ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Rhode Island and St. Bonaventure. St. Bonaventure and Rhode Island.
From the moment last season ended, this was going to be the main event on the Atlantic 10’s equivalent of a boxing card.
It was easy to understand why.
Both were viewed from the outset as NCAA Tournament teams, the Rams – the league’s new banner program – as a repeat entrant and the Bonnies as a team that was set to finally avenge the 2015-16 snub.
They were picked to finish Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in the conference’s preseason poll. They were scheduled to play each other twice, with both games airing on an ESPN network. They accounted for three of the league’s five preseason first team selections: Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley from Bona and E.C. Matthews from Rhode Island.
Yes, for months now, everything has been building toward tomorrow’s matchup in Kingston and February’s Friday night ESPN2 showdown in the Reilly Center – the A-10’s version of Monday Night Football. As it stands, these are the only two A-10 teams with a realistic chance of an NCAA at-large selection.
On the eve of the first meeting, however, it’s worth noting: The ties between the Rams and the Bonnies – two of the league’s longest tenured teams – run much deeper than one Media Day afternoon in D.C., their paths to this point not so different.
Here’s how:
Bona joined the former Eastern 8 in 1979, one year before Rhode Island came on board (the only current A-10 schools that have been in the league longer are UMass, George Washington and Duquesne). Both endured stretches of mediocrity in the 80s and into the 90s, but both experienced a renaissance in the late 90s, with the Rams making three straight NCAA trips from 1997-99, including an Elite 8 appearance in 1998, and Bona making three straight postseasons, including a run to the Big Dance, from 2000-02.
Of course, the two also shared a coach, Jim Baron, who guided the Bonnies for nine seasons from 1992-01 and the Rams for the next 11 years. He was responsible for St. Bonaventure’s rebirth, and though he never got URI to the tournament, he had the Rams clicking with four-straight 20-win seasons late in his tenure, including a trip to the NIT Final Four in 2010.
And then, there was 2012-13.
That year, Dan Hurley had just taken over for the fired Baron at Rhode Island and Bona was amid its Andrew Nicholson hangover season. The teams went 8-21 and 14-15, respectively. From that year on, both Hurley and Mark Schmidt began to build their programs into what they are today: URI, the A-10’s new stalwart which has begun to recruit and win on a national scale and Bona, the plucky upstart-turned-league-force, on the verge of a third-straight 20-win campaign.
(Speaking of recruiting, here’s another connection: Brendan Adams, the younger brother of Bona star Jaylen, is set to join the enemy in Kingston next season).
Along the way, throughout all of the ups and downs for both, some of the Bonnies most notable games and best memories have come against the Rams.
In February 1995, Bona picked up the 1,000th win in program history with a 69-66 home triumph over Rhode Island. This came amid a turning-point season for the Bonnies, who were on their way to 18 wins and their first postseason berth since 1982-83.
In 1998, it beat the 20th-ranked Rams, who ultimately advanced to the Elite 8, one of its three home triumphs over nationally ranked opponents that year. In 2001-02, the Bonnies went wild in a 96-74 Reilly Center triumph: J.R. Bremer scored 35 points, including an astonishing 29 in the first half; freshman Mike Gansey had a career-high 20 and Marques Green handed out 11 assists.
Of course, it wasn’t always in the best of circumstances.
In the lost 2-26 season of 2004-05, the Bonnies’ lone home win came against Rhode Island, and the students stormed the floor. In 2013-14, Bona retired Nicholson’s No. 44 before a near sellout crowd, but it lost to the rebuilding Rams, 87-78.
For Rhode Island and St. Bonaventure, the names have always seemed to stand out – Cuttino Mobley, Lamar Odom, Jimmy Baron Jr. on one side; David Vanterpool, Tim Winn and Nicholson on the other – and so have some of the games.
Remember that 2012-13 season? That was the year Bona won in the Ryan Center despite having no power in its hotel that weekend and playing in an empty gym due to a severe northeastern snowstorm.
It was the last time it won at Rhode Island.
On Saturday, URI will look to continue an unbeaten league start and Bona will attempt to re-establish itself as an unquestioned at-large selection. For now, this is the rivalry the league wants, and one that it needs.
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at othbutler@gmail.com)
