Fresh off a regular season championship, second-year Bryant University Men’s Basketball Head Coach Phil Martelli Jr. has been named the America East Conference’s Coach of the Year. But it’s team goals, not personal accolades, that have him excited for the next round of competition.
Martelli led the Bulldogs to a 20-11 record in the 2024/25 season; under his direction, Bryant has won 20 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in the university’s D1 history.
Prior to joining the Bryant staff in April 2018 as an assistant coach, Martelli had coaching stints at Central Connecticut State University, Manhattan College, Niagara University, and the University of Delaware. The son of legendary St. Joseph’s University head coach Phil Martelli Sr., and a four-year player for the Hawks, Martelli was promoted to associate head coach at Bryant in 2020 and named head coach three years later.
Martelli spoke to Bryant News as he prepares his team for the conference playoffs that begin this weekend.
Bryant News: You've enjoyed a lot of success since you came to Bryant. What’s made this season special?
Martelli: The group we have has been locked in from the first day they came together in mid-June. We have seven returning guys who came back with a mission in mind, and we’ve driven with that. I think we were fortunate that through the transfer portal we were able to add guys who shared those values: talented players who were hard working and cared about winning.
We had [Bryant Trustee Professor of Management] Mike Roberto speak to the team a couple years ago about building a collective mindset. That rung in my ears, and it's something we talk about a lot. This group really has a collective mindset: they want to do it for each other, not just, ‘I want to win a championship.’
Bryant News: The team’s chemistry is obviously a huge factor. At the same time, has your program reached a certain level of maturity this season, as well?
Martelli: It’s evolving; we’re always trying to grow and get better. I'm always trying to learn. As a young head coach, you make plenty of mistakes. Other people may see some of those, but I see them all.
It takes a special group of people coming together, and this group has it, and I knew they had it early on. I just need to play my role.
"My title is head coach, but that doesn't mean I’m any more important than the assistant coaches or the managers or the players. I'm fortunate that everyone around me has played their role to the highest level."
I say it all the time: I'm a teammate who's part of this. My title is head coach, but that doesn't mean I’m any more important than the assistant coaches or the managers or the players. I'm fortunate that everyone around me has played their role to the highest level. Not every day is going to be everybody's best day, but if there are enough of us willing to lift that guy up when he's having a bad performance you can still get good results, and that's what we've done.
Bryant News: You’re a coach's son, so basketball and coaching have always been part of your life. Tell us what this Coach of the Year honor means to you personally.
Martelli: It means that we have great players and a great staff. There are no great coaches without great players. I'm blessed to be at a place where our administration is off the charts. I have been blown away in my seven years at Bryant at how great the people are and how great the leadership is.
We also have a really good staff. [Associate Head Coach] Chris Cole has been here the whole time I've been here. [Assistant Coach] Brendan Phelps has been with me the last two years and I've known him on a very close level for 20-plus years. [Assistant Coach] Ryan Daly and [Assistant Coach] Nick Schmidt both joined my staff this year. Ryan's grandfather, Jim Boyle, was the head coach at St. Joe's who hired my dad as an assistant 40 years ago. Nick’s father, Mark, is the head coach at St. Bonaventure and went to Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, where my son is a first-year student.
So great pedigree, great basketball minds, just guys that love the game, love the gym, and love being around our players.
Bryant News: How much of the buy-in and group mentality that you’ve observed on this year’s team is a reflection of the culture that the players are a part of at Bryant?
Martelli: I played the game for a long time, and only once or twice in my life was I the best player on any team, so I've always been driven to be a great teammate. We want our program to be a great teammate on campus.
I grew up in a similar environment to Bryant with my dad; St. Joe’s is a smaller school and everybody knew everybody; when you went to your youth basketball game there were people from campus there because their kids were playing, their grandkids were playing.
The Bryant Athletic Department, the school community, the alumni base — the reality is, this program belongs to all of them. I'm fortunate to be in the role that I'm in, but I don't own the program. The players don't own the program. The program belongs to the school. There's a long legacy behind us, and there'll be a long legacy after us. We’ve got to make sure we're doing our part to uphold that.
Bryant News: Is there any relationship between what your players learn in the classroom and what they've accomplished this year?
Martelli: Absolutely. I say to every recruit who comes in that Bryant is about collaboration. There aren’t high walls; there’s intermingling in every aspect. It's unique to have your business majors get a liberal arts minor, and vice versa. That doesn't happen at other schools. It really promotes weaving the talents of everyone together, and that definitely seeps its way into every aspect of the university.
Bryant News: Does it reinforce what you're trying to do in the locker room with the team?
Martelli: 1000%, because you don't want to be isolated from your teammates. We need everybody to play their role, and no role is more important than another. My grandfather was a contractor, and he used to tell us the guy who brings the hammers isn’t any more important than the guy who brings the nails.
Bryant News: You just clinched the regular season championship, with the playoffs and the possibility of March Madness ahead. Looking at this season, what constitutes success in your mind?
Martelli: Well, I think we've had it. It’s hard to win a regular season championship. You go through the twists and turns of the season, the travel, the injuries, the sickness; these are young guys that are dealing with some hard things, like trying to play a game when they just lost a friend, or their mom or dad's is sick. So, for us to go 14-2 in conference, to win the regular season championship, to win 20 games, that is hard to do at this level, especially with the challenging non-conference schedule we had.
What's tough is that a lot of times it boils down to the conference tournament, which determines who gets into the NCAA’s March Madness tournament. The best team doesn't always win the conference tournament because it's a one-game deal. But I feel good about this group, and what gives me major confidence is that they have shown up every single day and been the same team. They haven't shied away from the work. They haven't shied away from being coached hard. They've embraced all of it, from beginning to end.
"What gives me major confidence is that they have shown up every single day and been the same team. They haven't shied away from the work. They haven't shied away from being coached hard. They've embraced all of it, from beginning to end."
We've built some incredible memories, and hopefully there's more on the other end of this. I want them to come back in 20, 25 years and still be saying, “remember that bus ride back from Binghamton or Maine” or “remember that time in practice when Coach was yelling at so-and-so” — that’s the stuff they'll remember, and hopefully we can add one more real core memory to that for all of them.
Last season, everyone wanted to come by and say, man, you guys had a good year. I'm so appreciative of that, but it also drove us where we're not chasing good years, we’re chasing great years. And credit to this group, I think they've had themselves a great year that could be even greater in a couple of weeks.
