ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Jaren Holmes had always wondered what it might be like.
As a kid growing up on the outskirts of Detroit, the St. Bonaventure senior guard took particular notice of both Michigan and Michigan State, the local powerhouses who were almost always nationally ranked. He thought about how cool it would be to play for a college basketball team that had its own little number next to its name.
And now, he’s going to do just that.
Bona, upon returning all five starters from last year’s Atlantic 10 championship team, achieved that status on Monday, checking in at No. 23 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll. Remarkably, it’s the program’s first national ranking since January of 1971, more than 50 years ago.
And though they understand it won’t mean much once the ball goes up on Nov. 9 against Siena, for right now, the Bonnies were willing to concede this much: It’s another incredible milestone for the program under Mark Schmidt.
“Now I’m grown up … and my mom sent me the article that we were ranked and she was so proud of me,” Holmes said in a virtual press conference Tuesday. “It’s just a great experience, another memory to share with my guys. It’s truly an honor to be considered one of the best teams in the country.
“We’re all happy deep down inside, but we know we have a job to do. We know we (still) have goals to accomplish at the end of the season.”
THIS, of course, here and now, is the height of Bona’s transformation in the current era.
For years, Schmidt’s teams thrived on being the underdog, on using their preseason A-10 ranking as bulletin board material, on being David to the league’s Goliath. But those days are long gone.
Bona, as the cliche goes, is no longer the hunter, but the hunted. It’s being viewed as an almost unanimous favorite to repeat as A-10 champions. That’s different from even three years ago, when the Bonnies were expected to be good, but were still largely in the shadow of Dayton, Rhode Island and VCU.
How does Bona adjust to being king of the A-10 castle?
It doesn’t have to, Schmidt said. This, after all, is a group that’s long been built for this role, from making the A-10 Tournament championship as freshmen to spending virtually all of last season in this very position.
“I don’t think it’s going to change our focus,” the 15th-year coach maintained. “I’m lucky to have five seniors that have been through this thing. There were high expectations last year; maybe not as high expectations as this year. But we have five veteran guys, five mature men that understand rankings are great for the media and alums, but … we understand what’s at stake, the games are won and lost on the court, they’re not won in the polls and in the newspapers.”
BONA, throughout this rapid five-year rise, has generally done an admirable job of remaining grounded in these moments. The current guys have been modest almost to a fault. That’s the type of player that Schmidt recruits.
On Monday, as news broke that they’d made the initial Top 25, the Bonnies weren’t off posting on social media about it. Newcomer Quadry Adams was at one end of the court working with assistant Sean Neal while senior Dominick Welch was at the other with new coach Chris Lowe, and a handful of others were shooting by themselves on the side.
And that’s the type of mentality they’re bringing into this cacophonous 2021-22 campaign.
“HONESTLY, over the summer, we were going into it not expecting to be ranked, just because the type of guys we have … nothing has been given to any of us,” Holmes said. “Each and every day, we’re going to get everybody’s best shot, so we’re going to go out there and play basketball like we do. It’s not about the No. 23 against whoever. It’s just about St. Bonaventure playing basketball and us preparing to go out there and get victories.
“That’s just really what it is.”
Still, this is something that was well-earned after what this current crop of seniors has put in since first arriving in the summer of 2018. And that’s a side of it they’ve also been able to embrace.
“These guys have worked their tails off and deserve to get some notoriety,” Schmidt said. “If we don’t have the season that everybody’s saying we may have, it’s not going to be because the kids got lazy or big-headed. We’re going to work just as hard as we have been.
“I have total faith … especially in the five seniors, that there’s going to be great leadership, and there has been since we started practice, and there’s not going to be any letdown in us walking onto the court thinking that just because we’re in the preseason Top 25 that the other team’s just going to roll over.
“That’s not going to happen.”
Holmes echoed that sentiment, noting, “When we got out there, we won’t have the No. 23 on our shoes, we won’t see that during games; only people on TV see that. So we’re just going to go out there and play as if we’re not even ranked, not even put that pressure on ourselves. We just want to play free, play as loose as possible and play together.”
IT ISN’T lost on Schmidt just how meaningful it is to see “St. Bonaventure” at No. 23 in the country, just the way it wasn’t when Bona won its first NCAA Tournament game in 48 years (in 2018) and claimed its first solo regular season A-10 title last year.
He used the word “special” twice in his opening statement. He acknowledged how significant it is, especially for a university and community of this size and with this kind of budget and resources.
But here’s what needs to happen next …
“As I told our players, it’s only a preseason poll. Just crumble that piece of paper up and throw it in the basket,” he joked. “I don’t think (this) is going to make our guys play any harder or less hard. We’re just excited to start the season and have everybody really looking forward to a good year.
“In terms of the (poll), it’s just great for everybody involved at our university.”
