ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Courtney Stockard almost always has music playing.
It doesn’t matter if he’s exiting the locker room after a game, arriving to practice or walking through the hallways of the Reilly Center, there’s often music blasting from a pair of speakers inside his backpack.
Stockard, in his first real season with the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, says the rap tunes help him maintain focus before a game and relax in the aftermath. The music keeps him motivated.
It’s a reflection of how he’s played all season long.
Twenty-two games into his junior year — two years after his last competitive campaign — the 6-foot-6 forward has established himself as the genuine third option on a team zeroing in on its first NCAA Tournament berth in six years. While teammates Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley continue to garner headlines, Stockard continues to be a quiet contributor: With his game-winning layup against Maryland, his 21-point, 14-rebound effort against VCU, his sure-as-the-sun 12 points and six rebounds per game.
The Bonnies are good because of their high-scoring backcourt. They rank No. 24 in the RPI and are NCAA-caliber because of their role players — Stockard, LaDarien Griffin and Idris Taqqee among them.
Bona isn’t in this position — isn’t in the midst of a historic season — without Stockard.
“What it is, is everybody’s embracing their roles,” he said. “We don’t have too many egos. It’s not really a concern with who scores, who gets all the stats. This group of guys is just concerned about winning.
“I think you see that on the defensive end, especially in this (10-game) win streak that we’ve been on. We’ve really played together as a team on the defensive end, and it’s carried over. That’s a big part of why (we’re winning).”
Stockard has been part of a special season before.
The St. Louis native was supposed to be the starting small forward on the team that won 22 games and a share of the regular season Atlantic 10 title in 2015-16. Instead, he was resigned to the bench, missing the first of two straight campaigns with a broken foot.
Entering this season, nobody — perhaps even Stockard — knew what to expect from the junior forward. He hadn’t played competitively since March of 2015 at Allen (Kansas) Community College.
He’s not only worked his way from the sideline to the starting lineup, but he’s also one of the Bonnies’ most consistent players. He never wavered in his belief that, despite his injuries, he’d ultimately make an impact in a brown and white uniform.
The attention that Adams and Mobley receive on a nightly basis has made it easier for him.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in my ability,” he said. “It’s mainly just playing off of Jay, playing off of Matt. Everybody pretty much knew how they were going to fare coming into the season. We know everybody is keying on them, so somebody needs to step up and make plays, especially when Matt couldn’t get going (on Saturday) or sometimes when Jay is struggling.
“I think not only me, the rest of the guys — LD (Griffin), Amadi (Ikpeze) — we’ve all done a good job of making plays for ourselves and them.”
A question mark in October, Stockard has emerged as the Bonnies’ much-needed third scoring option.
He had 21 points and hit the game-clinching 3-pointer with 57 seconds left in Saturday’s 68-63 win over VCU. He has a knack for getting to the basket. He hasn’t been held to single digits since January.
More than scoring, however, Stockard brings a toughness and hard-nosed approach that last year’s 20-win team lacked. He plays bigger than his 6-foot-6 size would suggest, taking on other team’s power forwards, rebounding and banging inside. He’s taken a team-best 18 charges.
He comes up hobbling at times, but keeps ticking. It’s a role he’s more than happy to fill.
“Coming out of (junior college), that was one of my best characteristics, one of my best aspects of my game is scoring,” said Stockard, who averaged over 23 points in his sophomore year at Allen CC. “But coming into this year, I knew that I wouldn’t have to provide as much scoring with the backcourt that we have, so I just started looking for ways to impact the game without scoring.”
He and Griffin have drawn the attention of opposing coaches. Said Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot recently: “Those 6-foot-6 guys, they don’t look all that big, but they’re good players.”
In July, Stockard was still in a walking boot, still making his way back from a second foot surgery. It wasn’t until late September that he was cleared to be a full practice participant. He missed two games in November while working out the kinks.
Three months later, neither he nor Bona can argue with the results.
As of Monday, coach Mark Schmidt’s team was firmly in the field of 68 in most bracket projections. It received a season-high 29 points in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, essentially putting at No. 28 nationally. Stockard has been the contributor both the team and fans were hoping for when he signed in the spring of 2015.
“It’s a big relief to have all the hard work pay off,” he said, “especially with the last couple of years, how they went. This season is pretty much going … how I wished it would go, just coming off that injury and being away from the game for such a long time.
“Everything has pretty much taken its course and playing out how we want it to.”
Ten wins after a 2-4 start later, Stockard and the Bonnies are “having fun, just staying the moment, enjoying it.” But with two games and the A-10 Tournament remaining, they know there’s still work to be done.
He’ll reflect on a successful first Division I season sometime in April.
“We know we’re in a good spot right now,” he said, “but everything is magnified times 10 now. We gotta be locked in even more, preparation is going to be even more in depth. We just gotta continue to finish strong and do what we’re doing.”
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at othbutler@gmail.com)
