Saint Joe’s Basketball: Potential candidates to replace Phil Martelli as next coach

Jameer Nelson

The stars seem to be aligning for one of St. Joe’s’ all-time greats to take over the position. Nelson was the national player of the year on the Martelli’s best-ever team, in 2003-04, when the Hawks went undefeated in the regular season and made an Elite 8 run. His pro playing career looks over, and he’s often seen in the stands at Hagan supporting his alma mater. Rumors are that he wants to coach, and his name has been circulated more than any others to this point.

Obviously this is the highest risk/highest reward option; if your arguably best-ever player returns to coach and succeeds wildly, there’s no better long-term face of the program and university; if he doesn’t, you have to fire a program legend, and perhaps permanently end the relationship with a still-young Nelson. With no coaching experience on Jameer’s resume, this has to be seriously considered.

But, if you’re Saint Joseph’s, you might miss out on bringing Nelson back to the program at all if they hesitate and hire someone else. And if he does have success on Hawk Hill, he is much less likely to take the first job offered by a major program down the line than the next guy. There might not be another candidate that would stay with the program indefinitely after finding success.

Martin Ingelsby

The current Delaware coach makes sense for a number of reasons; the Delaware County native that played at Archbishop Carroll competed collegiately at Notre Dame, and crossed paths with Bodensteiner for seven years with Notre Dame athletics as an assistant for the men’s basketball team when his playing career was over. There’s familiarity with area hoops (the University of Delaware is also a big part of the Philadelphia basketball scene on top of his being local to the area), and familiarity with the Saint Joe’s athletic director. It’s a safe hire, and he’s still young at only 40, but it’s not as if Ingeslby has lit the world on fire with the Blue Hens. Ironically, he would again be coaching his former star Ryan Daly, who sat out this past season for Saint Joe’s after leaving Inglesby’s Delaware program.

Matt Langel

Langel has been the head coach at Colgate since 2011, and has become a hot name on the coaching market after leading Colgate to their first-ever twenty-win campaign this past season, coaching the Raiders to a 24-11 mark and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019. Langel is from Moorsetown, NJ, a Penn alumnus and former Quakers assistant coach, and was hired away from Fran Dunphy’s Temple staff to take over Colgate almost a decade ago. He has the rare combination of experience and youth, with eight years of head coaching at the division one level at only 41. This would be a fantastic hire for SJU.