DALLAS – I remember being surprised Jaylen Adams was in the starting lineup.
It was Nov. 8, 2014, just before tip in the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team’s preseason exhibition with Mansfield. At that time, freshmen rarely played under Mark Schmidt, let alone started. The assumption was that junior college transfer Iakeem Alston would fill the void at point guard left by Charlon Kloof.
Rather than Alston, however, the starter was a skinny kid from Baltimore who wore No. 10 and, even as a freshman, looked younger than his age. He was young, but heady, wide-eyed, but poised. And nothing would ever be the same.
On Thursday night, well after the clocked had ticked into the wee hours of Friday, Adams played the final game in one of the greatest individual careers in Bona history. Exhausted, having given the last of what he had to a program that eagerly welcomed him after decommitting from Jacksonville in the spring of ’14, he sat in the post-game press conference, coming to terms with the finality, even fighting back a tear.
The 6-foot-2 guard, in a way, was the bridge between a program rejuvenated and one that reached almost unprecedented levels of internal success and was respected on a national scale. His four years marked a golden era for Bona basketball, its single greatest stretch outside of the Stith-led teams of the early 60s and the Bob Lanier Final Four group.
Adams’ Bona career – and this season for the ages – came to an end Thursday, terminated where it should have been: On the grand stage of the NCAA Tournament, before legions of adoring fans, with every bit of this team’s energy and emotion left behind on the American Airlines Center floor. On that November day in 2014, the Baltimore native scored five points on 1-for-6 shooting, leaving people to wonder: What might be in store for a Schmidt-coached freshman that’s actually starting out of the gate?
By the time he reached the post-game podium Thursday, he had already, unequivocally, provided the answer.
I promised myself I would never again bring up the player eligibility scandal in a story.
For me, the expiration date on its presence in Bona-related content was March 11, 2012, the day the Andrew Nicholson-led Bonnies won the Atlantic 10 Tournament championship and officially completed the healing of a program previously still in pain.
But I couldn’t help but think about those dark days in the waning minutes of Thursday night’s 77-62 loss to Florida, when a thunderous “Let’s Go Bona’s” chant broke out despite this less-than-ideal ending.
In the same week Bona boycotted the final two games of the 2002-03 season, there existed a feeling of abandonment of a program embroiled in turmoil. On Thursday and into Friday, there was, without question, the greatest outpouring of affection for a Bona team in my lifetime.
Fans from far and wide took to social media to express their gratitude and admiration for the 2017-18 Bonnies, and the memorable ride coach Mark Schmidt’s team had taken them on. One note, in particular struck a chord:
“Twenty-four total wins in my four years as an SBU student. Twenty-six this year. Unreal. Extremely proud of the Bonnies, university, community and fan base.”
As somebody in the same graduating Bona class, I knew exactly where he was coming from. Bona won 24 total games in the four Anthony-Solomon-led years before Schmidt’s arrival, coinciding with our four years as undergrads, including a 2-26 campaign in 2004-05. These Bonnies not only matched that number in one season, they exceeded it, and made an indelible mark almost every step of the way: from Courtney Stockard’s game-winner over Maryland, to the buzzer-beating victory over Vermont, to the resounding win over Syracuse, to an unbelievable 13-game winning streak and a forever NCAA Tournament triumph over UCLA.
On Thursday, Bona had a difficult time putting it all into perspective. It had just gotten handled by Florida in the Round of 64, was just beginning its goodbyes to Adams, Matt Mobley and Idris Taqqee, the winningest senior class in program history.
Amid the hugs and sniffles, however, it knew – it had known with each passing triumph – that it had done something special, something that will stand the test of Bona basketball time. And the fans, who have clung to this program like a first-born child, couldn’t have been prouder for what was accomplished.
“Bonaventure has great tradition way back to the Stith brothers,” Schmidt managed early Friday morning in the bowels of American Airlines Center, “and for us, for this team to break the record of the most wins, speaks volumes about our season, because the seasons before and the tradition that we have … we’ve had great teams that have never done that.
For all the great Bona players who have come before and after – Nicholson and Marcus Posley; Dion Wright and Matt Mobley – the true rise traces back to Adams.
In the senior guard’s four years, Bona has written and re-written some of the program’s oldest and most notable records – from a wins mark that had stood since 1970, to the record for A-10 victories (14) and road wins (9), to the standard for consecutive conference triumphs (13), to the big one, the one that will resonate for eternity: The first NCAA Tournament win since 1970.
Adams, who very nearly became the Bonnies’ sixth 2,000-point scorer despite missing essentially half a season with injuries, who this season became the team’s third Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, had a hand in all of that. But it wasn’t just him. This was a reward – an ultimate prize – that was set in motion the day Schmidt was named coach in April of 2007, the day he began working for this moment.
“For us to win an NCAA game for the first time in 48 years is just – it’s unbelievable,” he said. “I told the seniors in the locker room: We’re proud of what you accomplished. When we got here, we were building this program, and they are going to be known for not just sustaining it, but making it more of a national program. That’s what I’m proud of.”
For most Bona fans, proud doesn’t begin to describe it. From Thanksgiving on, aside from that rough road stretch to start conference play, they were treated …
Treated to two of the greatest games in Reilly Center history (the win over nationally-ranked Rhode Island and the triple-overtime thriller with Davidson), to three wins over Power 5 conference opponents, to seven straight weeks of unbeaten basketball, to the greatness of Adams and Mobley, the tenacity of Taqqee and the emergence of Stockard.
While the fans took time to express that love, the players did much of the same.
“Bona nation: Thank you!” Mobley tweeted early Friday. “It’s been a pleasure to wear that jersey #BonasForever.”
This 2017-18 Bona season? It won’t be forgotten.
“You know, the wins are great,” Schmidt said, “but we’ve gotten the respect of the country now, and it’s taken a while to get that. We did some incredible things that the guys are going to look back on – days, years from now – and say, ‘Wow.’
“This team is going to be remembered forever for what they’ve done. We can’t allow (Florida) to jeopardize or to affect what we’ve done throughout this year.”
