(Editor’s note: The following is the first in a two-part series relating to a recent on-campus panel discussion, featuring Mark Schmidt and Jim Satalin, on the upheaval that has taken place in college basketball. Today: Some of the general highlights of their conversation.)
ST. BONAVENTURE — Jim Satalin, in this moment, was nearly as incredulous as Mark Schmidt has been over the last two years.
The two St. Bonaventure coaches, former and current, respectively, were exploring the state of college basketball amid a host of sweeping, and staggering, changes at a recent round-table discussion as part of the university’s alumni weekend festivities.
In a sort of compare-and-contrast query, Satalin was asked about the most significant changes that took place during his head coaching career, which spanned from 1973-1989, at both Bona and Duquesne.
The introduction of the 3-point line and shot clock were undoubtedly the two biggest on-court changes. But the most notable overall, he agreed, came in 1972, when freshmen were deemed eligible after previously having to play for the “JV” team. Over 50 years later, it occurred to him just how silly that rule might have been in the first place.
“When I think back on it, Bob Lanier plays on the freshmen team?” he asked in disbelief, before joking: “Stop it. We’re playing Al Maroney Chevrolet and Bob’s starting against some guy that’s like 48 years old.
“That was a huge difference when freshmen could all of a sudden become eligible. They could have played right from the beginning, of course. But it was just that stigma, like in football.”
SATALIN DIDN’T have it made, exactly.
He took over three years after the Lanier era had ended. He, too, dealt with freshmen who believed they should be playing right away. He earned $12,000 in his first year as head coach. He’d be the first to tell you, however, that those issues probably pale in comparison to the ones being faced by today’s coaches.
In the spring of 2022, Schmidt tried valiantly, but failed to re-recruit the “Iron Man 5” for another run at glory in their fifth collegiate campaign. It’s a reality about which Satalin never had to worry.
“When we won the NIT (in 1977), (Glenn) Hagan and (Greg) Sanders and those guys were just juniors,” Satalin noted. “Today, they’d be long gone. But they were coming back, we knew they were coming back and we could build the program around them. That’s the difference that we see today with what these guys go through.”
SCHMIDT HAS spoken to a couple of different audiences since the program’s NIT debacle in mid-March. This might have been the first, though, that was posted to social media for public consumption.
During the 45-minute dialogue, the 18th-year coach reiterated his position on the sport’s numerous transformations:
Proudly of the old-school era, he, like many, doesn’t particularly care for them.
They’ve made the job more difficult and a little less enjoyable.
To him, things have gotten completely out of control.
But if there was one positive to come amid the calamity that’s been pay-for-play disguised as NIL compensation, the transfer portal, unlimited transfers and a $2.7 billion lawsuit settlement, it was this: The NCAA pushed the portal start date from the day after Selection Sunday to the following Monday.
This, Schmidt insisted, was the driving force behind Bona’s now-infamous preemptive decision to withdraw from NIT consideration. Four Bonnies, including Chad Venning and Barry Evans, entered the portal within the first 48 hours of its opening; Assa Essamvous joined them a few days later. The change, however, will allow teams to maintain a full roster at least heading into postseason play — and might have altered Bona’s decision (and prevented a firestorm) had it been in place last March.
“What coaches do, and we did it as well, we had our exit interviews on (Selection) Sunday because we knew guys were gonna put their names into the portal on Monday,” said Schmidt in a brief summation of those events. “That was the whole thing that happened with the NIT stuff; we didn’t have a team.
“But it’s now the second week, and that will give teams (more of a chance to enter postseason play).”
Of course, this one minor adjustment doesn’t make up for the last two years of questionable decision-making, the results of which so clearly favor the former Power 5 (now Autonomous Four) conferences and will surely threaten the very essence of the sport as we know it.
FOR SCHMIDT, the “war stories” are many.
As the long-time Bona boss began one story, with a bit of a laugh: “Woj (Bona alum and renowned NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski) is a huge part of our NIL collective. He’s done more recruiting, I think, than I’ve done. And he knows more players than I do.”
This spring, Wojnarowski informed Schmidt about a Drexel transfer named Amari Williams, who averaged 12 points and eight rebounds and was his conference’s Defensive Player of the Year. Woj encouraged Schmidt to call Williams’ agent (yes, these kids all have agents now and many of them are taking their clients for up to 20%).
“So we call him up and he says, ‘if Chad Venning puts his name in the portal, we have a guy for you,’” Schmidt recalled of the conversation. “And I asked, ‘how much is it gonna cost?’ And he says, ‘probably $100-$110,000.’ And I said, ‘we don’t have that money.’ He said let’s have some patience and see where it goes.
“Three weeks later, the kid signs with Kentucky for $1 million. That’s the business that we’re in.”
Among the many similar examples:
— After entering the portal, VCU’s Max Shulga had originally committed to Villanova for $800,000. But the day before he was to leave for the Wildcats, he reneged and returned to VCU after it matched that $800,000 offer (Bona, at last check, didn’t have quite that much in its entire collective).
— Indiana State transfer Robbie Avila, who rose to fame this year due to both his exceptional play and the goggles he wore, followed coach Josh Shertz to Saint Louis, where he will now be an Atlantic 10 counterpart. His payday: $700,000.
“So you’re gonna have kids in the Reilly Center that are making $600, $700, $800,000 a year,” Schmidt said. “That’s where this thing has gone.”
Ultimately, however, even amid the myriad comings and goings, it comes down to commitment. Bona has had more than its share of players — at the end of last season, over the last two years — who simply weren’t committed to continuing their careers here. That’s why Schmidt has instituted a rule:
A player now has 24 hours after entering the portal to let the staff know of his intentions. After that, he’s gone, even if ends up wanting to return.
“At Bonaventure, you can’t have one foot in and one foot out,” Schmidt said pointedly. “Either you’re in or you’re out, and if you’re out, you’re out. And we do that because we built this program and we don’t want anybody using us.
“There’s no way a kid is gonna put his name in the portal and try to look for other schools and now he’s not happy with those schools and so he wants to come back to Bonaventure. Our program is too special for that.”
