ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — For the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, even against the backdrop of an otherwise easygoing NFL Sunday afternoon, there are multiple layers of meaning.
Bona, with another win, can maximize its momentum heading into the crown jewel of its non-conference schedule, next week’s Charleston Classic in sunny South Carolina. Much like it did in its season-opener against Siena, it can also exact a bit of revenge: The Bonnies, remember, also lost to Canisius amid that 1-4 start two years ago, dropping a rather inexplicable 61-57 decision (minus both Osun Osunniyi and Jaren Holmes) after knocking off Rutgers in Toronto a week earlier.
But there’s also this: Canisius, no matter how big the Bonnies have become, is still the latter’s longest-standing rival. And for some fans of a certain generation, it’s still the most important game on the schedule.
AND ALL of that, collectively, is what makes tomorrow’s matchup with the Golden Griffins (5 o’clock, WPIG-FM, ESPN+-live stream) inside the Reilly Center, the teams’ first in two years, another significant early-season test for No. 23 Bona.
“Us joining the Atlantic 10, for the younger alums, those games are really, really important,” coach Mark Schmidt said. “But for the older alums, Canisius and Niagara are everything.”
He then added with a chuckle, “I remember six or seven years ago, this old-time guy, an alum, came up to me and goes, ‘Coach, I don’t care what you do in the Atlantic 10, but you can’t lose to Canisius and Niagara.’ So those games are still really, really important, they’re rivalry games, they’re tradition … and they should be.”
BONA, as it was against the Saints, will once again be expected to win comfortably.
Canisius (No.247) and Siena (270) are currently the third- and fourth-lowest ranked teams on SBU’s schedule, per KenPom. The Griffs were selected to finish last of 11 teams in the preseason MAAC poll. There’s no question, though, that its Little 3 rival has Bona’s attention.
Canisius went into Miami, of the ACC, and gave it all it could handle in its season-opener, trailing by just six at the break before the Hurricanes used a big run midway through the second half to secure a 77-67 victory. It also has three starters back from the team that beat Bona inside Buffalo’s KeyBank Center in November 2019: 6-foot-5 guards Jordan Henderson and Armon Harried, and the guy that gave fans nightmares that night: Jacco Fritz.
The Dutch big man had 12 points and 10 rebounds and the Griffs outrebounded Bona by 16 in that victory.
“Two years ago, they really beat us on the backboard; Fritz really killed us,” Schmidt acknowledged, before adding of the current outfit: “They run their stuff, they have a continuity that they run, they have little tweaks to it. The kid (Malek Green, a 6-foot-7 Morehead State transfer) is playing extremely well, he had 21 against Miami.
“(Against) an ACC team on their home court, Canisius got down a little bit early, but it was a relatively even game. They have good players, veteran guys, it’s going to be a battle, just like Siena, just like when we play Niagara. Throw out the records … it will be a good game.”
BONA, even as it’s broken into the upper-echelon of the A-10 over the last decade, has often been pushed by Canisius. Schmidt’s teams are 8-5 against the Golden Griffins and 2-2 since Reggie Witherspoon took over in 2016, including a Canisius win inside the RC that same season.
But one big factor in their favor is that the Bonnies, two games in, should be at full strength.
Osunniyi, reportedly a full participant in Friday’s practice, is expected to play after leaving the Siena contest with a nagging lower back injury, Schmidt confirmed. Bona will also have back starting forward Jalen Adaway, who’s been nursing an ankle injury and sat out Tuesday’s game due to a minor NCAA violation.
And it’s excited for both the season debut of its star-studded quintet and the return of its starting power forward, which Schmidt described as “a big lift.”
“Now you don’t have to play (Dominick Welch) out of position to start the game,” the 15th-year coach noted, “so there aren’t as many adjustments.”
“We’re a better team with Jalen in the lineup, for sure; you saw that last year. He can do a lot of different things, he can switch ball screens, he’s a mismatch problem, and we think that he’s gotten that much better this year. Not having him in Game 1 was a disappointment, and other guys stepped up and that’s great. But when you have one of your better players sitting out, that’s not good, and we’re glad to have him back.”
FOR BONA, it will undoubtedly be viewed as a “take care of business” kind of contest. The Griffins finished that 2019-20 campaign at 12-20 and managed just 13 games (7-6 record) in last year’s pandemic-shortened season. On Friday, Canisius trailed by as many as 25 in an 83-71 loss to East Carolina (Harried had 25 and Fritz 10), dropping it to 0-2 on the year.
But this is still very much a stepping stone on its way to Charleston, where it will play three games in four days against high-level competition, and beyond, Schmidt noted.
“We’ve got a long way to being 100 percent,” he said. “It’s a long season, we’re still tweaking stuff, still tweaking the bench. It’s not gonna be all settled by the end of the Canisius game.
“The non-conference is a time where you try to settle on guys; we have a lot of new guys, trying to figure out where they fit in, and it’s one thing to practice and it’s another to play games. We found out a lot about ourselves and the bench on Tuesday against Siena and we’ll find out more about (ourselves) on Sunday against Canisius.”
