RICHMOND, Va. — Count Keith Dambrot as another proponent of the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team.
“They’re a good team, they’re an NCAA Tournament team,” the Duquesne coach said Wednesday after his Dukes were handed a 73-67 defeat by Bona, “(it’s) a team that if you don’t have a good defensive scheme is going to beat somebody in the NCAA Tournament.”
Yes, the Bonnies, with their one-two punch of All-America candidate Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley, have officially caught the attention of the college basketball-watching world. CBS’ Matt Norlander recently called them a “tempting darkhorse Sweet 16 pick.”
First, however, Bona has to actually MAKE the tournament.
And it can take another step toward doing so when it meets VCU tonight inside one of the Atlantic 10’s most unforgiving venues, the raucous Siegel Center.
It would be understandable if the Bonnies (21-6, 11-4) had revenge on the mind after what happened with the Rams last year in the Reilly Center. For some fans, it still stings: That’s when they were robbed of an apparent last-second triumph by a questionable administrative technical foul.
This team, however, in search of the program’s first tournament bid since 2012, is focused on the now. Tonight, it can clinch the first of its long-term goals: A top-four finish in league play and the all-important double bye in the A-10 Tournament.
“Not really,” said junior LaDarien Griffin, when asked if there was any added motivation based on last year’s outcome. “You go into every game wanting to win, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is. These guys have been a staple, top team in our league for a long time. They’re still a good team, no matter what the rankings say.
“We want to go into every game with the same approach: Just wanting to win.”
Much like the league’s other perennial power, Dayton — despite what happened to Bona at UD Arena in early January — VCU, with new coach Mike Rhoades, who replaced the departed Will Wade, isn’t nearly as invulnerable as it generally is.
The Rams (16-12, 8-7) are currently tied for fourth in the league standings, unfamiliar territory for this team, which has finished lower than second only once in its five previous seasons in the A-10. They’ve lost four of the last six, including an 80-56 pummeling by George Washington last week.
It’s the first time they’ve lost more than six games in a league campaign.
Bona is quick to remind you, however: This team is still talented, still tough and still difficult to beat on its home floor. It plays mostly the same way it did under Wade and Shaka Smart, Bona coach Mark Schmidt said.
“They’re pressuring full-court, half-court, they’re still out denying,” he said. “They’re still pushing the ball, they’re running very similar stuff that they ran in previous years. It’s a great environment — the fans are just like the fans here, no matter if they’re having a great year or an average year. They’re still a really hard team to play, especially at their place.”
The Rams no longer have Bona-killer Mo Alie-Cox or guard JeQuan Lewis, who hit that controversial free throw that forced overtime last season, but they do have the league’s most dominant big man in Justin Tillman.
The 6-foot-8 senior forward ranks fourth in the league in scoring (19 points) and first in rebounds (10). He recently went for 37 points and eight boards against Dayton and is coming off a 26-point, 13-rebound performance in an 82-78 win at UMass.
Tillman is in the Player of the Year conversation alongside Adams, Davidson’s Peyton Aldridge and URI’s Jared Terrell. He’s supported by one of the league’s top young players in sophomore De’Riante Jenkins (13 points) and senior guard Jonathan Williams (10 points, 6 assists).
Bona has struggled with dominant inside players before, and knows it will have its hands full tonight.
“He’s the best big guy in our league,” Schmidt acknowledged. “He’s quick, he doesn’t have to put the ball down to score in the post. So you have to do your work early on him, try to get him off his red spot, his hot spot.”
Added Griffin: “It’s not really on me or Amadi (Ikpeze) or Court (Stockard), it’s just as a team … we’ve got to make sure we locate where he’s at, we’ve got to make sure that the help defense is always there, just try to limit his touches.
“He’s a really good player, he’s going to do his thing, but it’s a matter of playing team defense (to slow him down).”
VCU ranks No. 124 in the RPI and has hung with the likes of No. 1 Virginia, Marquette and Michigan. It’s likely the Bonnies’ most difficult remaining regular-season game, and another opportunity at a resume-building win (it would be a quadrant 2 triumph, which would push their record to 8-4 in those contests).
Can Bona lose this game and still be in the at-large conversation? It would rather just win it and not leave it to chance.
“We’ve had a bunch of Game 7s since we were 2-4,” said Schmidt, whose team is 1-4 against VCU since it joined the league in 2012-13. “Every game, you’ve got pressure, no matter if it’s the best team or the last-place team. We know it’s going to be a difficult game, but it’s a game where we need to go down there and try to steal one.”
