FAIRFAX, Va. — He certainly couldn’t be accused of recency bias.
A year ago, Mark Schmidt’s St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team got the better of George Mason, winning the final two of three contests, both convincingly — once in the Reilly Center (79-56) and again in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament (68-57 in a game it led by as many as 15).
Individually, some of his top players shone bright: Kyle Lofton scored a career-high 32 points in the Bonnies’ blowout victory in the RC. He and Dominick Welch each had 20, with the latter connecting on a career-high six 3-pointers, in that win in Brooklyn.
Given that both teams returned mostly intact — with eight of the top 11 guys, by minutes played, back this season — the Bonnies would seem to be in a favorable position, from both a talent and confidence standpoint, heading into their initial matchup in 2019-’20.
Good luck getting Schmidt to acknowledge that idea, however.
In a new year, as he likes to say, the ledger has been wiped clean.
“It means nothing,” said the 13th-year coach, whose Bonnies will meet the Patriots in the first of two contests tonight (7 o’clock, WPIG-FM, WHDL-AM, Stadium-TV) inside EagleBank Arena. “Their guys are much improved, our guys are improved. It’s apples and oranges. Whatever happened last year, two years or five years (ago), it don’t matter.
“Just like George Washington. We’d barely won there since Ronald Reagan (was president). Our guys don’t care. It’s a whole different season, different chemistry, all that stuff. That’s not going to have any bearing on how we play, good or bad.”
A year after finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, in the league standings, Bona (9-5, 1-0) and George Mason (11-3, 0-1), by at least one metric, again rank similarly, checking in at Nos. 125 and 142 in the KenPom projection — currently good for eighth and ninth in the Atlantic 10.
After an impressive 11-1 start, which included wins over Old Dominion, Nebraska and New Mexico State for the Cayman Islands Classic championship in November, the Patriots have cooled recently, getting blistered by TCU (87-53, on the road) in their non-league finale and falling to VCU, 72-59, in their conference opener.
Still, Schmidt sees a solid team from last year that has only gotten better.
GMU boasts a quartet of double-digit scorers in returning starting guards Jordan Miller (13.4 points) and Javon Greene (12.5 points) plus former key reserves Jamal Hartwell II (11.6 points) and forward A.J. Wilson (10.4 points, 8.2 rebounds). Senior guard Justin Kier, a preseason all-conference second team selection, has appeared in only nine games due to foot and ankle injuries, but scored 11 points in a season-high 27 minutes in Sunday’s loss to the Rams.
Kier, a 6-foot-4 guard, averaged 19 points in three games against the Bonnies last winter.
“They’ve improved,” Schmidt said. “I haven’t seen everybody in the A-10, but Wilson, if he’s not the most improved player in the league, he’s one of the most improved. Miller is a guy who couldn’t really shoot last year, now he’s shooting 36 percent from 3s. Greene is much improved, shooting the ball better.
“They’re a very aggressive team, they’re running the same stuff — (attacking the hoop), going downhill. But they’ve got a year’s experience, Kier is coming back from injury and he’s playing better, so they’re a good team. They’re 11-3 and they’ve had some really good wins.”
One of the bigger and more physical teams that Bona has seen to date, Mason currently ranks fourth in the league in rebounding margin (plus-2.9), one spot ahead of the Bonnies, second in blocks (5.3) and sixth in scoring defense (65.6 points) — with Schmidt’s team ranking fourth in that category (63.9).
That figures to be an interesting challenge for the Bonnies, who are 8-2 when they out-rebound their opponent, but 1-3 when they lose that battle.
“Rebounding is such a huge part of the game, and they do a good job, they’re well-coached,” Schmidt said of the Patriots. “We’ve got to do our job on the ground and block out, attack the ball in the air. When we win the rebounding battle, usually we win the game. That’s a huge emphasis in every game that we play.”
Bona has already tasted victory both on the road in A-10 play, and in the D.C. area, having beaten George Washington in its league opener, 71-66, three days earlier. Additionally, it’s owned the series with Mason, winning seven of eight matchups since the Patriots joined the conference in 2013, including three of four at EagleBank Arena.
But again, any momentum that might stem from those facts will mean little once the ball goes up tonight, Schmidt said.
“It’s like momentum is fleeting,” he said. “Momentum begins and ends on the first possession of the next game. It’s good that you win, it gives you confidence, but at the same time, we’ve got to play well; now we’ve got to try to keep that momentum. We’ll see how it goes, but it’s always better to come off a win than a loss, especially on the road.”
The Bonnies are hoping to have back starting guard Jaren English, who missed the GW game and remains “day-to-day” with concussion-like symptoms suffered in practice late last week. If the 6-foot-4 junior can’t go, they’ll count on others to step up the same way they did against the Colonials.
“We’ll see what happens,” Schmidt said, regarding English. “It was good that Matt (Johnson, who scored a season-high 12 points) came in, did a good job and seized the opportunity. He played well for us, so if Jaren can’t go, hopefully Matt can play as well as he did against George Washington.”
