WASHINGTON, D.C. — The stakes, of course, are now raised.
From now until early March, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team will aim for its highest possible finish in the Atlantic 10 standings. It will ultimately hope to be playing for a conference championship in Brooklyn.
A still-young team, it will test itself against a much more difficult A-10 than the one it saw last season.
As it transitions from the non-conference to the more rigorous challenge of league play, however — beginning with Sunday’s opener at George Washington (4 o’clock, WPIG-FM, WHDL-AM, ESPN+-live stream) inside the Smith Center — does the mentality change? Is the pressure to win, to continue its current run of A-10 success, more palpable.
Mark Schmidt doesn’t believe so.
“There’s no difference in the message,” said the 13th-year coach, whose teams have placed fifth or better in each of the last four seasons. “We have 19 games guaranteed (including one in the A-10 Tournament). If you’re going to win in the Atlantic 10 and be successful, you’ve got to protect your home court and you’ve got to steal some on the road.
“The intensity goes up. The little things really matter just because the scouting and preparation is much better, because the coaches have been there, we know what the other team does. The sense of urgency, the detail needs to be raised a little bit.”
For Bona (8-5), the numbers as they relate to both league openers and the Colonials have been positive.
The Bonnies are 8-4 in A-10 openers under Schmidt (23-17 all-time), including a respectable 3-3 mark on the road. They’ve won two-straight and three of the last four over GW, their best stretch since taking five in a row from 1987-’89. A year ago, they won at the Smith Center — a 64-58 victory — for just the second time since 1989.
The number they’re most concerned about, though, is one.
One is the number of games that Bona has lost since winning seven-straight, and that came in Monday night’s 84-79 setback to Big 4 rival Buffalo. One-and-oh is what Schmidt’s team would like to be as it remains in the D.C. area to prepare for Wednesday’s game at George Mason.
But even after suffering its first loss since November 23, its hunger to win is no greater as it enters Foggy Bottom, Schmidt said.
“We had a chip on our shoulder at (seven wins in a row),” he maintained. “Our guys understand how we need to win, how we need to play. Just because you lose doesn’t mean you lost that chip. (Buffalo) played better than we did in certain situations, and that’s why they won.”
The Colonials are the next in a long line of Bona opponents in transition, with former Mount St. Mary’s and Siena coach Jamion Christian having replaced the fired Maurice Joseph.
At 6-7, GW has been competitive, but still sits 13th among 14 A-10 teams in the KenPom rankings (No. 253) — an expected position after being chosen to finish 12th in the league’s preseason poll. It’s also coming off a 76-51 decimation at the hands of common foe Vermont in Burlington.
Still, Christian’s team is talented at the top, and figures to only get better with the addition of 6-foot-5 Nebraska transfer Amir Harris, who made his GW debut over the weekend. And if last year — when Bona needed to overcome a 10-point deficit to beat a Colonials team that ultimately finished 12th — is any indication, collecting a second-straight win in the Smith Center won’t be easy.
“It’s an Atlantic 10 team,” emphasized Schmidt, whose Bonnies crushed a Christian-led Siena team 82-40 inside the Reilly Center last season. “We have to play well in order for us to have a chance to win. Every A-10 game is going to be hard-fought, it’s going to come down to the last two or three minutes. That’s what we expect in all the games.”
Counting Harris, who has scored 10-plus points in each of his first two games, GW boasts five double-digit scorers, though its starters and Harris account for just about all of the Colonials’ offense.
Senior guard Armel Potter is averaging a team-best 14.3 points and five assists, the latter of which ranks No. 6 in the A-10. Buffalo native Maceo Jack (11.5 points), who scored a career-high 28 points in last year’s game against Bona, freshman guard Jameer Nelson Jr. (10.5 points), the son of former Saint Joe’s and NBA star Jameer Sr., and freshman forward Jamison Battle (10.9 points) are also in double figures.
Additionally, senior forward Arnaldo Toro, who missed three weeks with an injury, has given GW a strong presence inside, averaging 8.8 points and 9.9 rebounds, the latter of which would rank third in the league when qualified.
The Bonnies, who rode a career game from then-freshman center Osun Osunniyi (career-high 18 points, 16 rebounds) to a win at GW last March, currently sit No. 128 in the KenPom projection, eighth-best in the conference.
And though they’ll open the league slate against a Colonials team still finding its way, they expect to once again have their hands full in the nation’s capital.
“They’ve got good Atlantic 10-caliber players,” Schmidt said. “They’ve got good players that our guys know. We need to do a good job of trying to prevent them from getting easy baskets. It’s the same gameplan — keep the ball above the foul line, make sure we out-rebound them, take care of the ball so they can’t get out and get easy baskets.
“They’re a talented group. Toro is strong inside, Harris just came back; he gives them a different dimension. They’re Atlantic 10 players, an Atlantic 10 team that if you don’t play well, you’re going to lose.”
