By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Editor
It’s not uncommon for freshmen in the Atlantic 10, especially at St. Bonaventure, to struggle to garner playing time. Regardless of their talent level and recruiting prominence, most freshmen tend to idly sit the bench for most of their first season.
Current sophomore forward Dion Wright was not immune to this. Wright scored just 36 points while playing only 83 minutes during his freshman campaign last season.
Save for a 15-point effort late in the season against Charlotte, he was rarely a factor. In fact, he failed to appear in more than half of the team’s games during the season.
“Coming in a freshman, you’re green,” St. Bonaventure men’s head basketball coach Mark Schmidt said. “You don’t understand a lot things, you have things to work on.”
Nearly every player, except for a talented few, performs on a fairly-similar level their freshman year. They tend to struggle to adapt to a new system while playing against stronger competition.
According to Schmidt, this is what makes sophomore year so important. He believes a player’s performance during their sophomore year tells him plenty about whether or not that player will ever be able to handle playing against A-10 opposition.
“You can tell a lot about a player after his sophomore year,” Schmidt said. “Once they understand what it takes, now they work during the summer and the fall, you can tell whether they’re going to become an Atlantic 10 player or not their sophomore year.”
Wright understood this perfectly after his tumultuous 2012-13 campaign. He knew he’d have to put in the work over the summer to separate himself from a log jam of talented young St. Bonaventure forwards.
“(Last season) was really difficult,” Wright said. “I worked on my game a lot back at Mayfair High School by my house. I was over there playing a lot, just getting into the gym, listening to my parent’s advice and just trying to buy into what the coaches are saying. I’m just trying to learn the system as much as possible.”
All Wright’s work over the summer has paid off pretty well for him so far. He’s gone from and end-of-the-bench afterthought to the team’s third option at big man. He’s sixth on the team in minutes at 22.7 per game while averaging 9.2 points (fourth) and 5.3 rebounds (third) per game.
Plenty has changed with Wright’s game. But, according to his coach, the most significant changes have been gaining 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason and becoming more at home playing within St. Bonaventure’s system.
“He’s learned the system much better,” Schmidt said. “He’s much more comfortable. He’s much stronger. If you know the system and you’re stronger, you’ll be more confident. And I think those are the two ingredients in why he’s been so successful.”
Wright is often the team’s first option off the bench and generally plays more than any non-starter besides junior Jordan Gathers.
Schmidt looks to his bench players to inject energy, to give a spark to the starters still on the court. This is why Schmidt looks to Wright so often – more so than any of his basketball-related skills, Wright provides an energetic force with a terrific motor. According to Schmidt, this has earned Wright the approval of his teammates.
“Our guys understand what he can bring coming off the bench,” Schmidt said. “It gives everyone confidence. Guys coming off the bench don’t necessarily have to score, but they have to bring energy into the game.”
Yet Wright has done more than simply provide energy of late. He’s tangibly improved as the season has worn on. In conference play, Wright leads the team with 6.2 rebounds per contest and is fourth averaging 8.9 points.
The Carson, Calif. native doesn’t know whether he’s a better scorer or rebounder or what his best attribute is. And he doesn’t plan to spend any time figuring it out.
“I just try to play as hard as possible,” Wright said. “Whether that’s scoring, rebounding or taking charges, I play as hard as possible because I enjoy playing this game.”
At the end of this season, incumbent power forward Marquise Simmons will graduate. This means Wright will likely slide into the opening spot as a starter. While he acknowledges it would be “nice” to earn a starting role, he knows it’s something he can’t focus on now.
His coach, however, is willing to look to the future. Schmidt sees more than just a starting role out of Wright. He believes, with the right improvements, Wright could be one of the best players in the A-10.
“Sky’s the limit,” Schmidt said. “As he continues to learn the game and get a better basketball IQ, his ceiling is really high. He’s long, he needs to gain a little bit of strength. He needs to put on another 10-15 pounds this summer. He’s going to be a legitimate Atlantic 10 player and somebody that can even become an all-league player.”
