By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Editor
The men’s basketball team (16-13, 6-9) will head down to Virginia tomorrow to take on the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Rams, looking to snap a three-game losing streak in the final game of the regular season.
The Rams (22-7, 10-4) are third in the Atlantic 10 and are all-but guaranteed a spot in the NCAA’s postseason tournament. The team owes much of its success to its attacking mentality of defense. This aggressive defensive strategy – nicknamed “havoc” – has netted the Rams the A-10’s third-best scoring defense.
The Rams, however, are first in turnover margin, turnover forced and steals. In fact, VCU has forced 110 more turnovers than the closest A-10 competitor, led by junior guard Briante Weber who averages 3.6 steals per game.
Turnovers have not been a problem for the Bonnies this year. The team is third in the conference in turnover margin (+2). According to redshirt senior forward Marquise Simmons, taking care of the ball will be more of a focus than usual.
“They pressure the offense, get on the ball every possession. So, it’s obviously going to be a key this week to take care of the ball,” Simmons said. “With teams that press a lot, you just have to not panic, come back to the ball a lot and do the little things that help you break the pressure.”
According to Simmons, having a veteran team such as the one St. Bonaventure has helped in terms of knowing how to attack a team like VCU.
“Most of us have played against them so we know what they do,” Simmons said. “You just have to be patient with teams like that.”
But a team can’t simply float to the top of the Atlantic 10 on the strength of an aggressive defense. The Rams are one of the conference’s most talented teams.
Junior guard Treveon Graham is among the conference leaders at 15.4 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. However, senior forward Juvonte Reddic may be a tougher matchup. The 6’9 Winston-Salem native dominates inside, averaging 12.7 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. Simmons and junior center Youssou Ndoye, among others, will likely be tasked with slowing down Reddic.
“I take every forward in this league the same way, we have to guard each other,” Ndoye said. “I like matching up against some of the better guys in the league – it’s good competition.”
According to Simmons, a player as talented and productive as Reddic requires extra preparation and attention, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary.
“Not that it’s not hard to defend him, but we play guys of his caliber,” Simmons said. “Maybe not guys with stats like his, but guys that can be big time scorers or rebounders on any given night. This is a league full of guys like that—from bigs to guards to everyone else. It’ll be in the game plan to take touches away from that kid, do a good job guarding him and take him out of the game. That’ll just be one of many things we have do to break VCU down in order to win.”
The Bonnies won two straight road games at George Mason and Fordham before dropping three consecutive contests to Rhode Island, La Salle and Saint Joseph’s.
In all likelihood, the Bonnies will face off against La Salle in the first round of the A-10 tournament in the eight/nine matchup. Despite likely not being able to improve its seeding, earning a win against VCU would mean a lot to the team.
“It means everything,” Ndoye said. “We want to go to the A-10 tournament with some momentum. Knowing that it’s win or go home, you don’t want to go there down.”
Simmons agreed with Ndoye’s sentiment. The fifth-year veteran knows a win over such a talented teams would be excellent for the team’s morale heading into a highly-competitive A-10 tournament.
“We need momentum going into the tournament. We also need a win because we lost our last three games,” Simmons said. “We’ve been struggling to come up with wins. So a win, regardless of what seed we end up, would be good for us going into Brooklyn.”
nigreltn11@bonaventure.edu
