GAME: No. 16 Liberty (18-14) vs. No. 1 Saint Joseph's (27-1).
REGIONAL: East Rutherford, First Round.
TIME: Thursday, 2:55 p.m. EST.
SITE: HSBC Arena; Buffalo, N.Y.
Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli is done talking for now.
Feeling slighted by critics who felt his team did not deserve its No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, Martelli is ready to let the Hawks prove his point on the court.
"It's now time," Martelli said, "to get it on."
Rewarded with a top seed for the first time in school history, the Hawks open with a first-round matchup against Big South champion Liberty.
The Hawks cruised through their schedule - winning their first 27 games on their way to the school's first No. 1 ranking - before getting thumped last Thursday by unranked Xavier 87-67 in the Atlantic 10 tournament quarterfinals.
Many national commentators felt that loss should have dropped Saint Joe's from a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs. Martelli did not respond kindly to those remarks.
When CBS analyst Billy Packer objected to the Hawks' seed on national television, Martelli called him "a jackass."
"It's the craziest thing I've ever heard," Martelli said. "'Well, they wouldn't win in that league.' No kidding. We're not in that league. We wouldn't have Jameer Nelson if we were in the ACC because the herd mentality wouldn't let you recruit a 5-10 kid from Chester."
Nelson, a leading candidate for national player of the year, realizes a successful run in the NCAAs would be the perfect ending to his stellar career. Nelson became the Hawks' all-time leading scorer this season, but he is now concerned solely with continuing to play for three more weeks.
"It's all about finding a way," Nelson said. "However you can do it, we'll get it done."
Nelson and backcourt mate Delonte West were abysmal in the Hawks' loss to Xavier. They each scored 16 points, but shot a combined 11-of-35 from the field.
"We went down fighting," Nelson said. "We didn't go down scared. That's going to carry over to the next game. It's going to make us hungrier."
Martelli said the Hawks have put their lone loss behind them and are concentrating on not making the same mistakes in upcoming games.
"We know who we're playing. We know the direction that we're headed in and we know this can be three special weeks of basketball," Martelli said.
No top-seeded team has ever lost to a No. 16. If the Hawks can keep that streak alive, they will meet either eighth-seeded Texas Tech or No. 9 Charlotte in the second round.
Liberty is making just its second appearance in the NCAAs, with the only other being a 71-51 first-round loss to North Carolina in 1993.
The Flames found their way back to the tournament after freshman guard Larry Blair scored a career-high 29 points and made seven 3-pointers last Friday in an 89-44 rout of High Point in the Big South championship game.
The 45-point margin of victory was the largest in tournament history.
Saint Joe's and Liberty have never met, but the Hawks know enough about the Flames to not take them lightly.
"I saw them on TV," Hawks forward Pat Carroll said, "and I saw enough to know we can be tested."
PROBABLE STARTERS: Liberty - F Gabe Martin (13.9 ppg, 7.4 rpg), F Louvon Sneed (5.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg), G Blair (13.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg), G Brian Woodson (5.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg), G Ryan Mantlo (6.5 ppg, 2.3 apg). Saint Joseph's - F John Bryant (2.8 ppg, 3.8 rpg), F Carroll (10.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg), C Dwayne Jones (6.6 ppg, 7.1 rpg), G West (18.8 ppg, 4.7 apg), G Nelson (20.0 ppg, 5.4 apg).
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Liberty - Automatic bid, Big South champion. Saint Joseph's - At-large berth.
ALL-TIME TOURNAMENT RECORD: Liberty - 0-1, 1 year. Saint Joseph's - 15-20, 16 years.
