Live from the Atlantic 10 Tournament: Halil Kanacevic leads St. Joseph’s, on the court and in the huddle

Coaches love to hype their players as smart, tenacious, tough, even gutsy. Few would call one of their stars “fascinating.”

“I guess that’s just the impression I left on him,” Kanacevic said, laughing. “Some people don’t like me, some people do.”

For a while, it looked like St. Joseph’s would need absolutely everything that Kanacevic could come up with. The Bonnies, coming off a shocker over top-seeded Saint Louis, led by nine early, searching for their second major upset in as many days.

But it was Kanacevic who brought the Hawks back. He scored 11 points in the last 10 minutes of the first half as St. Joseph’s took a 29-29 tie into the locker room.

“On a team full of great teammates, he’s the best,” Martelli said. “He kept saying in the timeouts, ‘listen, it’s all right.’ I didn’t have to say it. He said it to them and because he says so much, they all listen to him.”

That’s how the senior wants it. Inevitably, after a big conference tournament win, a bubble team will start to get questions about its NCAA Tournament chances. For the second day in a row, Kanacevic made it about the Hawks, not what the selection committee might do.

“We don’t care about that stuff,” he said. “The coaches do a great job of keeping us in that tunnel vision. We just care about winning basketball games.”

On Saturday, Kanacevic said the right things and made the right moves. His teammates seem to love him. His coach surely does, and there’s no doubt the fans do too.

It hasn’t always been that way. The senior forward was the one who, last season, gave the middle finger to the Villanova student section after draining a three. That incident drew national attention and resulted in a two-game suspension.

This year, Kanacevic has let his game speak for itself. He said earlier in the year that he’s not dwelling on the incident and while he has learned from it, he is really just trying to focus on the next game.

That next game will be the Atlantic 10 championship on Sunday against VCU, who took care of George Washington in the second game of Saturday’s semifinal doubleheader. It will provide the Staten Island native another chance to play in his hometown, in front of his friends and family.

He just hopes he can get everyone into Barclays Center for the title game.

“You only get four [tickets], but hopefully a couple teammates don’t use theirs,” he said. “The A-10 needs to do a better job of getting us more tickets.”

Then again, another 26-and-17 afternoon from Phil Martelli’s most fascinating player couldn’t hurt.