St. Joe’s sophomore forward Rasheer Fleming’s rise is fueling a trip to the A-10 semifinal

NEW YORK — St. Joseph’s holds a pregame prayer in the locker room before every men’s basketball game. That’s unsurprising, considering the school is a Jesuit institution. But what is a little surprising is that for the last two years, the tradition has been guided by a teenager.

Rasheer Fleming, the Hawks’ 19-year-old sophomore forward, has led the prayer since he first got to campus in 2022. For him, the role was a natural one, considering his faith. For his teammates and St. Joe’s head coach Billy Lange, it’s a marker of his maturity and poise.

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“He was 17 years old, in front of 23-year-old men, doing that,” Lange said. “The courage it takes to do that, in front of your peers, is remarkable. It’s uncommon. He’s uncommon to me.”

That poise has also been crucial on the floor during the run the Hawks are on in the Atlantic 10 tournament. Both wins by St. Joe’s this week at the Barclays Center came down to the final minute. Both times, Fleming was sent to the line, his team protecting a tenuous lead, with an opportunity to seal the deal. And both times, he rose to the occasion.

“I was just focused,” Fleming said. “I made sure to get my reps every day after practice, so it wasn’t a lot of nervousness going up to the line. I made sure to stay focused.”

Fleming is a 62.1% free-throw shooter this season. But in those moments, Lange didn’t want the ball in anyone else’s hands.

“When he steps to the line, I’m like, I’m good with whatever the result is here because I know this guy puts the work in. I know where his heart’s at,” Lange said.

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St. Joe’s has a long legacy of talented guards, even before the heyday of Jameer Nelson and Delonte West. Lange has continued that tradition on Hawk Hill and typically runs a four-guard starting lineup of Erik Reynolds II, Lynn Greer III, Cameron Brown, and Xzayvier Brown.

But Fleming, the starting forward out of Camden High, provides a much-needed dimension to the offense.

“All the coaches here that have been successful and won, have won with great guards. … But the teams that all won also had great frontcourt players,” said Lange. “So it’s just taken time to evolve into that. Rasheer’s development, specifically to him, has given us a weapon that we have not had here.”

With 7-foot center Christ Essandoko, one of the top recruits in program history, dealing with a toe injury for a sizable part of the season, Fleming’s development has been fast-tracked. He’s evolved into a player who can post up, score on the pick-and-roll, and drive in from the perimeter. And the 6-foot-9 forward, who has already started in 51 games since arriving on Hawk Hill, is also a significant threat from three.

Fleming’s rebounding, particularly on the offensive glass, has been a crucial piece of the puzzle that is St. Joe’s. He grabbed 12 rebounds against Richmond on Thursday and eight the day before against George Mason. It’s a feature of his game that especially stands out to fifth-seeded Virginia Commonwealth head coach Ryan Odom when game-planning for Saturday’s semifinal.

“[Fleming is] flying in there for rebounds from the perimeter, which is a little bit different than some teams that we’ll play. … They’re more in and around the basket,” Odom said. “But Fleming’s flying in, and he got some key ones for them in the Richmond game. He’s a good player, certainly a guy that we’ve got to do a good job on.”

Fleming said his confidence to direct the pregame prayer comes from his relationship with the Lord, and his confidence to make those shots at the end of the game stems from the extra work he puts in. All of that, according to his teammates, is contagious.

“He’s probably one of the hardest-working dudes on our team. Every day after practice, he works out, works on something that he needs, even if it’s defense,” Cameron Brown said. “I mean, who wants to work on defense in practice? He’ll do it if it needs to be done. I’m sure he motivates half the team to work after practice, just because we see him working out.

“He played a big role. And he’s still learning. He has a lot to learn, and he’s growing in a great direction.”

Fleming seems to play his best in the biggest moments, on the biggest stages. The Big 5 Classic championship game at the Wells Fargo Center in December was the best game of his college career to that point. Fleming scored a career-high 22 points to lift his team past Temple, for the Hawks’ first Big 5 title since 2011-12.

That trait is especially important at this time of March because the lights will only keep getting brighter. The biggest stage yet awaits on Saturday, with the defending A-10 tournament champions and the highest remaining seed one of two obstacles left between St. Joe’s and the big dance. Lange thinks Fleming should get used to that.

“Every single day, he just comes back, he works. His body’s always full of energy,” Lange said. “And I think he’s going to be playing in arenas like this for a very, very long time because of that.”