Basketball gurus who study St. Joseph's rave about its vision, how its players spot the open man, and the resulting 17.3 assists a game — best in school history.

        Xavier coach Skip Prosser lauds different vision: that of St. Joe's administrators who overlooked Phil Martelli's losing records the past three seasons.

        “They stuck by him, knew what kind of program he was building, and the results are self-evident,” Prosser said.

        St. Joe's, one of the na tion's biggest surprises, is off to its best start (14-3) in 15 years and its first 5-0 Atlantic 10 start in history. It has won eight straight games and already owns more victories than in each of the past three seasons.

        Beating XU (13-3, 4-1 A-10) Saturday at Cintas Center could get the Hawks into the national rankings. How did the Hawks, picked sixth in the A-10, soar so high?

        “We got older,” Martelli said. “That sounds trite, but we have a lot of guys with experience, and it was the application of those experiences.”

        St.Joe's led in all except three games last season but ended up with 16 losses. At the Hawks' first team meeting this season, Martelli showed them an hour-long video of clips from their close losses last season. Then he threw the tape into the trash. Later, he brought in Joel Fish, a sports psychologist, for motivational work.

        “If this team was coming in with any question of their abilities, I wanted to eliminate that,” Martelli said.

        Martelli is a players' coach, and his weekly show on Philadelphia cable leaves them in stitches. Named Best Coach's Show by The Sporting News, it includes a “Martelli the Magnificent” spoof of Johnny Carson's Carnac, a top 10 list, a monologue and viewer mail.

        Once when the team was slumping, Martelli did the entire show backward, starting with the closing credits.

        “Coaches shows all stink, and college basketball should be fun,” he said. “We thought we'd just play around a bit so people say, "That's so bad that it's funny.'”

        XU assistant Jeff Battle, who knew Martelli while growing up in Philadelphia, says Martelli's humor keeps the Hawks loose.

        “He has a great rapport with them,” Battle said.

        That helps a young team grow and learn. St.Joe's shoots 50.2 percent — 13th in the nation, first in the A-10 — and allows just 40.8 percent shooting, second-best in the league. Its assist total leads the league.

        Marvin O'Connor ranks third in the A-10 in scoring (20.7 ppg), and the Hawks have three 6-foot-9 bangers in Bill Phillips (11.7 ppg, 9.4 rebounds), Damian Reid (10.1 ppg, 6.7 rebounds) and Frank Wilkins (6.4 ppg). Na'im Crenshaw (12.3 ppg) sat out the first semester to improve his academic standing and gain another year of eligibility, and St.Joe's is 7-0 since his return.

        The key addition was freshman point guard Jameer Nelson, who picked St. Joe's over Temple. Nelson averages 12.5 points and 5.6 assists.

        “Jameer makes the other players better, but they make him better, too,” Martelli said. “The older guys have gotten better, which I think has been overlooked.”

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