PHILADELPHIA (02/27/03) - Mike Bantom, the only Saint Joseph's University men's basketball player to compete on the United States Olympic team (1972), will have his number 44 retired at halftime of the Hawks' game against Richmond on Saturday, March 1 (7:00 p.m.). It will mark just the third men's basketball number retired at SJU, joining the number 30 worn by Cliff Anderson and the number 4 worn by George Senesky, Paul Senesky, Jim Lynam and Bill Oakes. Those two numbers were retired during the 1984-85 season. Bantom, a Philadelphia native and graduate of Roman Catholic High (1969), averaged 20.0 points and 13.7 rebounds per game, posting double-double averages in each of his three seasons (1970-71 through 1972-73) on the Fieldhouse hardwood. Two of his SJU teams, under the direction of head coach Jack McKinney, won MAC titles and NCAA Tournament berths, while the third was invited to the NIT. The 6-9 center's best season came during his junior year. That season, 1971-72, he averaged 21.8 points and 14.8 rebounds while leading the Hawks to a 19-9 record and the NIT Tournament. He also led the team in rebounding as a sophomore (13.2 rpg.) and a senior (13.1 rpg.) while topping the squad in scoring as a sophomore (18.1 ppg.). His senior year he finished one point shy of leading the team, tallying 568 points (20.3 ppg.), just behind Pat McFarland (569) in the closest scoring race in the program's 94-year history. He ended his career second on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,684 points (currently seventh) and second on the all-time rebound list with 1,151 (still second). A first round pick by the Phoenix Suns in the 1973 NBA draft, Bantom went on to a nine-year career in the league, highlighted by a trip to the 1982 Finals as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers. After playing seven more seasons of professional basketball in Italy, he embarked upon a career in the NBA front office, where he currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Player Development.