In any other year, this would be the definition of a “revenge game.”

For fans of the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, the memories from that day might be too difficult to bear.

Bona had just reached the apex of the Kyle Lofton era, beating three brand-name teams en route to the Charleston Classic championship while climbing to an almost-impossible-to-believe No. 16 in the country. After a six-day break for Thanksgiving, it was back home to face a solid Northern Iowa program, but one that started just 1-3 and had yet to beat a Division I opponent.

And then, the A.J. Green game occurred.

THE PANTHERS’ All-American-caliber sharpshooter drained 9-of-15 3s en route to a career-high 35 points, including every point in a 17-1 run that gave UNI a 47-34 halftime lead. The Panthers went onto a 90-80 victory. And for Bona, the season was never quite the same, as it lost Lofton to an ankle injury, later fell to Virginia Tech by 37 and was forced to endure another three-week COVID pause.

Green is gone, however, going undrafted but signing a two-way deal with the Milwaukee Bucks, with whom he’s already appeared in 11 games, including a pair of double-digit outings. And Bona, of course, hasn’t a single player on the roster who was there last November in the Reilly Center.

So for these Bonnies, this is more an opportunity for some relief, a last chance at much-needed some momentum and a true non-league road win before opening Atlantic 10 play next Saturday against UMass. And that comes in tonight’s road rematch with Northern Iowa (7 o’clock, WPIG-FM, ESPN+-live stream), in a game that was pushed from Thursday to Wednesday due to an impending blizzard in the midwest, in the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls.

THE EXPECTATIONS, of course, were, and are, much different.

With an entirely new team, one comprised of freshmen and transfers playing at a higher level for the first time, there were always going to be growing pains, highs and lows and struggles to close out games (and we’ve seen that, as Bona has had a lead with seven or fewer minutes remaining in four of six losses, including Monday’s 76-70 setback to Siena). Now nearly a month removed, that big win over Notre Dame has become more an outlier than a sign of things to come.

Still, much like last year, when Bona dropped its final two non-league games and later opened league play 4-4 to effectively fall off the “bubble,” a certain restlessness has begun to form around these Bonnies, who have logged the program’s first three-game losing streak in nearly three calendar years and were swept this season by the MAAC.

Some fans have, again, begun to question the coaching staff’s minutes allocation and lineup pairings (the big query is why Moses Flowers’ rise has come at the expense of playing time for freshman Barry Evans, who’s averaged just 17 minutes over the last three games, rather than allowing the pair to player together and giving a breather to leading scorer Daryl Banks III, who leads the nation in minutes played at 39.1 per night).

Some have begun to inquire about the overall talent level on the roster, the leadership and execution in late-game situations and the ongoing inconsistencies with the fundamental components, including free throw shooting, boxing out and moving the ball on offense.

For Bona, there’s one immediate and overarching solution to all of it (aside from continued patience from the fanbase): It can win. It can start translating some of the flashes it displayed against Notre Dame, Middle Tennessee and Iona more regularly. And tonight marks a golden opportunity to do just that.

NORTHERN IOWA returned two starters from a team that went 20-12, won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season crown and reached the NIT: guard Nate Heise and big man Austin Phyfe, both of whom had 15 points last year in the RC. Each, however, is currently sidelined, as Heise has missed the last nine games with a wrist injury and isn’t expected to return until next week and Phyfe hasn’t medically cleared to play this season after suffering blood clots in his legs and lungs over the summer.

With that, the Panthers are actually very similar to Bona, deploying an entirely new starting five, young (with two freshmen and two sophomore starters) and still learning how to win.

UNI sits 4-7, but like the Bonnies, has been in just about every game, losing four contests by six or fewer points and three (to Grand Canyon and, most recently, McNeese State and South Florida) by a single possession. With Heise and Phyfe injured, the Panthers have been led by 5-foot-11 sophomore guard Bowen Born, a preseason Second Team All-MVC selection, who’s averaging 20 points, which ranks 26th nationally, including over two 3-pointers per game. They also have a second double-digit scorer in 6-6 guard Tytan Anderson at 13 points.

FOR THE second-straight game, Bona will be at a distinct disadvantage logistically, having had just one full to prepare for the Panthers, plus the flight to the midwest, after the game was moved up 25 hours due to weather (it had just a two-day turnaround between Florida Gulf Coast and Siena). UNI, meanwhile, has played just once in the last nine days — an 83-66 victory over Towson last Saturday, in which Born went for 27 points, including a 12-of-13 effort at the line.

The high-scoring guard already has an impressive four outings of 27 or more points on the year.

Then, too, this one will feature a high-level coaching matchup as UNI’s Ben Jacobson, now in his 17th year, is also his program’s all-time wins leader at 325 (he’s also third in MVC in conference wins with 174). For Bona, the goal now is to gain back some of its early momentum and avoid its first four-game losing streak since December of 2018.