ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — The hope was that this current pause would end at 16 days.
As it turns out, however, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team will now go at least 19 days between contests.
In another development that has become all too reminiscent of last year, the Bonnies’ weekend matchup with Dayton, slated for Sunday at noon, was postponed on the eve of the game, getting called on Saturday at 6 p.m. due to COVID-19.
Bona has now had the last three contests wiped from its schedule, amounting to one cancellation (its non-conference finale at Northeastern) and two postponements (would-be Atlantic 10 openers at both George Washington and Dayton). And while the first two came as a result of its opponent being forced into COVID protocol, the latter was due to Bona needing to pause for its own positive tests.
The league announced that both A-10 contests will be rescheduled for a later date, though it remains to be seen how exactly the conference slate will play out from here and what significant or widespread changes are made as the coronavirus threatens to derail another campaign and such logistics again become a nightmare going forward.
And it’s a safe bet that whatever solace the Bonnies initially took in having an extended break to refocus and return to full health, that’s since been replaced by the same frustration and helplessness that took hold throughout the myriad pauses, scheduling changes and lost opportunities of last year.
The consolation for Mark Schmidt’s group is that, once again, it’s far from the only program, both nationally and within its own conference, dealing with such issues.
Seven of 14 A-10 teams, including Bona, haven’t played since at least Dec. 22 while enduring pauses of anywhere between 21 and 12 days. Six others have managed just one game within the last week, including Rhode Island, which had a 20-day gap before finally being able to play American International in a non-league game on Sunday. The only team that’s gone relatively unscathed is Richmond, which managed to play all 13 of its non-league games before Christmas and got both of its first two league contests (Thursday vs. Saint Joe’s; Sunday at Saint Louis) in as scheduled.
Bona is now slated to open the A-10 campaign on Wednesday against Fordham in the Reilly Center.
In the meantime, it continues to be an increasingly unfortunate situation for both the team and its fans. And that calls for at least a shred of something positive. So here a couple of notes on Bonnies who have recently reached or are quickly closing in on a milestone accomplishment:
1. With four blocks against Virginia Tech on Dec. 17, Osun Osunniyi tied Andrew Nicholson for No. 2 on the program’s all-time rejections list at 244. The senior center now trails only Caswell Cyrus (289) on that chart, and, with a season average of 3.0 blocks per contest, is currently on pace to set the career mark while also having a chance at Cyrus’ single-season record (99 in 1997-98).
2. Osunniyi recently became just the 12th player in school history to eclipse 700 career rebounds and vaulted to 10th in program annals in that category (730), jumping past Youssou Ndoye (705) and Matt Gantt (706) to crack the top 10.
3. With his three 3-pointers vs. the Hokies, Dominick Welch broke a tie with Tim Winn for fourth place on the all-time treys list, pushing him to 195 for his career. The senior guard now trails J.R. Bremer (223), Jaylen Adams (270) and Marques Green (281) for the top three, and would be on pace to pass at least Bremer at his current average of 2.63 3s per game.
4. Welch surpassed 900 career points against UConn and now has 916 after his 11-point outing against Virginia Tech. Jalen Adaway, meanwhile, is just a two-point bucket away from that mark, including 506 from his first two seasons at Miami (Ohio). Those two are looking to become the second and third current players to join the 1,000-point club, alongside Kyle Lofton, who did so last season.
5. With 1,355 points, Lofton presently sits 22nd on Bona’s career scoring list, just six behind Barry Mungar for 21st. At his current scoring pace (15.6 points) over at least 31 games, the senior guard would finish with 1,714 points, just behind Bremer (1,732) for 10th on the all-time list.
6. Despite a 7-of-13 effort at the line against VT, Bona still leads the A-10 and ranks in the top 25 nationally in free throw shooting (No. 24) at 77.3 percent. And despite an uncharacteristic 20 turnovers, it sits No. 33 in the country in turnovers per game (10.9) and has posted single digit giveaways in six of 11 contests on the year.
