By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — In the words of St. Bonaventure men’s basketball co-captain Noel Brown, wins in the Atlantic 10 come down to “toughness.”
A word he happily used to describe his fellow co-captain, and the Bonnies’ hero in their 77-75 win over VCU on Dec. 31, Melvin Council Jr.
“He’s our personality, he’s the enthusiasm, he gives everybody courage, he loves to play and when you talk about people that have it, in terms of basketball, he has it,” Bona coach Mark Schmidt said of Council after his game-winning layup against VCU. “He loves to play, he loves to compete, and that’s why there’s no question that he’s the guy that would have the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He’s the Alpha. He’s the one that runs it, and as he goes, we go.”
But Council’s game-winning heroics against the Rams is far from the only resiliency this year’s Bona team has shown. Throughout the non-conference schedule, it proved itself to be one of the strongest defensive units in all of the land and in the face of the injury bug, made the correct adjustments and still sit with just one blemish on its record.
But that was all non-con, and Schmidt has been adamant that the A10 schedule is the “second season.”
Well, if the Bonnies’ game against VCU was a new chapter beginning for this squad, what a first impression it was.
While the defense may not have been as stifling as usual, Bona matched what was presented to them by the conference’s preseason favorite, a high-octane, fast-paced, offensive battle.
And speaking of playing to an opponent, let’s reflect on last year’s regular season results.
Come the end of the 2023-24 A10 regular season, the Bonnies were smack in the middle of the pack with an even record of 9-9. But looking deeper into those wins and losses paints a picture.
They went 5-5 against teams that finished above them in the league table and 4-4 against the teams below them. While they may have lost to Richmond and Dayton, the second and third-place finishers in the A10 last season, they defeated the regular-season champions Loyola-Chicago and swept both home-and-away series against VCU and UMass.
Those wins spoke volumes, but so too did the losses they were handed by Saint Louis and George Washington, the two teams that finished in the bottom two spots of the table.
All this to say that last year, we saw a Bona team that played to its competition. While it may have taken a matched offensive effort against VCU, the true identity of the team was not lost along the way. And it is for that reason that leads me to believe that, even after just one game in the A10, we are seeing a completely different mindset from Bona.
And it all comes back to that one word: toughness.
Schmidt has made his team’s goal for this year plain and simple: win the A10. But in order to do so, they must assert themselves against weaker teams and continue to topple those who were picked to run the table.
And with players like Council and Brown leading a cohort of tough players, who’s to say that can’t be done.
Luckily for the Bonnies, next up is a stretch of games that will give them the chance to test their mettle. Fordham, Saint Louis and LaSalle were all teams that, as previously mentioned, finished below them in the table last year but were able to swipe a win. A stretch of wins over these teams has the ability to make a massive statement to the rest of the A10. One bigger than even the VCU win made.
One that says the Bonnies are the team to beat.
Of course, a level such as that is towards the ceiling for this Bona team, one in which Schmidt is still unsure they are able to ascend to. But, one way to get there is by doing everything they can in practice to simulate the stress of A10 opponents and the strength they will need to make such a statement come to fruition.
“It’s how you practice,” Schmidt said after his team’s win over VCU. “You put the kids under pressure, you make practice harder than the games, you scream and yell at them, you put them in situations where they have pressure on them, … you try to simulate as much as you can a game situation. From foul shooting to end-of-the-game defensive plays, end-of-the-game offensive plays. To me, as a coach, it’s just repetition, putting guys in positions to be successful. And if they’ve seen it before, they have a better chance on the last possession.”
So, if this team can avoid falling into the trap that last year’s did, continues to play at the level they showed they are capable of against VCU and keeps their identity intact, then the one thing the rest of the conference will learn, in time, is to not underestimate the Bonnies.
