By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team has enjoyed one of its most fruitful starts to a season in program history.
And in building its 12-1 record, a number of key elements have been established about and around this year’s Bonnies. While depth may be a bit of a question, their versatility and defensive prowess stand as a beacon of hope in its aspirations for an Atlantic 10 crown.
So as Bona gets set to begin its climb up the conference mountain, starting officially on Dec. 31 with a home game against VCU at 2 p.m., let’s take a look at the key questions and strengths of this team ahead of its first date in the A10.
DEPTH
Perhaps the biggest question surrounding the Bonnies as they enter A10 play is their depth.
A big reason for this is the absence of starting point guard Dasonte Bowen, who has been out a number of games now with a lingering foot injury.
Luckily, the changes that coach Mark Schmidt had to make to the lineup in the wake of Bowen’s injury has not been one for the worse, in fact Bona’s offense is humming at the best rate it has all season. However, the majority of the offensive responsibility is having to fall on Bona’s now-typical starters, Melvin Council Jr., Chance Moore, Lajae Jones, Jonah Hinton and Noel Brown.
In the three games that Bowen has missed due to injury, the team has mustered up a combined 13 points from the bench. And while it may be great to see the starters firing on all cylinders, there is the possibility that Atlantic 10 opponents will look to exploit that.
Valparaiso transfer guard Jaxon Edwards has also been sidelined due to an injury he picked up, making him unavailable for a prolonged amount of time. However, his injury came with less of a loss in minutes Schmidt and his coaching staff had to replace.
With the two injuries bumping players up the depth chart, Schmidt has recently looked towards first-year player Noah Bolanga as the next-man-up. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, he has yet to hit his stride. Bolanga has featured in 12 of the Bonnies’ 13 games this season, averaging just shy of nine minutes per game. But in that time, he is averaging just 0.8 points, 1.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game while shooting 14.3% from the floor.
But according to Schmidt, while it has been a slow start for Bolanga, as soon as he starts to see some shots fall, his confidence will pick up and, in-turn, his contributions to the point tally.
“He needs to put the ball in the basket,” Schmidt said of Bolanga after his one-point outing against Niagara. “I think once he puts that first one in the basket, I think the rim will open up, and he’ll play much better. He has a really good feel, he wasn’t here the whole summer, so it was a little bit unfair. But, because of injuries, because of Dasonte, he’s put in that position, and now he’s got to produce, and we think he can.”
If Bolanga does eventually find a vein of success, the question of depth may disappear entirely once Bowen makes his return, with the Bonnies now in possession of three solid options at the 1 spot.
On the bright side, the depth at center is looking good for Bona with Xander Wedlow getting some big minutes and finding a relative amount of success. Wedlow, a freshman, scored a career-high seven points against Siena on Dec. 17.
VERSATILITY
As previously mentioned, in the aftermath of Bowen’s injury a shakeup had to occur within the Bona lineup. Council took over point guard duties while Hinton slid into the starting five with responsibilities more akin to a shooting guard.
Luckily, the squad has not skipped a beat on the offensive end, and while the points may be coming almost solely from the starting lineup at this point, it speaks volumes to the versatility of the players considering none of them played together before this season.
Moore and Council have been nothing short of exemplary this season averaging 15.8 and 13.2 points per game apiece this season. Noel Brown is not far behind them averaging 12.2 points while shooting over 64% from the field. Lajae Jones has slowly come into his own, averaging just shy of 10 points per game on over 50% from the field.
Bowen was averaging just over 11 points before his injury, along with a team-high 4.2 assists per game. In his spot, Hinton is averaging just over seven points per contest.
“It’s a process, we’re not all the way there, we still got a lot of work to do, but the kids have bought in, they’ve become close, they play together, they play hard,” Schmidt said after his team’s win over Niagara on Dec. 21. “To me, X’s and O’s are, like, 20% of the game, 80% of the game is, you got to get those players to play hard, and we’ve done that. Those kids are playing really, really hard. We don’t play well all the time, but the effort is a given at Bonaventure and they’ve really bought into that in the defensive performances so far.”
DEFENSE IN THE A10
The Atlantic 10 has been an unruly place — in the best of ways — for a number of years. The parity of the conference is one of its biggest draws. First place could lose to last place on any given night without warning.
But something that has proven to be a recipe for success is solid defense, something the Bonnies have down to a science at this point.
Over the course of the last five seasons, the team that finished the A10 regular season with the best defensive rating finished, at minimum, in the top half of the table. On three of five occasions, it finished in the top three. This includes the 2020-21 season in which St. Bonaventure won the regular season crown.
Currently, Bona owns the 11th best scoring defense in the entirety of NCAA Div. I men’s basketball, holding opponents to an average of 59.6 points per game.
So, if the trend is set to continue, Bona is in good shape to achieve the goal Schmidt has set out for the team: Win the A10.
