By Taylor Nigrelli
Digital Media Strategist
Going into Wednesday’s men’s basketball game against UMass, I was ready for just about anything to happen.
A 30-point loss? Sure. A blowout win? Why not? A Marcus Posley buzzer beater? It’d almost be weird if that didn’t happen. A student section that knows which foul calls to react angrily to? Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
I can’t say I saw the “Andell-Cumberbatch-turns-it-over-twice-and-then-misses-the-potential-game-winning-shot” thing coming. In hindsight, I should have considered it.
After all, this has been the most bizarre, exciting and noteworthy regular season for St. Bonaventure in a good while.
The fun started before the opening game against Dartmouth when the team announced center Youssou Ndoye and forward Denzell Gregg would be suspended. Ndoye’s suspension stemmed from playing in a summer league game that violated NCAA rules. Because of the arcane and borderline insane nature of NCAA rules, no one flinched when the seven footer was out for one game. But Gregg’s suspension was six games and carried the vague “violation of team rules” tag. Rumors swirled, but no official reason was ever given for his suspension.
Then there was the issue of Jordan Gathers. The senior was expected to play an important role on a team that lacked another veteran guard. But he started the season on the shelf with a hip injury and no clear timetable to return. He ended up not playing at all during the first semester. He then graduated in December and left the program just as news came out that Coach Mark Schmidt had torn his Achilles and Jordan Tyson had his jaw broken in the same week.
I’m sure the Bona’s community would have discussed how fishy that all was, if we weren’t too busy watching Schmidt fall off his scooter over and over on a Vine loop.
For those that missed it, Schmidt used a scooter to get around after his injury. He made major waves on the internet after TV cameras caught him falling off the scooter in the handshake line after defeating UMass.
That’s right, I had almost forgotten St. Bonaventure beat UMass by double digits. Of course, it came on the heels of consecutive losses to Maryland Eastern Shore and Delaware.
The Bonnies continued their whirlwind of unpredictability the next week by scoring just 41 in a loss to Richmond. Chances to compete in the Atlantic 10 seemed bleak until the team ripped off three straight wins, culminating in a 100-97 overtime thriller at Duquesne. That completely undersells the game, which featured Posley scoring 12 points in the final three and a half minutes of the game to send it to overtime.
Just to make sure no one got too comfortable, the Bonnies followed that up by putting up just 48 points in a loss to Rhode Island. You have to keep the league on its toes, I suppose.
You may have already forgotten, but the Bonnies lost an ugly game at home to La Salle before ripping off these two consecutive buzzer beaters. It’s easy to let the mundane slip off to wherever it goes when most of the season has been anything but vanilla.
ESPN’s Bill Simmons coined a term in the early 2000’s called “The Tyson Zone”. It’s named after former star boxer/multi-media star/insane person Mike Tyson. Basically, Tyson was so crazy in the 1990’s, that Simmons said he would have believed any story he heard about him. If anyone else falls under that distinction, they are “in the Tyson Zone.”
That’s where this St. Bonaventure basketball team is right now. I’m ready to believe anything that could possibly happen in the next few months.
Five straight wins followed by losses to St. Louis and Fordham, a 30-point win followed by a 30-point loss. A Youssou three-pointer that actually goes in. A blowout loss in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament. An Atlantic 10 Tournament win and NCAA bid.
This all seems to be in realm of possibility.
In a season that’s been so preposterous and strange, why would the end be anything but insane?
