By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — For the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, its sixth game of the season is set to be far and away its toughest test yet — possibly its toughest of the season.
In its first game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off, the Bonnies will take on one of the blue bloods of college basketball, No. 18 North Carolina.
But make no mistake, while this may be the strongest side, quality-wise, that head coach Mark Schmidt’s team faces this season, it is far from the most important, that title is reserved for Atlantic 10 contests.
“The Atlantic 10 games are the most important games, not the non-conference, Carolina (or not) it’s the Atlantic 10,” Schmidt said. “That’s what we’re building towards.”
But while Schmidt isn’t considering this game the most important on the schedule, the fact that a team like St. Bonaventure is able to play a team the caliber of North Carolina stands out, especially within the changing landscape of college basketball.
George Washington men’s basketball head coach Chris Caputo recently said that “the fix is in” when it comes to high-major teams trying to squeeze mid-major teams out of relevance. Schmidt agreed.
“Chris is exactly right. It’s so difficult for mid-majors, our level, to get those high-major games,” Schmidt said. “The way the net is set up, a lot of programs want to play low-major teams so they can kill them by 20, 30, 40 points (to improve their) offensive and defensive efficiencies. So it’s hard for them to want to schedule us. You look at this game here, we’re playing Carolina, and East Carolina is playing Michigan State, but it’s all set up. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, we’re still playing that other mid-major program. That’s … just how it is now, and it’s just so much more difficult to get those quality wins that you need to get an at-large bid.”
All that being said, for Bona, and any mid-major teams that manage to convince high-major counterparts to play them, what this fixture does provide is a chance to test how far they’ve come through the early window of the campaign.
With several teams dealing with all-but entirely new rosters, each has faced similar growing pains, consistency being one of the most prominent struggles. Last time out, against Robert Morris, the Bonnies found themselves on a rollercoaster. Great minutes on the floor were followed by completely barren lengths of time. That cycle continued until the final 10 minutes of the affair in which they put it all together and pulled away from the Colonials.
A game against a team like the Tarheels will be the ultimate test for how consistent this team can be. However, Schmidt is far from expecting a perfect game. He hopes, instead, to see that come conference play.
“Consistency is everything, and when you have 11 new guys like a lot of teams have, you’re not going to be consistent, especially early in the season,” Schmidt said. “That’s something that we’re working on every day and hopefully by January, February, March, we will become a really consistent team, both on the offensive and defensive ends. It’s not instant. This is the sixth game of the year. We’ve been together as a team for two months so there’s going to be times where it doesn’t look good, for both the opponent and us. … That’s just how it is with so many new guys, but hopefully as we go forward, we become a better team, we become more consistent in what we’re trying to do.”
North Carolina is packed to the brim with talent, with the headliner of the bunch being freshman Caleb Wilson. Through five games this season, Wilson is averaging a double-double with 20.6 points and an even 10 rebounds. He can score at every level and forms a dynamic partnership with center Henri Veesaar. The 7-foot Estonian is in his first year with UNC after spending his initial two seasons of college basketball under Tommy Lloyd at Arizona. He and Wilson combine for nasty high-low action, made all the more effective by their ability to pass the ball with purpose.
But set plays are not even where the Tarheels are most impactful, that would be in the speed they possess.
“The biggest thing is transition defense,” Schmidt said. “Forget about the big guys. We got to keep them in the half court. If we can’t keep them in the half court, it doesn’t matter what they have. They’re an explosive team, and they have outlets that go to half court with one pass and they’re up dunking or with an open 3. The most critical thing that we have to do is get back in transition and make them play a five-on-five game. They still present a lot of problems, you know, it’s North Carolina, it’s not some high school. Their threes, fours and fives start 6-10, 6-10, 6-11, so that presents problems. But it’s not about what they run. It’s about who they are. Their athleticism, that’s the problem.”
Another UNC weapon that Bona will want to keep quiet is Kyan Evans. A transfer from Colorado State, where he put together a breakout season last year, he has shown that he is more than capable of commanding the Tarheels’ offense. He is averaging 5.2 assists per game and is able to contribute in the scoring department as well. But the skill of Evans comes as no surprise to Schmidt.
“He’s a really good player, they’re all good players, they’re at North Carolina for a reason,” Schmidt said. “They’re highly regarded players coming out of high school or transferring in the portal. We got a lot of work ahead of us, but at the same time, we’re not playing this game to give them a game, we’re trying to win. That’s what we’ve been preparing for the last three days. As I tell the team all the time, the games aren’t played on paper, they’re played at six o’clock on Tuesday night and we’re going to do the best job we can to try and beat them.”
St. Bonaventure will look to pull off a statement win over North Carolina at Suncoast Credit Union Arena on Nov. 25 at 6 p.m.
