RICHMOND, Va. — A young St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team had never faced anything like it.
Last February, the Bonnies were swallowed up, almost immediately, by VCU’s trademark suffocating defense, punched in the mouth by the most physically imposing team in the conference.
Bona shot just 1-for-18 from 3-point range and 27 percent for the game while committing 15 turnovers. The result was one of the most lopsided losses of the Mark Schmidt era, a jarring 85-55 setback on its own floor.
A year later, the challenge with VCU remains the same. But one thing Bona (12-5, 4-0) has now is firsthand experience … plus the momentum from having won each of its first four Atlantic 10 games and 11 of the last 12 overall. And that’s what it’ll take into its most difficult test to date: today’s matchup with the Rams (2 o’clock, WPIG-FM, WHDL-AM, CBS Sports-TV) inside the Siegel Center.
“It’s hard to simulate what they do,” Schmidt said of VCU, the defending A-10 regular season champion and preseason favorite, which returned almost every key player from last year’s group, including all-league guard Marcus Evans (11 points) and hulking big man Marcus Santos-Silva (13 points, 9 rebounds). “When you experience it, that’s the best teacher.
“Those guys, especially Kyle (Lofton) and Dom (Welch), they experienced their pressure, they understand what it is, so they have a better idea of what to expect. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to be able to break it or be more successful at it, but they’ve seen it, and the more you’ve seen something, the better chance you have of breaking it and playing better.”
As impressive as the Bonnies’ A-10 start has been, three of those wins (George Washington, Fordham, UMass) have come against teams ranked in the bottom four of the conference. Now comes the first real gauge for where they might currently stand in the bigger picture: back-to-back road games against Top 50 opponents, per KenPom, (No. 50 VCU and No. 5 Dayton) and a home contest with equally tough Rhode Island.
If there’s an ideal time for Bona, unbeaten in league play and coming off a pair of blowout victories, to have to play in the Siegel Center, this might be it.
But it’s also taking on a Rams team (12-5, 2-2) coming off rare back-to-back losses (at home to Rhode Island and at Dayton), one that, since joining the A-10, almost never loses when playing at home after a loss.
“You’d rather be going into a game against a team as talented as VCU with some confidence,” Schmidt affirmed. “That always helps. But … when the ball goes up, the game changes. You feel good about yourself going in there. Your confidence is higher than if you had lost. But at the same time, you gotta play well.”
To Schmidt, when assessing VCU’s last two games, there was no common weakness of which Bona could try to take advantage this afternoon; the Rams, who opened the year nationally ranked, merely fell short against two outstanding teams.
The key to hanging with VCU and potentially “stealing” a big one on the road remains the same: to handle itself against a team that allows just 62 points per game and ranks 10th nationally in turnovers forced (19 per game).
“You’ve got to take care of the basketball,” he said. “To me, that’s the biggest key. If you don’t take care of the basketball, they’re great; if you make it a pick-up game, they’re really good. You can’t turn the ball over, especially at their place. They get momentum, the crowd gets involved and you don’t have much of a chance.”
The Rams, who began A-10 play with wins over Fordham and George Mason and also own a home win over then-No. 23 LSU and former coach Will Wade, boast a third preseason all-conference player in De’Riante Jenkins (11 points) and key role guys in guard Mike’L Simms and forward Issac Vann. In Santos-Silva, Bona and sophomore center Osun Osunniyi will almost certainly see one of their stiffest interior challenges, alongside Rhode Island’s Cyril Langevine and Saint Louis’ Hasahn French.
And though VCU has been average in the halfcourt and on the glass, they typically generate more than enough offense from their “havoc” pressure defense.
“You just have your scout team do the best job they can in trying to simulate it,” said Schmidt, when asked about preparing for that pressure. “The hardest thing to do is to simulate it, and that’s why the experience of them going against it last year will help them.”
Halfway through another promising campaign, Bona owns a solid neutral-court win over Rutgers (now No. 28 in the KenPom projection), a Boca Raton Beach Classic title and a seven-game win streak to close the non-conference. With Wednesday’s win over UMass, it tied the program’s best start in league play at 4-0.
The next box it can check as it pushes for another top-four A-10 finish: Knocking off one of the conference’s premier programs … and in a rabid road atmosphere.
“We have 18 (league) games and 31 opportunities to play the game,” reminded Schmidt, whose teams are 2-5 against VCU, with one win in the Siegel Center (in February of 2018). “This is another opportunity.
“You’re going to play in one of the best environments in college basketball. They’re a really good team, well-coached; it’s going to be a great challenge. But it’s also a great opportunity. That’s why kids come to Bonaventure — to play in the Reilly Center, but also to play in venues like VCU and Dayton.”
