Photo: Scott Eddy
BY: ANDREW HALE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
After a trip to Florida last week, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team continues its road trip tomorrow, traveling to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, to take on Bucknell University.
The Bonnies (7-1, 0-0 A-10) split their two games at the ESPN NIT Season Tip-off, losing their first game of the season against Utah State 72-67 Thursday. Bonaventure avenged its loss the following night, defeating Northern Iowa 68-56.
On Monday, the NCAA released the first college basketball NET rankings of the season, placing Bonaventure as the 57th-best team in the nation, according to the NCAA Evaluation Tool. The Brown and White were the second-highest-ranked team in the Atlantic 10, only trailing Dayton, who came in at 40.
Bonaventure is off to its best start since the 2021-22 season when the Bonnies were ranked as high as the No. 16 team in the nation.
“We haven’t really played anybody, but we still have a NET of 57,” Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt said. “The teams [we’ve played] might not have winning records, but they’ve had some really good wins. All we’re guaranteed right now is to go 7-25, and 7-25 is not good enough.”
In eight games, the Bonnies have shot 47% from the field and 32% from 3-point range and have averaged 75 points per game. The Bonaventure defense ranks 28th in the nation in scoring defense and 56th in defensive efficiency, holding its opponents to 63 points per game, 40% from the field and 32% from beyond the arc.
“We’ve had some good wins, and we’ve done some good things, but we’re not really good at anything, and we got to start being good at something,” Schmidt said. “We defend sometimes. We run good offense sometimes. We rebound the ball sometimes. We take care of the ball sometimes. But we’re not doing it most of the time, and good teams do it most of the time. So that’s what we’re practicing. We got to be more consistent in all of those areas.”
Bucknell (4-5, 0-0 PAT) enters Wednesday’s matchup, losing its last three games. The Bison are shooting 44% from field goal range and 32% from three. This season, Bucknell has already faced No. 23 Kentucky and Maryland and is scheduled to play No. 7 Gonzaga and Syracuse in the coming weeks.
“[Bucknell has] had a tough schedule,” Schmidt said. “At Kentucky, at Maryland, not many teams would beat those teams at their place. They’re well-coached. They run really good stuff. They play multiple defenses. They change it up, so they present a lot of problems.”
The Bonnies and Bison have some recent history, facing each other last year. Bonaventure defeated Bucknell 67-61 in the Reilly Center.
“[Bucknell is] well coached,” Schmidt said. “They got four of their top five guys back from last year. They gave us a really good game here [last season].”
The home-and-home series continues tomorrow as tipoff is set for 7 p.m. The game will air live on ESPN+, and radio listeners can tune into the game via the Bonnies Online Network.
