By Paul Casey Gotham
St. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — From three scholarship athletes to a full roster, to scrambling for recruits and now having a prospective first round draft pick, Mark Schmidt and his St. Bonaventure Bonnies have worn thin the soles of their high tops over these last four years.
The path ahead should continue scuffing at the tread, but it is a challenge the Bonnies are ready to embrace.
“When we took over after my press conference,” Schmidt said recently when thinking about the day he was officially announced as head coach at St. Bonaventure. “I walked into the locker room, and we had three scholarship players. That’s all we had left. One guy raised his hand, and said he was thinking about leaving.”
The first year coach made due filling out his roster. Coming from his job at Robert Morris, Schmidt was not involved with players who could be successful in the Atlantic 10. The results were appropriate. The Bonnies lost eight of their last nine finishing 8-22.
Schmidt and his staff went from there. With a season behind them, they were able to establish themselves early with recruits.
“We wanted to make progress every year,” said Schmidt as he mentioned the lessons learned from his former boss, the late Skip Prosser. “We wanted to build it the right way. We didn’t want to take short cuts, and it was going to be a process. The first year we just wanted to be competitive at home.”
With a full recruiting class, the Bonnies went 15-15 in 2008-09 winning as many games at the Reilly Center as they had won the entire previous season.
Da’Quan Cook averaged eight minutes a game for the Bonnies that season.
“It’s been a long journey from freshman year to now,” Cook said. “It’s been a huge turnaround. We definitely put in the time and effort. We’ve had our bumps and bruises, but we overcame that.”
The current senior mentioned the St. John’s game his sophomore year as a turning point. Bona came back from seven points down in the final three minutes to take the lead before falling by one to the Big East school.
“That was when I noticed things were coming together.”
The Bonnies won 15 games again that season and climbed to eighth in the A-10 earning the chance to host a first round game in the A-10 conference tournament. Chris Matthews tallied a career-high 28, and Andrew Nicholson added 25 as Bona triumphed over Duquesne 83-71. The Brown and White earned a trip to Atlantic City and the quarter-final round of the conference tournament.
Demtrius Conger joined the team as freshman that year scoring nearly four points a game.
“Coach told me upfront that they were in the rebuilding process,” Conger said. “I wanted to be a part of it.”
Conger averaged ten points and more than five rebounds last year as the Bonnies reclaimed eighth place in the conference. The 6’6″ forward notched four double-double performances and scored double figures in fourteen games.
With four returning starters, the Bonnies earned the respect of fellow A-10 coaches getting pegged for fourth in the conference’s preseason poll.
“It’s great that coaches have shown that we have done something pretty good,” Schmidt commented. “But it really doesn’t matter. We didn’t believe them when we were 13th or 12th. Our guys looked at that with a chip on the shoulder.”
“We got to go out there and play,” Schmidt continued. “Five years ago we were trying to survive. Now, where we are right now, we’ve made great strides, but we still got to be careful of where we’re trying to go, and how we’re going to get there.”
“It was nice to see everyone showing the recognition of the hard work we have done,” said senior Michael Davenport. “It was just kudos to the coaches, who have put us in the right situation to win games.”
Davenport averaged 11 points and two assists last year. His three at the buzzer helped the Bonnies beat Duquesne 64-62.
“It seems like we have been taking steps in the right direction,” Davenport added. “I expect that bullseye once the season starts. We have been getting a lot of buzz and a lot other teams in the A-10 have been hearing stories about us. They are going to want to give us their all. I think this team is capable of competing with the upper-echelon teams. Not only giving Temple a great game or giving Xavier a great game, but actually coming out with Ws in those games.”
Much of the focus from opponents will center on St. Bona’s Andrew Nicholson. The senior forward earned a spot on the preseason Wooden Award Watch list. Nicholson scored 20 a game while grabbing seven rebounds to lead the Bonnies last year. His efforts have earned him recognition beyond college basketball as many consider the Mississauga, Ontario native a possible first-round draft pick in the N. B. A.
“We want to have a good year,” Nicholson said. “The NCAA is my goal.”
And once there?
“As far as we can go.”
Sounds like a goal the Bonnies can take in stride.
St. Bonaventure opens the season when the Cornell Big Red come to Olean on Friday, November 11th for a 7 p.m. tipoff.
Leave a Reply