Bio

Phil Martelli, Jr. joined the Bryant staff in April 2018 as an assistant coach and was promoted to Associate Head Coach in August of 2020. He was named the ninth head coach in Bryant program history on November 15, 2023.

Martelli has helped the Black and Gold become one of the premier mid-majors in the country. Bryant has won 99 games during his six years on the sidelines, while claiming the 2022 NEC Regular Season and Tournament titles and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time. 

Martelli's first season as head coach saw the Black and Gold win 20 games for the second time in DI program history. Along the way, the Bulldogs picked up their first-ever victory over a top-10 team, defeating No. 10 FAU in Boca Raton. Bryant went to finish 11-5 in league play, earning the No. 3 seed and advancing to the America East Semifinals for the first time. Following the season, Martelli was named a finalist for the Hugh Durham National Mid-Major Coach of the Year and the Joe B. Hall Award (top first year coach). The 20 wins were the most by a first-year Bryant coach since 1968-69 and the fifth-most of any first-year coach nationally. 

Bryant ranked among the nation's best in blocks per game (2nd, 6.5), field goal percentage defense (10th, 39.7), scoring offense (54th, 78.7) and 3pt percentage defense (43rd, 31.3). The Black and Gold featured two All-America East First Team selections in Sherif Gross-Bullock and Earl Timberlake, while transfers Daniel Rivera, Rafael Pinzon and Connor Withers all enjoyed career years in the Black and Gold. 

The Black and Gold ranked in the top 75 nationally in field goal percentage defense (42.1) and rebounding margin (5.3) and defensive rebounds per game in 2022-23. Bryant finished the year with 17 wins, it's fourth-straight 15+ win season, and earned a victory over Syracuse at the JMA Wireless Dome.

Bryant won a DI program record 22 games in 2021-22, finishing its season with a 22-10 record. The Black and Gold featured one of the nation's premier shot blockers in Hall Elisias, and ranked first in the conference in rebounds per game. Elisias set the Bryant DI program record with 202 blocks. 

The 20-21 season was one of Bryant's best, as the Bulldogs went 15-7 and advanced to the Northeast Conference Championship for the first time in school history. Bryant's defense ranked eighth nationally in three-point percentage defense, while its offense ranked in the top five nationally in both scoring and tempo. 

The Bulldogs have ranked in the top three in the NEC in field goal percentage defense and three-point field goal defense in each of the last three seasons. 

Martelli arrived in Smithfield after spending the 2017-18 season at his alma mater, Saint Joseph’s, as the Hawks’ director of program administration. His stint in Philadelphia follows a year in the NBA G-League with the Delaware 87ers (now Delaware Blue Coats) and 13 seasons as a Division I assistant coach.

Prior to his year with the G-League affiliate in Delaware, Martelli coached for five seasons on the staff at the University of Delaware, where he helped the Blue Hens to an NCAA tournament appearance in 2014. The Blue Hens set a program-best mark for conference wins over a five-year stretch (55) and placed eight players on CAA all-conference teams, along with two all-rookie, two all-defensive and four all-academic team honorees. Seven Blue Hens saw time professionally from the teams Martelli coached at Delaware.

From 2006 to 2011, Martelli was an assistant coach at Niagara, helping the Purple Eagles to a 95-69 record in his five years, including the 2007 MAAC Tournament title and a victory in the NCAA Tournament.

He also served in the same position at Manhattan in 2005-06, while beginning his career in 2003 at Central Connecticut as the youngest (22) full-time assistant coach in Division I at that time.

A 2003 alum of Saint Joseph’s, Martelli was a four-year player for the Hawks and a member of the teams that made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2001 and 2003. A team co-captain in 2002-03 with Jameer Nelson, he received his bachelor's degree from SJU in marketing.

Martelli and his wife Meghan have three children - a daughter, Marra, and sons Philip and Nathan.