(Following is the first in a three-part series centering on the start of St. Bonaventure’s anticipated 2021-22 season. Today, general notes following a press conference with coach Mark Schmidt.)
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — The word that’s long been used is “spoiled.”
How else would you more appropriately describe the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team’s history at point guard?
This, after all, is a program that bounced from Bill Kalbaugh to Jim Baron to Glenn Hagan in the late 60s and 70s. It’s one that, more recently, went from Shandue McNeill, to Tim Winn, to a layover year of J.R. Bremer, to Marques Green, all in direct succession.
And now?
How about one Bob Cousy Award candidate to another?
Kyle Lofton made it so when, earlier this week, he was named to the official watch list for the 2022 Cousy Award, given to the nation’s top point guard. He follows in the footsteps of Jaylen Adams, who was a watch list entry in 2017, and from whom he took the PG reins in November of 2018.
The New Jersey native has long been building his case as one of the top lead guards in America. This is a player who not only has the stats to be considered as such, but the layers of clutchness, durability and winning spirit as well. And his coach, Mark Schmidt, wants you to know: He deserves to be among the 20 on this list.
“He’s one of the best point guards in the country,” Schmidt maintained in a Zoom call Tuesday. “His leadership skills are off the charts, his work ethic. He loves to be in the gym; his understanding of how to play, his understanding of what we’re trying to do in our system …
“I say it all the time, he’s our Tom Brady. He’s the one that runs the show. He really has, and continues to have, a great grasp of what we’re trying to do.”
If there was a notable flaw in Lofton’s game last year, it was his 3-point shooting. But even that became markedly better, climbing from a hard-to-believe 8.8 percent (3-for-34) over his first 11 games to a respectable 36.6 (15-of-41) over his last 10 games. And that continues to be a focal point for the 6-foot-3 guard, who figures to mirror Adams not only for Cousy consideration, but as an Atlantic 10 Player of the Year candidate.
“Every year, he’s gotten stronger, his skills have gotten better,” Schmidt noted. “He struggled a little bit with his 3-point shooting last year, (but) he’s worked all summer to make that weakness a strength.
“He embodies everything I want in a player — competitive, tough, skilled, a great teammate and winner. There’s other reasons why we’ve had successful seasons since Kyle’s been here, but he’s a big part of this thing.”
— The Bonnies began official practice for the 2021-22 campaign back on Sept. 28.
In one respect, it was about as smooth a start as they could have anticipated, as Bona welcomed back one of the most experienced starting fives in the country (Schmidt’s team is actually one of only two NCAA squads from last season that brought back all five starters, alongside UCLA, which made last year’s Final Four as a No. 11 seed).
In another, however, it was clear there’s going to be a bit of an overarching learning curve. This is a team, remember, that subbed out its entire bench for another, bringing in EIGHT new players, seven of whom will be eligible this year — two ACC transfers, a JUCO All-American, a JUCO big man and three freshmen (the eighth, former Binghamton prep star Brett Rumpel, is expected to redshirt this winter).
How has that dynamic played out so far? About as you might expect, Schmidt said.
“The experienced guys are ahead of the young guys,” he noted. “The young guys are still trying to learn their way, learn the system. From a basketball perspective, when you really don’t know what you’re doing, it’s really hard to play, so the first (three) weeks, we’ve been trying to put things in. The veteran guys know exactly what we’re putting in, (but) we’ve put a few different things in just to keep their brains alive.”
Schmidt mentioned that, for as strong as this roster appears to be from top to bottom (and the annual idea that THIS might be the year Bona goes 11 deep), he’s still looking to nail down to the “top eight or nine guys” for regular minutes.
Ostensibly, that might mean, aside from the starters, the likes of Karim Coulibaly and Quadry Adams (from Pitt and Wake Forest, respectively), JUCO standout Linton Brown and perhaps JUCO big man Oluwasegun Durosinmi (who goes by “Duro” to teammates and coaches) might be counted on a little more this year, while freshmen Justin Ndjock-Tadjore, Joryam Saizonou and Anour Mellouk are given time to grow.
“The intrasquad scrimmages, you don’t put the five seniors against the young guys,” Schmidt said of the team’s recent 5-on-5 battles. “The teams are all (mixed up). We haven’t got our top eight or nine guys yet — that will take place in a week or so — but we’ve had good practices and bad practices.
“Some guys step up and play well one day, they play bad the next day. It’s typical early-season practices. But the guys are excited. We’ve gotten great leadership from our five seniors. That Top 25 ranking is great … but that’s not going to mean anything (soon), so we’ve got to work hard and hopefully by late Nov. 9, we’re 1-0.”
— In a unique conclusion, Bona recently named all five of its senior starters as captains for the coming year.
Ordinarily, Schmidt allows his players to vote for the captaincy of their peers. But this year, no such vote was needed. It was a team decision to allow last winter’s “Iron Man 5” to hold that distinction. It will mark the fourth-straight year that Lofton will serve as captain, another indication of how he’s viewed within the program.
“I thought all those five seniors deserve to be captains,” said Schmidt, entering his 15th campaign with a mark of 245-185. “They’ve put a lot of time into this program, they had a lot to do with our success last year, and to leave one of those kids out wouldn’t have been right. All five of those guys have worked hard and deserve to be captains of our team.”
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)
