A stretch of losing, and pretty ugly losing, will do that to a very young team. After getting off to an uplifting start to the schedule, the Hawks had lost three straight and five of seven games. The season teeters on an edge at those times, and even the coach couldn't say for certain which way it would fall.
So, it's not like Wednesday's 77-63 win over first-place Dayton in Hagan Arena was important or anything. Time will tell if it leads to more, but for this one night the players had their belief restored.
"What was happening to us was we were acting our age," Martelli said. "I'm not one to stand up here and shout and say, 'Don't you get it? We're the fourth-youngest team in America.' That doesn't mean anything . . . but at some point the individual frailties some of these guys have is because of their age."
Martelli is trying to age them in a hurry, and that's a tough job. In his regular seven-man rotation, he has a junior, five sophomores, and a freshman. The team has its best potential with a big lineup, but that presents the challenge of taking care of the ball, maintaining a quick pace and staying out of foul trouble . . . all of which is tough with three legitimate frontcourt players.
What to do? The Hawks play significantly more zone defense than in the past. They run as much as possible because their half-court offense can be a touch mechanical. And they try to limit turnovers as if that's a religion. On some nights, you can see the magic formula of the plan. Wednesday night against Dayton was one of them.
It was far from a perfect game. St. Joe's went nearly 11 minutes without a field goal in the first half and was fortunate to only trail by five points at halftime.
In the second half, the talented offense exploded for 50 points, led by 22 in that half (and 27 overall) for sixth-man Ronald Roberts, who would score the final 15 points of the game for the Hawks.
