By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Editor
After Wednesday’s loss at Richmond, the Bonnies (13-9, 3-5) will enter what appears to be the lighter portion of their schedule.
The team will face off against Dayton (15-8, 3-5) tomorrow in the Reilly Center at 4 p.m. before traveling to take on Fordham (9-12, 2-6) and George Mason (7-15, 0-8). The next week the Bonnies will host Duquesne (10-11, 2-6) and Rhode Island (11-11, 2-5).
These five teams have a combined record of 9-31 thus far in conference play. At first glance, one would assume the Bonnies have a fairly easy stretch ahead. But games in the Atlantic 10 are rarely as easily-won as they appear.
“They may be in the bottom half, but that doesn’t mean they’re weak teams or bad teams,” senior guard Charlon Kloof said. “In this league, if you don’t show up one night, you’ll get embarrassed.”
St. Bonaventure Head Coach Mark Schmidt agreed with his point guard. He seems to believe the only reason the upcoming opponents are in the bottom half of the A-10 is because someone has to be. He doesn’t believe the upcoming stretch will be any easier than the preceding one.
“In this league, there’s so much parity,” Schmidt said. “There’s no upper-level, lower-level. Every team in the Atlantic 10 is a great team.”
There’s some validity to his claims. While teams near the bottom of the standings haven’t done much winning, they haven’t been an easy out either. Only one of Dayton’s losses has come by double-digits and all but two of George Mason’s losses have come by six points or less including an overtime loss to first-place St. Louis.
On the flip side, UMass was ranked 13th in the country two weeks ago, sitting at 16-1. Fast forward two weeks and, after losses to three fairly average teams (Richmond, St. Bonaventure and St. Joseph’s) they’re unranked with only the fifth-best conference record in the A-10.
The common thread among upsets and closer-than-expected losses in the Atlantic 10 seems to be playing at home. All three of UMass’s recent losses came on the road while St. Bonaventure’s upcoming five opponents have combined for one conference road win on the season.
The Bonnies have not been immune to these struggles. The team is 9-1 at home (3-1 in conference) but just 2-7 in non-neutral road games without a conference road win.
Schmidt knows his team has struggled on the road this season and believes the odds are stacked against teams playing on the road.
“75 percent of games are won by the home team,” Schmidt said. “That’s basketball. That’s facts. It’s just so hard to win on the road. When the game begins, you’re down 10-0. You gotta play perfect.”
One key to capturing wins on the road or conference games in general could be rebounding. After struggling under the basket for much of last season, the Bonnies have been particularly adept at rebounding this year.
And it’s correlated with success thus far. The Bonnies are 11-3 when they out-rebound opponents but just 1-6 when they don’t.
The quartet of junior Andell Cumberbatch, redshirt senior Marquise Simmons, sophomore Dion Wright and junior Youssou Ndoye have combined for 20.9 rebounds per game.
Schmidt believes rebounding well is important, but not any more important than the other two parts of his famed “trifecta” – defense and ball-handling. He knows his team will have to do all three well to have any sort of chance going forward in Atlantic 10 play.
“Rebounding’s not the only important factor, but it’s a big one,” Schmidt said. “Taking care of the ball and playing good defense are really important as well. We talk about that trifecta all the time. If you do them all well, you’re going to win. If you only do one, you’re probably going to lose. If you don’t do any, you’ve got no chance.”
nigreltn11@bonaventure.edu
