We took the tour of the new Ramsay Basketball Center today. The place is so impressive, Saint Joe’s coach Phil Martelli found himself saying, “The biggest fear that I have is that (the players) will develop a sense of entitlement. We need to remember where we came from.” More after the jump.

This was a $35 million, privately-donated facelift, and it’s one that Saint Joe’s trustees, administrators and fans hope will keep the Hawks competitive in a sport with a thrilling end-of-season tournament that is often won by Big State U. with its Big State Budget, even if the little Jesuit boys like Saint Joe’s usually make the whole thing so much fun.

Don DiJulia, the Saint Joe’s AD, said Xavier and Marquette were among the models after which the project was based. Xavier, of course, has won the A-10 regular-season title the last three years. Oh, and that school just a few miles away called Villanova, the one that went to the Final Four in April? They have the Davis Center, which opened two years ago. And Temple has the Liacouras as the center of its ongoing expanded investment in its program. La Salle? Yeah, well, maybe Tim Legler and Rasual Butler will feel the need to write a check or two once word of this project gets out. Or likely maybe not.

“Critically needed, no question,” DiJulia said of the project’s necessity on Hawk Hill. “You don’t like to use the words ‘facilities arms race,’ but that’s what it is. The first impression for a lot of people can turn you (“you” meaning “recruits”) on, leave you neutral or turn you off. This, then, at least, can keep people turned on. Now it gets us even with the kind of people we’d like to and expect to compete against.”

Welcome, Hawks fans, to the nuclear neighborhood of college basketball.

The renovation and expansion of the old Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse comes in three phases: 1) The fieldhouse itself, which will now be called Michael J. Hagan ‘85 Arena and include 1,000 more seats, bringing capacity to 4,200; 2) The new Ramsay Basketball Center, an addition to the Hagan (is that what we’ll call it?) that is 20,000 square feet and two stories high, complete with a Hall of Fame reception room (for “serious donors,” according to Martelli), new locker rooms, academic study spaces and offices for coaches and the athletic communications peeps; 3) Upgrades to and expansion of the existing sports complex for other sports, including a new hoops practice facility (already open) and locker rooms and coaches’ offices for those other sports.

Martelli’s own office, which used to resemble a phone booth on 54th Street, now looks like this (and he still has an adjacent conference room all his own, too):

The video room, which will double as the post-game press conference room, looks like a state-of-the-art lecture hall complete with a giant TV. But the locker room and players’ lounges are really something. The locker room, which at the fieldhouse was archaic and so cramped, is now spacious and huge. Martelli, while discussing how he didn’t want players to lose their heads, said each locker will include its own plaque identifying every other player that had previously worn the same number occupying the number to be worn by a player at a given stall. Pretty neat. Oh, and the locker room is also named for Jameer Nelson, who donated the money to pay for it (Legler? Butler? Got that?).

The new players’ lounge — well, it’s not like there was an old players’ lounge — is named for Delonte West, who has agreed to donate the money to pay for it. Martelli also told an interesting story about going to Cleveland during the NBA playoffs to ask for the donation. He said West said OK and just turned and reached in his locker, as though he was just going to pull out however much money it took to cover the costs. Martelli said he had to make it clear that this kind of money would have to go through lawyers and such, and that it would take time to process. He said he told West he would talk to his people, to which West replied that he made his own such decisions. “I know NBA players carry around a lot of money, but…” Martelli said. Pretty funny.

The Hagan Arena, which was not part of the tour, could have been expanded to 6,000 seats, but Martelli said, “That’s not what we’re about.” Just a $35 million privately donated upgrade, though. Not much else.

UPDATE: We neglected to mention that the Ramsay Center is of course named for Hall of Fame coach Dr. Jack Ramsay, who brought the Hawks into national prominence in the 1960s before going on to coach for more than 20 years in the NBA, where he won a title with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977. More straight from Hawk Hill here.

Link: Ramsay Center dedication details [Saint Joseph's University]

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