ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — He’ll be viewed in an uneven light, remembered for both his contributions to the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball program and his detractions.
Josh Ayeni could ignite the Bonnies with his passionate demeanor or hurt them with his combustible behavior or a stupid foul.
He could swing a game with his smooth shooting stroke – such as last December, when he scored a critical 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting in a 73-65 win over Canisius – or frustrate his coaches by playing smaller than his 6-foot-8, 215-pound frame might otherwise allow.
Ayeni was a pleasant surprise, a regular starter on a pair of 20-win teams, a detriment, at times, to the Bonnies’ success. But after a bumpy two-year career, his time at Bona has come to an end.
Ayeni will continue his playing career at South Alabama, of the Sun Belt Conference, CBS Sports insider Jon Rothstein reported Tuesday. It was the long-awaited destination for the Nigerian-born power forward, who Rothstein said was transferring from Bona in early June.
In the nearly six weeks in between, little was known about Ayeni’s official status or his reasons for wanting to leave coach Mark Schmidt’s program.
Unlike with past players, Bona never publicly acknowledged the offseason departures of freshman guard Izaiah Brockington or Ayeni. Their names will merely vanish from the page once the 2018-19 roster is updated.
Bona, according to one team official, actually assisted Ayeni in his quest to find a new school and allowed him to stick around campus in the meantime. No matter how cordial the split, however, it became evident by the end of last season and was lost in the Bonnies’ storybook finish: The relationship between Ayeni and the team was too strained to continue.
In one sense, Bona will miss the Zaria, Nigeria, native, whose original arrival, remember, was delayed while his international status was being sorted out.
Ayeni averaged seven points and three rebounds and shot 48 percent from the field in a promising freshman year. He scored 10 or more points in seven of his first 15 games of this season. When his 17-foot jumper was falling, he added a valuable pick-and-pop aspect to the Bonnies’ offense.
But here’s what Bona can do without:
The player who twice got himself suspended in conference play this year, including for a crucial six-game stretch in February; the player who was once ejected from a game for a post-whistle scrap and who was slapped with a momentum-changing technical at Dayton for the same reason; the hulking forward who was too often unwilling or unable to bang down low.
By the penultimate victory in their record-setting 13-game win streak, the Bonnies almost didn’t even need Ayeni anymore. After sitting the previous six games, he played just two minutes in the team’s season-ending win over Saint Louis and was held out entirely in an Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinal triumph over Richmond.
By the time he suffered a knee injury the following day against Davidson, the wheels for his departure were likely already in motion.
For some Bona fans, Ayeni’s exit might be considered addition by subtraction. But there’s also this truth: He started 40 games over two seasons and gave the Bonnies a solid 15-17 minutes (or more, depending on foul trouble) at a position in which they’ve never been particularly deep.
With Ayeni out, Bona now has more first-year players (6) than returning ones (5). For as bright as its prospects may still be, Schmidt’s group has lost a considerable amount of production from last year’s 26-win outfit, undoubtedly an internal concern.
His transfer also puts a little more pressure on rising junior Amadi Ikpeze and prized freshman Osun Osunniyi to give the Bonnies a more consistent interior presence, though they’ll be helped by senior LaDarien Griffin and Bona’s ability to go small at power forward.
For Ayeni, this shift in backdrop is likely a much-needed fresh start. And the fact he’ll have to sit one year before playing two might actually be a blessing in disguise: That same team source said the knee injury might even have kept Ayeni sidelined for a portion of next season.
For Bona, it was probably time to move on from the player whose fervid nature was oftentimes as hurtful as it was helpful.
Ayeni now heads to a South Alabama team that finished 10th among 12 squads in the low-major Sun Belt Conference last season. He could well be a star – and himself – there.
And Bona?
It will soon attempt to continue rising with a relatively new-look cast of players.
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)