By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Abdoul Karim Coulibaly played like he clearly understood the terms and conditions of his next week as a college basketball player on Saturday.
Osun Osunniyi, though the extent of his apparent ankle injury is not yet public, could miss the final week of the regular season. That includes a visit to VCU’s Siegel Center on Tuesday and Friday Night Showcase game against Richmond at the Reilly Center. Those tall tasks include duels with big men Hason Ward and Grant Golden.
Coulibaly will likely see the floor more over the next few games than he has during any one week this year.
The 6-foot-9 redshirt sophomore from Mali has experienced an unbalanced first season at Bonaventure, averaging 9.5 minutes a game but also logging five or fewer minutes on seven occasions. An unfinished product at both ends, Coulibaly has nonetheless made more than half of his field goal attempts and is tied for third on the team in defensive box plus-minus.
While no big man in the league can equal Osunniyi’s defensive talents, Coulibaly has proven himself to be an adequate replacement. And he plays like the season depends on it each time he checks in.
“Karim came in and gave us some rebounding, some toughness and post defense,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt said Saturday. “That’s what guys have to do when someone goes down. Next guy up and I thought he played really well.”
Coulibaly grabbed two offensive rebounds in the first two minutes after Osunniyi’s injury. He then conducted the best sequence of his Bonaventure career, helping chase Cameron Brown away from the basket to force a travel before knocking down a midrange jumper to put Bona ahead with 5:45 remaining.
The Bonnies are not the first team to face the prospect of playing some of their most important games without one of the Atlantic 10’s most impactful players. VCU was able to win the 2015 A-10 Tournament, as the No. 5 seed, without guard Briante Weber, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, who tore his ACL and MCL on Jan. 31. One of the indelible images from that title game at Barclays Center featured Weber temporarily shedding his crutches to climb the ladder and cut down the net.
Whether or not Bonaventure will have Osunniyi for the A-10 Tourney in Washington remains to be seen. As it travels to VCU for Tuesday’s contest, however, it can use the Rams of March’s past as a blueprint for getting to the NCAA Tournament without a dominant defensive player.
“To think losing him will have no impact would be a little naive,” then-VCU coach Shaka Smart said after Weber’s injury, “but at the same time we’re not going to reinvent the wheel.”
Bona doesn’t need to reinvent anything without Osunniyi, either. SBU may feature smaller lineups and could also employ seldom-used forwards Oluwasegun Durosinmi and Justin Ndjock-Tadjore.
The most obvious onus, however, is on Coulibaly, who hasn’t played 20 or more minutes since Nov. 14 against Canisius. All signs point to the former Pittsburgh starter reaching that number in next week’s Virginia school two-step.
Leave a Reply