By SPENCER BATES
RICHMOND, VA — The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team has had a great deal of success against VCU as of late, winning each of the last four meetings between the sides.
The most recent victory came via a heroic driving layup by Melvin Council Jr. that saw the Bonnies snatch a 77-75 victory at home to open up Atlantic 10 play.
They will have the chance to do the double over the Rams for the second straight season on Jan. 24 at 9 p.m. in Richmond and extend their matchup win streak to five games.
But according to Bona coach Mark Schmidt, there is not necessarily a secret to beating VCU. In the simplest terms: it’s just about playing basketball and not getting swept away by the theatrics of the night.
“You just got to go down there and play basketball,” Schmidt said. “You know what you have to do to beat a VCU team, it’s hard to do it, but if you turn the ball over you got no chance. They’ll dunk it, the crowd goes crazy, and it gets louder and louder. You got to run good offense when the crowd goes crazy. You got to slow down and you got to execute. That takes good players and that takes discipline, and it’s hard to do. We’ve had really good teams, veteran teams, that have gone down there and haven’t been successful. You just get caught up in the environment. … I told the team, it’s exciting. That’s what you work all your life for: to play in types of environments like this.”
But the past is in the past and Schmidt knows this current VCU team, despite having beaten them once already on the season, will not just roll over. Joe Bamisile, Max Shulga, Phillip Russell and Zeb Jackson are still carrying the torch, offensively, for the Rams and are averaging 16.7, 15.3, 11.1 and 10.1 points per game respectively.
“They got good players, they’re athletic, they’re long, they play great defense,” Schmidt said of VCU’s players. “They really rebound the ball. I think they rebound 42% of their misses, which is an incredible number.”
And as for what he will be looking for from his players, Schmidt is placing a premium on ball security and defensive positioning.
“We got to take care of the basketball,” Schmidt said. “They’re lethal in the open court. … So you can’t turn the ball over. You got to try to do as best you can at keeping them in front. They’re really quick, they space you out. Then, you got to rebound the ball. … When the shot is taken, then you got to do the job and block out and keep them the one shot. If they’re playing volleyball against the backboard, then we’re going to have some problems.”
Defensive positioning will be that much more of an emphasis around the 3-point arc for the Bonnies who have seen recent opposition have a great deal of success against them shooting from deep.
Shulga, Bamisile and Russell all shoot above 34% from 3 for VCU, the former leading the team with 39.5%. The key, Schmidt noted, to stopping those sharpshooters from getting comfortable is cutting out the drive into the paint that collapses the defense and leaves the shooters open on the wings.
“Everybody has good shooters,” Schmidt said. “You got to keep the ball in front. You can’t allow dribble penetration. That’s where we’ve struggled: keeping the ball in front. … It’s so much easier making 3s when the ball comes from inside the paint, when you can step into 3s. We gotta limit those chances. They’re going to get some, because that’s their game, but we got to be able to keep the ball in front of us as best we can so we can contest those shots.”
Another problem that has come up for Bona as of late has been sputtered starts where the offense has been slow to get set up and the defense has been lax. Its last two opponents, Duquesne and George Mason, both enjoyed fruitful minutes in the early goings of their respective games.
But as Schmidt noted, a good deal of that early success is due to the fact that they are just playing some very talented teams at the moment. The other part of the problem is that they are now trying to integrate some role players into more meaningful positions via a trial by fire in lieu of injuries to would-be starters.
“Sometimes it’s a learning experience, and you got to be put through the fire to figure it out,” Schmidt said. “The only way you learn is through experience and, hopefully, those guys have learned. And you know, Duquesne played well (and) George Mason is a really good team. It’s not like we’ve lost or got behind to bad teams. (But) some way, somehow, we got to get off to a good start, especially on the road, especially against a team like VCU.”
Now, of course, any number of injuries to a team is detrimental and the Bonnies would have hoped to steer clear of any problems of that nature. Nevertheless, they find themselves with two possible exemptions from their preferred starting lineup heading to Richmond. Once again, Dasonte Bowen is set to occupy a spot on the bench as he continues to heal from his foot injury, but there is some good news on the injury front for Chance Moore as he has been named a game-time-decision and, barring any setbacks, will test the waters in warmups before making an ultimate decision on if he’s ready to go.
But in the meantime, as the Bona bench players continue to adapt to their more prominent roles, there is one department in which Schmidt handed them some credit: effort.
Against George Mason, there may have been some growing pains for players like Noah Bolanga, Duane Thompson, Miles Rose and Xander Wedlow, but one thing he said the quartet did not lack was a competitive spirit.
“I thought our guys fought, they showed some character, they didn’t give in,” Schmidt said. “To get down by 15 to a first-place team, it doesn’t look good. But, I thought our guys fought and made it a ball game. … You want to win every game, but sometimes there’s adversity that you deal with. Some teams cave that adversity and some teams step up. And it was good to see us step up and compete.”
St. Bonaventure will need more of that competitive edge come 9 p.m. on Jan. 24 as it will look to complete the regular season sweep over VCU in enemy territory. The game will be broadcasted nationally on ESPNU.
