The season starts tonight, and we’re going to be catching up on previews for all six city teams throughout the weekend. Our first installment was about Villanova. Our second was about Drexel. Our third, which appears below, is about Your Saint Joe’s Hawks. Enjoy.

Saint Joe’s coach Phil Martelli has already come right out and said it: At the team’s media day on Tuesday, he declared that the Hawks were “an afterthought” this year. But can it be? Isn’t Saint Joe’s just six years removed from that phenomenal Elite Eight run? And didn’t the Hawks get to the NCAA tournament just two years ago? Yes, and yes, to answer both questions. But that was then.

More after the jump.

The Hawks went 17-15 and last year, and they finished above .500 (9-7) in the Atlantic 10. But so much of what they did on the offensive end was built around departed senior Ahmad Nivins, who was picked as the Atlantic 10 and Big 5 player of the year mostly because he was the city’s Atlas last season, averaging 19.2 points and 11.8 rebounds per game. But the number that really tells you how much the Hawks will miss Nivins is his shooting percentage of 61.2. As the Daily News‘ capsule preview from today notes, everybody else in a Saint Joe’s uniform shot just 39.8 percent a year ago, with forward Idris Hilliard (now a junior) being the only one (53.1 percent) to shoot better than 40 percent.

Little wonder, then, that Saint Joe’s was picked to finish 10th in the 14-team Atlantic 10. They need somebody — anybody — who can score. Senior G Darrin Govens is the top returning scorer (12.5), but he was inconsistent at it last year. And fellow senior Garrett Williamson, though one of the city’s best defenders, scored just 5.5 points a year ago. Martelli, according to numerous published reports, was plain in what he expects from Williamson this year:

“He spent the whole summer not playing basketball, but shooting the ball, shooting the ball, shooting the ball. It’s going to be important that he gets shots in the air and has a chance to be a complete player and not just a complementary player.”

The two new projected starters are 6-11 sophomore center Todd O’Brien, a transfer from Bucknell, and 6-0 freshman guard Carl Jones, who averaged 25.0 ppg and 6.7 apg as a senior at Garfield Heights (Ohio) HS. 5-11 guard Justin Crosgile (who will miss the start of the season with a hand injury) and 6-8 forward Carl Baptiste are the other freshmen who will round out the expected contributors. They’ll be joined by sophomores Bryant Irwin and Chris Prescott, who averaged 11.4 and 12.6 minutes played a year ago.

Of course, the big change for the Hawks this year will be the opening of the state-of-the-art Hagan Arena, which replaces Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse as the site of on-campus home games. We took a look at the adjacent Ramsay Center back in June, and here’s a video of Martelli talking to Comcast SportsNet about the new Hawk Hill digs.

Saint Joe’s christens the Hagan with tonight’s season-opener against Drexel, which tips at 7.

UPDATED WITH OUR PREDICTION: We think the prognostication that Saint Joe’s will finish 10th in the A-10 sounds about right.

Links: 2009-10 Villanova preview [BIG FIVE POST]
2009-10 Drexel preview [BIG FIVE POST]
Martelli: SJU ‘an afterthought’ [Soft Pretzel Logic]
Saint Joe’s at a glance [Daily News]
Saint Joe’s tabbed to be 10th in A-10 [BIG FIVE POST]
A peek at the Ramsay Center, with facts on the Hagan [BIG FIVE POST]