ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — More than perhaps most others, Mark Schmidt was keenly aware of the talent level of Anthony Roberts.
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball coach had seen Roberts up close during his team’s “secret” preseason scrimmages with the shooting guard’s Kent State squads in each of the last two years.
He knew that Roberts was a capable scorer. He saw a toughness that could have made him a good fit with the Bonnies. And when Roberts put his name into the transfer portal back on March 23, the 14th-year coach seized the opportunity to make that addition a reality.
Just shy of a month later, the 6-foot-4 guard is a Bonnie.
Roberts, after two years with the Golden Flashes, has committed to continuing his career at Bona, he announced Monday. He will sit next season due to NCAA transfer rules and have two years of eligibility beginning in the 2021-22 campaign.
The Detroit native made no long social media post about his decision or a big to-do about why he chose Bona and the Atlantic 10. Instead, he posted a simple graphic of him in a No. 15 Bona uniform and the caption “Blessed (hands praying emoticon) NEW BEGINNINGS.”
After a reserve role as a freshman, Roberts made a big jump last winter, averaging 13 points (fourth-best on the Golden Flashes), three rebounds and two assists while shooting 44 percent from the field in 29 minutes per contest. In transitioning from bench player to regular starter by mid-December, he helped Kent State to a 20-12 season, including a 9-9 mark in league play.
In that way, Bona is getting a proven player from a good team who will have a year of practice to both gel with the current roster and learn Schmidt’s complex system. With two years of eligibility, he’ll have the opportunity to not only help the currently loaded junior class — a group that includes Kyle Lofton, Osun Osunniyi and Dominick Welch — during its senior year, but help lessen the blow of its departure in 2022.
Roberts is the second Mid-American Conference transfer to join the Bonnies in as many years, alongside Miami (Ohio) export and fellow 6-foot-4 guard Jalen Adaway, who will be eligible this season.
And just like Adaway, he comes to Bona as an already reliable scorer with a few more years to get better.
Roberts had nine games of 17 or more points in 2019-20. He tallied at least 12 points in seven of his final eight contests, including a career-high 23 on 8-for-17 shooting in a 104-98 double overtime loss to Buffalo, and 21 against Ohio, which featured a 5-for-6 effort from 3-point range.
Additionally, he shot a solid 77 percent from the free throw line and was capable from beyond the arc, connecting on 36 percent (49-of-135).
Roberts, a product of Henry Ford High School, originally held offers from Arizona State, Western Illinois, Eastern Kentucky, and Bryant before committing to Kent State prior to the 2018-19 season, according to verbalcommits.com.
He gives the Bonnies yet another option at an already deep position — a shooting guard/small forward stable that currently includes Welch, Jaren English, Adaway, Alejandro Vasquez, Alpha Okoli and incoming juco transfer Eddie Creal. He’s also the third player from the Detroit area to commit to the Bonnies in the last two years, alongside English and rising sophomore forward Robert Carpenter.
From an addition standpoint, Roberts is the fourth member of the Bonnies’ 2020 recruiting class, along with prep forward Quintin Metcalf and juco transfers Creal and Jalen Shaw, a 6-foot-10 center.
Typically inclined to pocket his last available scholarship, Schmidt presumably didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to add such an established player to the roster.
In doing so, he now has a full 13 scholarship players.
And, amazingly, with no seniors on the team for this winter — barring any transfers either the rest of this offseason or next — Bona’s roster would be set for not only the 2020-21 season, but also the 2021-22 campaign.
Both Creal and Shaw were officially announced by the program last week. Due to the ongoing limitations caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, players will be allowed to sign National Letters of Intent all the way through Aug. 1.
