Maybe, I know that one of Martelli's selling point is that we are one of the top teams in the A10 consistently and SJU only had 11 wins total in both 09 and 10 so players expected much bigger things.
We have both listened to him on 610. He can come off somewhat cold, however I hear that he is an extremely nice and charitable guy--he goes out of his way for anyone (except this former player, obviously). Heard that he frequently visits Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. On one occasion, he gave the father of the son his personal cell number and told him to call him anytime he wanted tickets and he would bring him into the locker room of the team to hang out etc. Clearly, St. Joes is no Duke, UNC, UCONN, Cuse etc, but still a nice gesture. This will sound really dumb to most of you--but if you lived in Philly and I told you that I could call Phil Martelli for tickets, people would think that was pretty cool.
That being said, his alleged initial reaction to the transfer request does not suprise me. You know that coach who likes to blame a certain kid and make them the scapegoat for a team's lack of success and then benches him as a means of motivation? That is how Martelli rubs me just from listening to him. It seems like he got the "Hey 7-footer, youre soft, didnt develop, so Im going to hold it over your head" treatment. And because Martelli thought he was soft, he tried to use intimidation to back Brian into a corner which isnt right.
St. Joes has a decent squad this year. Im pretty sure that they would have alot of depth with a 7 footer coming off the bench. St. Joes has been a stepping stone the last 2 years, with back to back 20 loss seasons. Like NDPhilly said, there have been several player departures to differnt universityes. Because of these reasons, The boo-birds have been out hoping that he gets fired.
I thnk its easy to say "just grant his release". Negative pressure makes people act in crazy ways, especially when you have a chance to turn things around with the potential of having a solid season.
Very interested to see how the local media here reacts to this story. They tend to kiss his ***. I havent heard much about it yet. I think Martelli thinks he is a local god. At this point, everyone is in too deep to turn this situation around. It could have been handled differently upfront, but at this point, grant the release. Too much spite nowadays.
