Galloway in homestretch of a strong career with Hawks

GEOFF ARNOLD was in Las Vegas one summer, going from gym to gym, watching AAU games, searching for players who might fit at Drexel, where he was an assistant coach. He had just talked to his sister Jeralyn, who had told him her son was in Vegas, playing for a 15-and-under team from New Orleans. Arnold had seen him play before, but it had been a while.

One morning when he did not have to see a game involving 17- and 18-year-olds, Arnold went to watch his nephew.

"There was a jump ball and his team got it," Arnold remembered. "He shot a three off the jump and it went in. A couple plays later, he nailed another three. At the end of the first quarter, I called my sister and I told her, 'You don't have to worry about paying for college.' "

Fast forward to 2014, and 22-year-old Langston Galloway has scored 1,746 points and made a school-record 299 threes as he enters the homestretch of a career at Saint Joseph's.

Hawks coach Phil Martelli tells some classic off-the-record stories about some of his former players, calling a few high maintenance and most minimal maintenance.

Galloway, Martelli said, has been no maintenance.

There is nothing off the record about "Lang." He graduated in 3 1/2 years. He never stops working on his game. He is accountable. He looks you in the eye when he talks.

"There's no mask," Martelli said. "There's no costume with him."

Arnold, the Hawks point guard from back in the day, came back to his alma mater in 2008 to be one of Martelli's assistants. He did not forget what he saw that day in Vegas.

"He is a better shooter now than I ever was, even though he's 15," he told Galloway's mother.

SJU began to recruit the shooting guard from Baton Rouge, La.

"My uncle and the coaching staff started coming down," Galloway said.

And they kept coming until Galloway decided to leave the South and come to the Northeast. It has worked out better than he or any of his coaches ever imagined.

In life, Galloway is a pleaser.

Galloway's high school team had just won a state championship semifinal in Louisiana when he came to Martelli and apologized for how he played.

If he has an on-court fault, it's that he tries too hard, wants it too much. It can show in his expression, how his classic form can sometimes drift. It is why he felt the need to apologize when no apology was necessary. There has never been a question about his effort.

His freshman year at St. Joe's, Galloway started on a freshmen-dominated roster that finished 9-21 in the regular season, but fell only four points short of playing for the Atlantic 10 championship.

"My recognition of Langston was he cares too much," Martelli said. "He's so hard on himself."

He still is, but he plays through it. He often guards the other team's best wing, sometimes even the point guard if that player is especially dangerous. He makes threes (42.2 percent career). He makes free throws (80.9 percent career). He plays to win the game.

"The thing that has stayed true is the quality of the person," Martelli said. "The work ethic is unbelievable. The shooting stroke is his. He worked it, he refined it. He's still his harshest critic. I've tried to wean him off that, but that's who he is."

Galloway spent enough time in the city before he came to Hawk Hill to have a pretty good idea of what he was getting into. Still, there were two issues.

"First thing was definitely the weather," he said. "I was not prepared for it. Everybody was telling me you've got to be ready for the winter."

He wasn't.

He looked out one day, saw 10 inches of snow and said, "Where am I; am I in another world, or what?"

He also could not get used to the food.

"I was in need of some spicy food," Galloway said. "Everything was bland. It was definitely a shock to me."

This winter is giving him one final reminder of our reality. He solved the food issue. He cooks his own now. His parents are in town all the time to see him play, cook him some meals.

Galloway and Arnold's daughter, Gabrielle, are only children, so, according to Arnold, they are more like brother and sister.

"I never got a chance to coach her in athletics," Arnold said. "I'm just a fan. Having him on the team, it's the closest thing to having my son play for me."

When you recruit a player, even a player you know like family, you don't really know how it will turn out.

"He's exceeded my expectations," Arnold said. "His whole experience has been phenomenal."

And it is almost over. That 2011 A-10 run was a hint that two straight seasons of losing were over. SJU won 38 games the previous two seasons.

And here they are at 15-7 after missing an opportunity Wednesday against Saint Louis and looking at another opportunity at home tomorrow night against VCU, a chance to get Galloway and fellow 1,000-point scorers Ronald Roberts and Halil Kanacevic to their first NCAA Tournament.

"In the locker room, we'll talk about it," Galloway said. "We're definitely excited. We know the whole coaching staff is excited, because last year and the year before, everybody was down at this point, just trying to make our way through."

This season, SJU has something to play for. Beat VCU and then keep winning, and the Hawks might get into the NCAA conversation.

And that 15-year-old shooter who caught his uncle's eye in Vegas will be right in the middle of it, aiming to please, trying so hard to help his team win, all grown up now, a college graduate, one of the great scorers in the proud history of his school, a winning player for a winning program.