No program knows the struggles of the coaching carousel more than VCU, as the Rams continue to lose their talented head coaches to power conference programs. After losing in the NCAA Tournament, Ryan Odom made it official by taking the opening at Virginia, but the Rams have already filled his post, naming Phil Martelli Jr. as the next leader of their basketball program.
A Pennsylvania native around basketball his whole life, Martelli played at Saint Joseph’s under his father in the early 2000’s, though he graduated the year before the Hawks advanced to the Elite Eight in 2004. Soon after graduation, Martelli jumped right into coaching, spending the next two decades mostly as a collegiate assistant.
In addition to a brief stint in the G-League, Martelli spent time on six different collegiate staffs, with long stints at Niagara and Delaware and brief time on his father’s admin staff at Saint Joseph’s. He became Bryant’s associate head coach in 2018 under Jared Grasso and got his first shot as a head coach five years later after Grasso’s dismissal.
The circumstances around Grasso’s removal were unfortunate, but Martelli wasted zero time continuing to build Bryant basketball. He took the Bulldogs to 20 wins as interim head coach, quickly earning the full-time post. Year two was even more prosperous, as Bryant won 23 games, including both regular season and tournament crowns in the America East.
Now Martelli jumps to VCU, which is certainly a significant leap from the America East to the A-10 but he won’t be doing it alone. There have already been reports that his father will have a significant role on his new coaching staff. Martelli Sr., most recently associate head coach at Michigan, spent more than two decades as an A-10 head coach after all.
Each of VCU’s last six head coaching hires have all had success before leaving for power conference gigs, with Odom lasting just two seasons before being poached. Martelli is another young name rising in coaching circles that could experience a similar journey, though clearly the focus is on right now. He has his work cut out for him in an A-10 that’s still deep with talent and it’ll be interesting to see how the Rams attack recruiting and the Transfer Portal in the days, weeks, and months ahead.
Meanwhile, Bryant is thrown into a head coaching search right after some of the program’s greatest basketball success. The Bulldogs have been a D1 program for less than two decades and both of their trips to the Big Dance came with Martelli on staff. Can they replicate his success and remain a contender in the America East with the right hire?