By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — Fresh off a week-long excursion in Florida, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team has returned home and is set to play host to Div. II Bloomsburg.
The Bonnies had brought the fight to No. 16 North Carolina, letting the result slip just at the end, and survived battles with American Athletic Conference members East Carolina and Florida Atlantic in respective fashion. That was all in a span of just six days.
“We showed some character and I think we dealt with adversity,” Bona head coach Mark Schmidt said of what he learned about his group. “You lose that first game of a three-game trip and sometimes it’s hard to gather yourself. I thought we had good leadership and we came back 40 hours after losing to North Carolina, and showed some resiliency. We got some production off the bench, … and as I tell the guys all the time, everybody’s going to have their day in the sun, you just got to continue to work and be prepared. Those guys did a really good job. It showed a lot of character and a lot of toughness, mental and physical.”
Over the course of the trip Schmidt not only learned more about the mental fortitude that exists within his team, but also more about what aspects of their game he can rely upon. Against each opponent in Florida, the Bona defense came up with massive game-altering moments that swung momentum in its favor. From its late-first half resurgence against the Tarheels to a win-securing steal at the death against FAU, the defense showed out.
But Schmidt is not settling for good, especially this early in the calendar.
“We’re getting better, but we’re not there yet,” Schmidt said. “Our ball-screen defense, our on-the-ball presence and our fours and fives are not doing the job consistently. I thought Joe (Grahovac) has done a really good job of keeping the ball in front of him. But our five men have to do a better job of being up on the ball screens a little bit more. We got off to a rocky start against Florida Atlantic. They were getting in the paint a little bit. But we made some adjustments. … So we’re getting better. We’re not there yet, but we’re making strides. And I think the kids understand the importance of it.”
In the latter of the three fixtures, Achille Lonati, a freshman from Italy had his first signature performance for the team, coming off the bench and uncorking a devastating display of 3-point shooting. He along with fellow European first-years Andrew Osasuyi and Ilia Ermakov have each now carved out, at least, some sort of a role. Osasuyi’s length and tenacity going to the glass has made him the go-to backup option to Frank Mitchell. Ermakov’s defensive and ball-handling capabilities has seen him become a good second option to Dasonte Bowen. And finally, Lonati has now shown his ability to provide knock-out blows when given an inch of space.
The gradual growth of the European trifecta has not gone unrecognized by Schmidt either.
“They’re making the adjustment,” Schmidt said. “It’s tough for them. American basketball is a little bit different. It’s a little bit quicker and then they weren’t here for the summertime, so they didn’t have those seven weeks to understand what we’re trying to do both offensively and defensively. But, they’re smart kids, and they’ve come a long way. … The more they get comfortable with what we’re trying to do, and they understand what we’re trying to do, they’re going to become even better.”
The character, strong mentality, defense and sparks from the bench will all continue to be pivotal for Bona as the season goes on, including in its next game on the schedule, against Div. II Bloomsburg.
On paper, it is easy to already write this off as a Bona win. After going 2-1 against strong non-conference opposition in less than a week, a team not even in the same division, one would think, would be an easy write-off.
But that is the exact mentality Schmidt is looking to stave off.
“They’ve won their last two games by 30, 40 points,” Schmidt said. “They’re very aggressive, they’re downhill guys, they make seven 3s a game, they press, they get 39 rebounds (per game). They’re just really an aggressive team. And as I told our team, there’s very little difference now between Division One and Division Two guys. Look at Cayden (Charles), a former Division Two guy, and he’s one of our better players, so we can’t overlook anybody. … We’re preparing just like we would prepare for North Carolina.”
One of the biggest motivators that Schmidt has utilized this season is that “we only have 33, 34 opportunities to play this game.” That is why no such affair will be taken lightly. Why allow for bad habits to form or lax mentalities to take over and waste one of those chances to notch a win.
“You just got to be prepared, every game is important,” Schmidt said. “This game can’t mean more to Bloomsburg than it does to us. We’re at home, and we got to continue to improve. We are nowhere near where we need to be and this is a game where we can continue to get better.”
St. Bonaventure and Bloomsburg will square off on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. in the Reilly Center.
