ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Jaren English got his first true sense of the accomplishment during a May visit to campus.
The 6-foot-4 guard, who wound up signing with St. Bonaventure later that month, took notice of the enlarged photo of the 2012 Atlantic 10 Tournament title team hanging in one of the hallways inside the Reilly Center. He was moved by the shiny championship trophy that sits just outside of coach Mark Schmidt’s office.
English was given a deeper understanding of that team, and just what it means to the program and Bona community, in a historical context, before a game against George Washington in early February.
That was the day Andrew Nicholson, the star of the 2012 team and the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, addressed the current Bonnies in an inspirational pregame locker room lecture.
English, in just his first season at Bona, has come to know what it takes to be a truly unique squad, even within a program that has produced a collection of memorable teams over the years. For the Romulus, Mich., native, it’s as much a motivating factor for wanting to bring home another A-10 championship as yearning to play in the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s a special time,” he said prior to Monday’s practice. “We have an opportunity to win a championship that could basically band us here as a team together forever. Everybody still talks about 2012 and Nicholson. That would be tremendous and a great honor to definitely be talked about as we go on in our careers and lives, and as we come back to Bonaventure.
“The opportunity to go down there as a family, with this great group of guys and brothers, it’s exciting.”
Unlike last year, when it was the upstart in a more open field, or in 2018, when it was the No. 2 seed and on the bubble for the Big Dance, Bona isn’t expected to make it very far in this year’s event.
It knows that.
The 2012 titleist, entering in the shadow of three-time defending champion Temple, wasn’t exactly the favorite either.
But this year’s Bonnies, who still managed to finish fifth despite a lineup consisting almost exclusively of sophomores and freshmen, have two things going for them as they descend upon Brooklyn’s Barclays Center: A core that made it to last year’s championship and a crop of newcomers who want desperately to help put them over the top.
The latter group includes English, who insists Bona is unfazed by the prospect of having to win four games in four days for a conference title rather than what it was tasked with in 2012, and what it very nearly did last March, when it had the double-bye.
The sophomore guard has faced this very challenge. His Ranger Community College (Texas) team played four games in five days last March, reaching the NJCAA Division I championship before falling to Vincennes on the final day.
“(I’m) super excited to hopefully go back and finish what we had a chance to finish last year,” English said. “I’m ready for us to take that step; I believe we can do it. But I’m also excited to just do down there and compete with our guys …
“We’re going to go down there and try to win four games in a row. I believe anybody can be beaten, just like we can be beaten at any time, but we’ve got to go in everyday and compete with the chance that it could be our last game, so we’re going to go down there and do that.”
Dominick Welch was a freshman on the team that came within a missed 3-pointer at the buzzer of winning last year’s A-10 title.
The trio of he, Kyle Lofton and Osun Osunniyi weren’t just along for the ride, they were the primary figures in the Bonnies’ run to Sunday, with Welch tallying a then career-high 20 points, including six 3s, in their quarterfinal triumph over George Mason and Lofton making the All-Tournament Team.
How might that experience help Bona this time around?
“Just having that year under our belt, the experience, I think we can just lead by example for our young guys, lead the whole team,” he said. “The whole process of going game after game, scout after scout, trying to care of our bodies (for potentially four-straight games) … we just want to do the best we can.”
Yes, Bona fell short of a season-long goal of securing a double-bye for the fourth time in five seasons. And its path at No. 5 is treacherous: It not only has to first get through Thursday, but would potentially have to face both red-hot Saint Louis, against whom it was handled on Saturday, and top-seeded Dayton.
But its goal, in their eyes, remains just as attainable: To become the second team in program history, along with that 2012 group, to win an A-10 championship.
“It wasn’t in our plans (to fall to fifth), but everything happens for a reason,” English said. “We’re excited to go down there again and try to go attack these four games head on and get to the NCAA Tournament.
“I believe we can do it, I know our entire team does. As long as we believe and we have faith in each other and trust in each other, I believe that we have a strong chance.”
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)
