By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — On Jan. 8, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team will get its first crack at Saint Louis in the Josh Schertz era.
Prior to his team’s previous matchup against Fordham, Bona coach Mark Schmidt noted that there was not going to be much drawn from any past experiences ahead of the game. Against the Billikens, he doesn’t have a choice.
“Everybody brings their own philosophy,” Schmidt said of Schertz, who was the coach of NIT finalist Indiana State last season.
But Schertz did not leave his post with the Sycamores with just his philosophy, but with some players as well. Most notably, Robbie Avila and Isaiah Swope made the swap from the Missouri Valley Conference to the Atlantic 10 with their coach and, in doing so, have established themselves as some of the top players in the league just 15 games into the season.
“They got really good players, Swope and Avila are two of the better players in our league, they were the two of the better players in their conference last year,” Schmidt said. “(Schertz is) successful for a reason. They run good stuff, they play hard, they defend, and they got good players. (Gibson) Jimerson — a star player for SLU who has spent his entire collegiate athletic career within the program — is working on his sixth year. Those three guys, I think, score 54 of their 77 points (per game). They’re the big three. And as they go, Saint Louis goes, but they got good role guys, they are very well coached, they’re healthy now and I think they have three of the top 10 players in the league preseason-wise. They’re a good team and we have our work cut out for us.”
The offensive output that Avila, Swope and Jimerson have managed this season has been massive for the Billikens. While Swope averages 18.3 points per game, Jimerson and Avila both sit on an average of 18.2 points per game. Swope also provides 5.5 assists per game while Avila is a big presence on the boards, bringing in just over six per contest.
So, when it comes to how the Bonnies will defend SLU’s “big three,” Schmidt has some philosophy of his own.
“All three of them average 18 points a game, shoot a high percentage and shoot threes,” Schmidt said. “You’re not going to stop them, you just try to make it as difficult as you can. You contest shots. You can’t give Jimerson open shots, if you give him an open shot, it’s like playing H-O-R-S-E. We got to be disciplined. They’re really good players, they run really good stuff, they’re going to get open, we just got to make sure we can contest. And when they’re open and we screw up, the hope is that they miss. Some of it is luck, and some of it is discipline and locking into what you’re supposed to be doing.”
Someone who has taken a big leap for Bona on the defensive end as of late is Jonah Hinton. Prior to the Fordham game, Schmidt praised Hinton for the job he’s done stepping up into the starting lineup in lieu of the injury to would-be starting point guard Dasonte Bowen — who will miss the game against Saint Louis as he continues to heal from a foot injury. But the one note he had for Hinton was that he wanted to see more of an effort from him on the boards.
After roping in seven rebounds against the Rams, Schmidt was happy with the way he responded.
“He’s getting better, he shot the ball better the last couple games, we need him to put the ball in the basket from beyond the arc,” Schmidt said. “Him and Lajae (Jones) are probably our two best shooters. I think he’s getting more comfortable, he’s defending a little bit better, he rebounded. The seven (rebounds he had against Fordham) was the most he’s had, he was averaging maybe 1.3 going into that game, and we challenged him that he needed to be more physical on the defensive end. And I thought he responded.”
Another player who has been big for the Bonnies, but who Schmidt is also calling on to make a bigger impact in the rebound tally, is Noel Brown. Throughout this season, Brown has been amongst the top players in the country in terms of field goal percentage.
His presence on the interior and his ability to score has made him an incredible asset and one that Bona will look to against SLU with Avila set to juxtapose him.
“From an offensive standpoint, he’s been really good for us,” Schmidt said. “We need someone that can score inside with his back to the basket and he does that. You know, they don’t always double-team him, but he’s a good passer out of the double-team and he gives us the presence inside. The hope is that he can rebound the ball better. He needs to get more than four rebounds a game. When he does that, then we’re really going to be happy. But he’s done a really good job defending the post, scoring, and now he’s got to rebound the ball a little bit better.”
Of course Hinton and Brown aren’t the only Bonnies poised to be a major factor in their game at SLU. Melvin Council Jr., who was named the Atlantic 10 men’s basketball Player of the Week after scoring a combined 44 points over the team’s last two outings while not coming off the court for a single minute, will be looked to as a go-to option.
Bona and Saint Louis are two of the final three teams that have not dropped a game in-conference this season, both sitting with a 2-0 record. Only one will remain perfect after their Jan. 8 affair in the Chaifetz Arena. Tip-off for the game, which will be streamed on Peacock, is set for 8 p.m. ET.
