How the son of a legendary college coach is carving his own path after March Madness loss to Michigan State

CLEVELAND, Ohio – At the minimum, you go out with a fight.

Bryant did just that on Friday night versus Michigan State, forcing 11 Spartans turnovers and keeping them to a 38.5% shooting performance from beyond the arc.

The No. 2 seed Spartans started to create separation at the halfway point of the second half, en route to an 87-62 win over the No. 15 seed Bulldogs.

Head coach Tom Izzo and his Spartans were the favorite to win the NCAA Tournament first-round matchup, and will play No. 10 seed New Mexico on Sunday.

But while ending Bryant’s season, Izzo had some genuine praise for Bryant’s head coach, Phil Martelli Jr., along with some retrospect regarding Martelli’s father.

“I know Phil through his dad … it impresses me that he’s the younger version,” Izzo said. “His toughness, his team’s toughness, his rebounding, what they’ve done, they execute their stuff well. I give him a lot of credit to be honest with you.”

Another chapter closes for the 43-year-old coach.

A chapter that ends his second season coaching Bryant, a former Division II program before starting the Division I transition in 2008.

Since becoming Division I, this year’s 23 wins marks a new program record, and this March Madness appearance is the program’s second ever, the first coming in 2022.

Martelli was just happy to be on college basketball’s biggest stage versus a legend like Izzo.

“It’s an honor to coach against a Hall of Famer,” Martelli said. “It’s an honor to go against somebody like that, that isn’t just a great coach, but a great person. To try and go toe-to-toe and learn your lessons from that is pretty cool.”

And look no further than Bryant’s seniors, Rafael Pinzon and Earl Timberlake, to describe how much Martelli has meant to them and their teammates.

Pinzon spent two seasons at St. John’s, then transferred to Bryant and became a full-season starter this year for the first time, a career year with 18.6 points per game.

“He trusted us from the beginning. I cannot thank him enough for that because he really trusted us and gave us freedom and gave us the right tools to get better as a player. I’ll be forever grateful to him for that,” Pinzon said.

After his freshman year with Miami (Fla.), and sophomore season with Memphis, Timberlake once more entered the transfer portal.

He says he wasn’t in the best state of mind, but thanks Martelli and his coaching staff, who he’d play his last three seasons for, for helping him love basketball again.

“A lot of people don’t know I was in a very dark place a couple years ago coming from different schools. I didn’t even want to play basketball no more. I just thank them for helping me get the love back for the game,” Timberlake said.

You know who else coached their team into the NCAA Tournament in their second season?

His father, Phil Sr., during the 1996-97 season with the St. Joseph’s Hawks.

The subject of family is an important one to the younger Martelli, who was 15 years old watching his father led the Hawks to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1986.

Now that he’s experienced the same feeling with his own family, his wife Meghan and three kids, it brings a unique feeling for Martelli.

“It’s special to have done it on their side, watching my father, and now on this side. It’s unique. You get to see both perspectives. There’s not a lot of times where you can see both perspectives,” Martelli said.

Phil Sr. is a legend in the Philadelphia area.

Seven years he spent coaching Bishop Kenrick High School, before joining St Joseph’s staff as as assistant in 1985. He got Hawks’ head gig in 1995, and kept that position until 2019.

Phil’s time at Hawk Hill was marked by seven trips to the big dance, and a 2004 season in which the Hawks had an undefeated 27-0 regular season, before losing to Oklahoma State in the Elite Eight.

Martelli had just missed the cut off of being part of that roster, having played from 1999–2003 for his father and the Hawks.

Instead, the younger Martelli instantly jumped into coaching and worked his way up the ranks, primarily as an assistant.

Two seasons at Central Connecticut, a season at Manhattan, five seasons at Niagara, five seasons at Delaware, then one season with the NBA G League’s Delaware 87ers.

That’s a lot of moving around.

Much different than Phil Sr.‘s coaching journey, who spent most of his life in the Philadelphia area before joining Michigan in 2019, spending five seasons there as an associate head coach.

It wasn’t until 2018 when Martelli settled in Providence, Rhode Island, and took an associate head coaching position with Bryant, before taking over the head gig in 2022.

His journey getting him to the big dance brings retrospect within his family’s sacrifice, going where his coaching journey takes them. And knowing what it’s like to watch his father’s coaching hardships.

“The kids, they live and die,” an emotional Martelli said. “They live and die. I know what that’s like, and I know what it’s like to watch your father succeed, and I know what it’s like to watch him fail and how hard that is.”

He’s put in over 20 years to get to this point in his career, but would push it to the curb if it was too much for his family.

“I’ve always said this. If there was a day where Megan said I can’t do this anymore, we have to stop, I would stop,” Martelli said. “All she’s ever done is pushed me and supported me and given me everything she possibly could that I could never give back. I could never give it back; what she’s given to me.”

After that 1997 appearance, it took Phil Sr. four seasons to coach the Hawks back to March Madness.

Martelli Jr. has done good making Bryant the top dog of the America East Conference, and will look to be back on the biggest stage in college basketball.

“We have to sustain it…we didn’t chase ‘great’ this year to then go back and chase ‘good’. We’re chasing ‘great’, and that starts now,” Martelli said.