RICHMOND, Va. — As he pieced together his first roster at VCU, Phil Martelli Jr., the Rams’ newly hired head coach, thought back to the book one of his college professors at Saint Joseph’s had authored — Dr. Richard George’s “Success Leaves Clues.” The book served as a guide of sorts for Martelli as he took over VCU after an impressive two-year stint at Bryant.
“I try to look back on the success of certain transfers and say, ‘What were the clues that that guy was going to be successful, especially for us?’” Martelli told Hoops HQ. “There are certain things and numbers and different analytics that I look at for that.”
Chief among those things is efficiency. At Bryant, Martelli’s teams excelled in assist-to-turnover ratio and field goal percentage, despite playing a frenetic, up-tempo style. “He definitely hates turnovers,” said Barry Evans, a senior forward who followed Martelli from Bryant to VCU.
Evans recalled a game when he gave the ball away twice in a relatively short span against Albany. Martelli subbed him out. “It was a teaching lesson,” Evans said. “He’s never going to take you out and scream at you. He’s always going to teach you, tell you what you did wrong.”
Evans and fellow Bryant-to-VCU transfer Keyshawn Mitchell are now in the unique position of being able to teach their new teammates about Martelli, what the Rams’ new coach likes and doesn’t like. Evans already has a handle on some of Martelli’s favorite drills and can let his new teammates know what to expect. “The backdoor cuts, the full-court layups,” Evans said. “Finishing at the rim. Things we emphasize in the games. A lot of fastbreak stuff.”
At the same time, the VCU players Martelli was able to retain after taking over for Ryan Odom, who left after two years in Richmond for Virginia, can help the Bryant transfers and Martelli’s other new additions understand more about the school, the fanbase and the city. “The transition is going to go really well,” said guard Brandon Jennings, a rising sophomore whom Martelli convinced to remain in the program despite interest from Virginia and Boston College. “We’re going to have an exciting offense and defense for the fans to watch our fast pace. I know we’re going to get up and down.”
Jennings is one of five holdovers — four scholarship players and one walk-on — whom Martelli retained from last year’s Atlantic 10 championship team, a group that also includes 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Terrence Hill Jr. and 6-foot-10 senior forward Christian Fermin. All were role players last season. “That was like recruiting any other transfer, because I didn’t have any prior relationships with them,” said Martelli, who went 43-25 in his two years with Bryant, winning the America East championship this past season. “That time was spent getting to know who they are as people.”
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In the whirlwind period since taking over, Martelli also added transfers in Tyrell Ward (LSU), Ahmad Nowell (Connecticut), Jadrian Tracey (Oregon) and Lazar Djokovic (Charleston), plus the two Bryant players and a pair of incoming freshmen. That group is made up mostly of prospects that either Martelli or members of his staff had some deep connections to. Ward, for example, was someone Martelli had targeted at Bryant because Ward had played high school basketball with the Bulldogs star, Earl Timberlake. Martelli knew Nowell since he was a middle schooler in the Philadelphia area and Nowell’s high school coach is a close friend of Martelli’s.
Tracy started his career at St. Joseph’s, where he was a teammate of Martelli assistant Ryan Daly.
But Martelli’s transfer portal targets weren’t just a scattershooting of talented players he already knew on some level. His search was far more targeted, looking for efficient players with a high degree of toughness who came from winning programs. “There are people who jump into the portal and just play Marco Polo,” Martelli said. “They close their eyes and yell, ‘Marco.’ Someone yells, ‘Polo. He’s our guy.’ I never wanted to do that. I wanted to be intentional.” So he followed his clues to determine who would fit his program and who could play his style of basketball.
VCU’s players report to campus in June and that’s when the work of turning this assortment of talent into a team, one that can continue the Rams’ recent run of success. The program has been led by six different coaches over the past 20 years, but still has 13 NCAA Tournament bids during that span. Evans said VCU’s history — including its 2011 run to the Final Four —is alluring, but he’s focused on the future for the Rams. During his first visit to campus, after he had already committed to Martelli, he did a photo shoot in his new VCU jersey. He was offered the chance to hold the A-10 championship trophy in some of the pictures, but he declined.
“I want to be the one that wins it,” Evans said.
The new roster also has a blend of veteran and younger players and Evans, who played two seasons at St. Bonaventure and one at Bryant, will be among the more experienced Rams in 2025-26. Martelli said he’s less focused on finding team leaders in the first few months than he is about developing cohesion. A tightly connected locker room, he believes, will be the key to success in year one.
The Bryant players offer a bridge to the coaching staff, while the VCU returners provide one to the school. “That group has to mesh,” Martelli said. “The guys that are here opening their arms to the Bryant guys, and that group of returners and Bryant guys have to open their arms to these other guys, these other transfers. And then that whole group has to open their arms to the two freshmen. There has to be that connection that’s built.”
The players believe that won’t be a problem. “It’s going to be easy to build relationships,” Evans said. “Coach Martelli, he always brings in the right guys.”
