By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Before heading to Brooklyn for Atlantic 10 Media Day on Thursday, St. Bonaventure men’s basketball coach Mark Schmidt was prepared for a low ranking in the league’s preseason poll.
“And rightfully so. We’re not gonna be picked in the top half,” Schmidt remarked during SBU’s on-campus media availability on Wednesday.
The 12th-year coach’s prediction was validated by a panel of head coaches and media members, who placed the Bonnies ninth. Senior forward Courtney Stockard was voted to the all-conference second team.
Saint Louis was picked to win the league, with St. Joseph’s, Davidson and George Mason rounding out the top four. Rhode Island, Dayton, VCU and UMass were the other four teams selected ahead of Bonaventure. The first team was comprised of Davidson guard Kellan Grady, Dayton forward Josh Cunningham, George Mason guard Otis Livingston III, UMass guard Luwane Pipkins and Richmond forward Grant Golden.
Stockard’s selection marks the fifth straight year a Bona player has made a preseason team.
St. Bonaventure has either exceeded or matched its preseason ranking in each season since Schmidt was hired in 2007. National college basketball writer and analyst Andy Katz moderated Thursday’s interviews on ESPN+ and noted that with Schmidt’s track record, it was difficult to rank SBU in the lower half.
Schmidt rationalized with the voters on Wednesday while maintaining that his focus remains elsewhere.
“I was looking at it the other day: We lose 42 points, we lose 186 threes and we lose 280 assists,” he said. “What would John Wooden do? He’d be struggling, right?
“So we’ve lost a lot. But we’ve built this program on those young guys taking that next step in their development. And that’s the hope, that Courtney can go from 13 points to 18 points and LaDarien (Griffin) can go from eight points to 13 points… We’ve gotta take those next steps as individuals, and that’s what we’re gonna try to do. We’re not gonna listen to what people say; we’ve never listened. We’ve gotta control what we can control, and what is it to control? We can control how hard we play, how much better we get in the next two weeks of practice, all that stuff.”
The last time the coaches and writers predicted that Bona would land in the eight/nine game of the Atlantic 10 Tournament was before the 2015-16 season. SBU didn’t end up playing that round; the Bonnies earned a share of the league’s regular season title and bye to Friday’s quarterfinal. Marcus Posley was the lone Bonnie to make a preseason all-conference team that year; like Stockard, he was on the second team.
“We can’t control what you think or you think about where we’re gonna end up; it doesn’t matter,” Schmidt said. “I know you think it’s really important; it don’t mean anything.”
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