The St. Joseph’s Hawks are dancing this week as a No. 10 seed with a first round meeting with Connecticut thanks to a 65-61 victory over VCU in the Atlantic 10 Championship Game. The win is a huge sign for St. Joe’s chances in the NCAA Tournament, as VCU is a very talented No. 5 seed that could possibly be the team that ends the Florida Gators’ run to the championship game. But before I get way too ahead of myself and start angering all of my Florida friends, let’s focus on what’s really important about St. Joseph’s big victory – Coach Phil Martelli’s adorable grandson, Philip.
The 4-year old has become a fan favorite in the crowd, as he sits just a few rows behind his grandfather and wears a jacket and tie while hilariously imitating the coach’s every move. The boy even has his own white board to draw up plays, and I have all the faith in the world that he’ll eventually use that board to write dirty words on like I used to do at basketball games. In the meantime, let’s all keep our fingers crossed for the Hawks so we can get plenty of cutaways to young Phil Martelli in the NCAA Tournament.
(Also, I’m never one to encourage forced memes, but if someone did a mashup of the elder Martelli’s angry coaching faces on the body of Rick “The Model” Martel and called it Phil “The Model” Martelli, I would probably love the hell out of that Tumblr account.)
