Photo: St. Bonaventure Athletics
BY: ANDREW HALE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team plays its opening game of the ESPN NIT Season Tip-Off Thursday in Kissimmee, Florida, taking on undefeated Utah State.
The Bonnies (6-0, 0-0 A-10) are off to their best start since 1973-74, winning their first six games. Like Bonaventure, the Aggies (5-0, 0-0 MW) are also undefeated, winning their first five games of the season. Both teams are two of only 32 teams in the nation that remain undefeated.
“We have hopefully 26 or 27 more games, and we aren’t even out of November yet,” Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt said. “It’s a young season. We can’t get caught up in 6-0. That’s great we’re 6-0, but it’s the next game, and we’ve got to get better.”
Bonaventure has found some success in in-season tournaments over the last five years, advancing to the championship in each of its last three. Most notably, the Bonnies were champions of the 2019 Boca Beach Classic and 2021 Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic. Last year, the team beat Oklahoma State in the opening round of the Legends Classic but fell to Auburn in the championship game.
“[Multi-team events are] just extra games, and you have a chance to play good teams on a neutral court,” Schmidt said. “And those neutral courts, that’s like playing in the Atlantic 10 tournament. It gets our guys more comfortable playing away from home against a really good team. You don’t want to play those teams at their place; you want to try to play them on a neutral site. And so, we have an opportunity to do that, and hopefully, we can play well.”
The Brown and White are coming off their second-highest-scoring performance of the season, defeating Bryant University 85-70 on Sunday. The Bonnies shot 56% from field goal range and 57% from three, holding Bryant to 41% and 37%, respectively.
“Every day, we got to get better,” Schmidt said. “We’re not where we need to be with the teams we’re about to play, starting with Utah State. In all areas: better defense, better rebounding, better taking care of the ball, better shooting, better chemistry, all of that stuff.”
Bonnies graduate center Noel Brown enters the Thanksgiving matchup coming off a career day, scoring a career-high 22 points and grabbing a team-high seven rebounds in the win over Bryant.
“[Brown’s] doing some stuff inside, but now we’re meeting guys, starting against Utah State, [that are] as big or bigger than he is,” Schmidt said. “So, it’s imperative that he continues to work [and] gets better, but we need him to score inside. I think any team is good when they have an inside presence. And Noel, for the first six games, for the most part, has been an inside presence.”
Utah State is coming off its biggest win of the season, handing Iowa its first loss 77-69 in the NABC Hall of Fame Classic Friday.
In the Aggies’ first five games, the team is shooting 54% from the field and 42% from three while holding their opponents to 42% and 32%, respectively. Utah State is also first in the nation in points, averaging 99 points per game, and is ranked as the 44th-best team in KenPom, a popular stat-based rankings system.
“It’s just not offense,” Schmidt said. “They’re just a complete team. They got good guards; they got good size. They shoot the ball. [Utah State is] very well coached. They run good stuff, but then [they’re] just a good offensive team. They do a good job defensively.”
Aggies graduate guard Ian Martinez leads Utah State in points and is 23rd in the nation in scoring, averaging 20.8 points per game. Martinez also leads the team in 3-point makes and assists with 15 and 21, respectively.
Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. at the State Farm Field House and will air live on ESPN 2. Radio listeners can tune into the game via the Bonnies Online Network.
halea22@bonaventure.edu
