ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Sure, it might be lacking in some of the glitz and glamor of the last few seasons.
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, for instance, after getting five last year, has no Friday night ESPN2 “showcase” games this winter. It also has fewer contests on the major networks and, presumably, will have fewer unique tip-off times for television.
For the most part, this year’s is a traditional Wednesday-Saturday meat-and-potatoes schedule.
But that was to be expected after Bona went from being the Atlantic 10’s darling as the preseason unanimous No. 1 and a top 25 team to a squad that lost over 99 percent of its scoring and will be something of a question mark this season. And that doesn’t mean its 2022-’23 league schedule is lacking for highlights.
Besides, in some ways, it’s likely that coach Mark Schmidt and his team prefer this more straightforward approach.
BONA WILL play on New Year’s Eve, make a weekend road trip to Chicago and get an enticing February home game against conference favorite Dayton as part of its A-10 schedule, released by the league on Wednesday.
The Bonnies still have eight nationally televised league games, though five will air on the lesser-heralded USA Network and one is NBC Digital. They’ll still face some particularly arduous stretches; this year, that includes making two of their longest road trips — at Saint Louis and Rhode Island — in a four-day span and a week in which they play at both VCU and Richmond and home with the Flyers.
Their non-nationally televised games can still be found on ESPN+.
And whatever they don’t have in terms of a national platform this year figures to only inflate their underdog mentality, through which they’ve thrived historically under Schmidt.
Bona will open the conference season on New Year’s Eve, taking on Massachusetts inside the Reilly Center. That’s its first game on Dec. 31 since playing Iona at home on that date in 2012 and its first game against the Minutemen since the infamous “Schmidt to UMass” rumors early in the offseason.
It’s also part of back-to-back home games to start the league year, as Bona will take on George Mason on Wed., Jan. 4.
AS IS generally (and coincidentally) the case, the Bonnies’ schedule, on paper, appears to be more difficult in January than it is in February. Aside from those back-to-back road games against Saint Louis and Rhode Island, they have a home game against Richmond and will close the month at VCU on national TV. Also in January, Bona will play its first-ever A-10 game in Chicago, taking on new league member Loyola-Chicago, a mid-major power of late, and a familiar face in former Bona and current Loyola AD Steve Watson.
But that’s probably a welcome development for a young and transitioning team, and could be just the breakdown it needs for another patented February Bona run.
Schmidt’s team will be tested right away in February, traveling to Richmond in the second of consecutive games in that city and hosting likely preseason No. 1 Dayton in what figures to be its marquee home game for the year (and one that could wind up on major TV, as currently it’s listed as being on “ESPN Networks”). The Flyers return almost every key player from last year’s 24-11 team, including rising star Daron Holmes II, and came in at No. 23 on ESPN’s early top 25 projection from late June. Bona, of course, will be looking to avenge last year’s meeting, when it was handled by this group 68-50, at UD Arena.
The rest of the month, however, sets up nicely for the Bonnies, who could well be the favorite in five of their next six games (and perhaps even six of seven close to the season), with a road trip to Davidson being the exception.
Bona has no more than two home or road games in a row at any point in the year. Its lone bye week comes at the end of February, prior to its regular season finale at UMass and new coach Frank Martin.
Bona will close the season in mid-March at the Atlantic 10 Tournament, back at Barclays Center in Brooklyn for its first full event since 2019. Complete tip-off times and other information will come at a later date.
2022-23 ST. BONAVENTURE
ATLANTIC 10 SCHEDULE
December
Sat., 31, Massachusetts, tba, ESPN+
January
Wed., 4, George Mason, tba, ESPN+
Sat., 7, at Saint Louis, tba, ESPN+
Wed., 11, at Rhode Island, tba, ESPN+
Sat., 14, Richmond, 2:30 p.m., USA Network
Wed., 18, Duquesne, tba, ESPN+
Sat., 21, at Loyola-Chicago, tba, ESPN+
Wed., 25, Fordham, tba, ESPN+
Sat., 28, at VCU, tba, CBS Sports
February
Wed., 1, at Richmond, tba, ESPN+
Sat., 4, Dayton, tba, ESPN Networks
Wed., 8, La Salle, tba, ESPN+
Sat., 11, at Duquesne, 12:30 p.m., USA Network
Wed., 15, at Fordham, tba, ESPN+
Sun., 19, George Washington, 2 p.m., USA Network
Wed., 22, at Davidson, tba, NBC Digital
Sun., 26, Saint Joseph’s, noon, USA Network
March
Sat., 4, at Massachusetts, 2:30 p.m., USA Network
