As his stomach did somersaults and his nerves frayed while he paced in front of a television on Selection Sunday, Hawks coach Phil Martelli sensed that if his team were to be left out of the NCAA tournament once again, St. Joseph's would recede a bit further in public consciousness.

After all, it had been four seasons since St. Joe's was the feel-good story of college basketball, the small Jesuit university with the dynamic little guard in Nelson that won its first 27 games and captured a No. 1 seed in a sport increasingly dominated by football-fueled power conferences.

A school like St. Joe's needs all the exposure it can get, the kind teams in conferences such as the Big East and Atlantic Coast take for granted with their handsome television contracts. It's a reason Martelli accommodates the request of just about every reporter, cameraman or talk-show host he can.

"I fight very hard to make sure we get noticed," Martelli said. "Some people say I'm doing it to get myself noticed. I don't need to get noticed, because I have the job I've always wanted. But for these players and this program, to continue to get the opportunities on national TV, to continue to be talked about, it was a very, very big deal to get this bid."

In the three seasons since Nelson went to the NBA, St. Joe's had gone to the National Invitation Tournament twice and stayed home last year.

Returning to the NCAA tournament - in which the 11th-seeded Hawks will meet sixth-seeded Oklahoma at 7:10 p.m. Friday in Birmingham, Ala., in the first round of the East Regional - was so important because the Hawks could be in transition next year.

They will lose seniors Pat Calathes and Rob Ferguson. They will play no games on campus because Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, one of the tougher venues for opponents in the Atlantic Ten, will be undergoing expansion and reconstruction. The nonconference schedule, which includes a trip to the prestigious Maui Invitational, may be more difficult than ever.

So if St. Joe's hadn't been chosen for the NCAA tournament on Sunday, then when?

"We're going to be young," Martelli said. "The schedule is daunting. We're not going to be playing in our own building. We'll probably be picked in the middle of the pack in our conference. So there's a burden on next year's team already. I'd rather use the word opportunity than burden.

"To be honest, there was a part of me that was starting to worry. You know, Rob Ferguson and Pat Calathes have won 81 games, but I was worried people might label us as a team that disappeared. There are a lot of teams in college basketball that spike, and a few years later somebody will say, 'Well, what happened?' "

What happened to the Hawks is they made the Big Dance. They will have Friday night television exposure and their coach will add to it by the force of his personality. Who knows? It might add up and pique the interest of a recruit or two who might relieve the angst of future Selection Sundays for Martelli.

"This is very, very significant for our program," Martelli said, maintaining that "it could have been out of sight, out of mind if we hadn't made it this time."

After a pause, he added: "But the elation is nothing compared to winning a first-round game. I'll make sure my players know that."