this team’s offensive centerpiece. The Hawks will be better this season, and will be pushing toward climbing in the A-10 standings.
Patrick Stevens is a veteran freelance college basketball writer. A former sports reporter for the Washington Times, he has been a contributor to Atlantic10.com for the past seven years. Follow him on Twitter at @D1scourse.