By Harrison Leone
Sports Assignment Editor
The most diplomatic way to describe the women’s team recent schedule is “admirably daunting.” The most accurate way, however, would be “impossibly grueling.”
Jim Crowley’s squad has run through a certifiably brutal stretch of games during this season’s opening, taking on major conference opponents and enduring a jam-packed schedule.
Take the stretch from November 15-19 as an example of the team’s lightning fast turn-around so far this season. The team hosted three games in four days, winning all three games in this rapid-fire home stand. The Bonnies didn’t seem bothered by their stacked weekend, as it concluded in a decisive victory over Big Four rival Niagara.
The Brown and White did not let up on the spree of games, travelling to Storrs, Conn. to play in the Hall of Fame Women’s Challenge.
Once in Storrs, things started out well for St. Bonaventure. They took on competition that was roughly at their same skill level, besting Monmouth University before moving on to slip past Boston University the next night by one point.
Then things got ugly for SBU.
After playing five games in eight days in the first month of the season, the Bonnies took the court against the University of Connecticut. The Huskies are the closest thing to a dynasty in the world of women’s college basketball. The number one team in the country has eight national championships to its credit, as well an impossible-to-comprehend 90-game winning streak which ended only three years ago.
UConn is helmed by a luminary in the world of college sports, Geno Auriemma. The 28-year veteran is a surefire Hall-of-Famer who is one of the most renowned and respected recruiters and strategists in the sport.
To make matters worse for St. Bonaventure, the game was nothing less than an absolute home game for the Huskies, as it was played a mere 30 minutes from their home court.
Shockingly, the Bonnies were blown out of the water. The game was a mockery of college basketball, as UConn went into halftime with a 33-point lead and would end the game whipping SBU to the tune of 88-39. No Bonnie cracked double-digits in points. This game, the first time in Bonaventure’s history they faced top-ranked school, was beyond lopsided. It bordered on the tragic.
A week later, the Bonnies fell in the concluding game of the oddly-spaced Hall of Fame Challenge to Marist, 68-51. One cannot help but think that losing by nearly 20 to a mid-level Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opponent may have been influenced by the hectic, whiplash-inducing travel schedule.
Bear in mind this is in no way an indictment or condemnation of our women. There is no doubt they played, as they always do, with passion, intensity and effort; to even take the court against the titans of a sport shows courage.
It does call into question the wisdom of such an unrelenting, potentially demoralizing spate of games so early in the year. The logic of seasoning the team for an undoubtedly difficult conference stretch is worthy of consideration, and playing a schedule full of cupcakes would be even more detrimental to the team than testing themselves against legitimate competition.
I’m sure the women are more than capable of taking the court with dignity in any game regardless of their opponent and should not shy away from testing themselves.
The best test just may not be against the No. 1 team in the nation a Sunday drive from their home court in the semi-final of a certifiably ridiculous tournament.
