ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — This one, miraculously, mercifully, seemed like it was actually going to be played.
A week earlier, the prospects weren’t quite as clear. The pregame press conference with coach Mark Schmidt was canceled and none of the athletic department’s preview information ever materialized. Sure enough, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team’s Sunday matchup with Dayton was postponed due to Bona being in COVID-19 protocol.
This time, though, it figured to be “game on.” Bona released a full preview for its showdown with Saint Louis on Thursday afternoon and sent a reminder email about the need for proof of vaccination. Both Bona and the Billikens had reportedly gotten past their COVID-related pauses earlier in the week.
And yet, by 8 p.m. this one, too, had been wiped out, added to the postponement list due to more positive tests within the local program.
THIS, OF course, was merely the latest stomach-punch to Bona fans, who have watched five-straight contests go by the wayside and will now go at least 25 days without the excitement of gameday to lift their spirits during the winter doldrums.
It was another indication that the coronavirus still very much has a tight grip on real life, and that we must continue to accept such outcomes or be willing to live with its effects (for college hoops, this might mean a change in testing protocol for team personnel) in some capacity.
And with that, a harsh reality has begun to set in: What started as the very dream season that fans had hoped for, which once featured a shiny No. 16 national ranking, has now become something of a nightmare.
And yes, perhaps there was something to the idea that an extended break might be a blessing in disguise. Star point guard Kyle Lofton had acknowledged as much prior to the new year. But any good that might have come from that went out the window when two weeks became 22 days and counting.
These guys want to play. That, as Schmidt has often reminded us, is why they’re here. And now, for a third-straight season, their ability to do so is being jeopardized.
This is largely the same core that had its 2019-20 campaign come to an abrupt end before playing its first game in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. It’s the one that didn’t start last season until Dec. 15, managed just 21 total games, and even when it did make history by advancing to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed, hardly got to enjoy it, as it played in mostly empty gyms and was confined to its hotel rooms during NCAA week.
And now it’s going to go a month between games and have yet another season threatened to be cut down by the pandemic? It almost doesn’t matter how mentally tough these guys have been over the last four years, that has to be taking its toll.
THE GOOD news is that Bona presumably, hopefully still has time for a storybook ending.
If the league can successfully navigate this current COVID surge, and the A-10’s 14 teams can get their pauses “out of the way” now,” Schmidt’s group should still have a two-month window to put itself back on the right side of the NCAA bubble, to prove that it’s still the team to beat, to achieve its overarching goal of repeating as conference champion.
Only now, there are a myriad more questions about reaching that outcome than there were ever supposed to be.
How will Bona’s starting five, all with pro prospects who have already won an A-10 title and played in the Big Dance, respond to yet another lengthy pause and the mental fatigue that has undoubtedly come with these last two campaigns?
We know these guys. They’re high-character, hungry players with a stated goal of getting further than they did last year. But it would be understandable if one or more of them were to become even remotely checked out as a result of what’s happening.
If the fans are this upset, this discouraged, this frustrated by the current circumstances, what must that mean for the players, who have spent countless hours on their craft only to be told, yet again, you can’t play?
How will Bona fare physically after collectively coming down with the virus, most of them for the second time? More than anything, you hope that those players and coaches who tested positive are doing okay from a health standpoint. But you need only turn to last year to understand how much of a factor that ended up being.
SCHMIDT noted that it took quite a while for everyone to return to optimal game shape after enduring a team-wide pause early last December. And now that challenge becomes even greater: To not only knock the rust off from a 25-day break, but bounce back from COVID, get back in game shape AND attempt to recapture the momentum you had before that harrowing 37-point loss to Virginia Tech.
Beyond that are other questions: How, exactly, will Bona be made to fit these remaining three makeups into an already-tight 18-game schedule? Would the league take any steps toward protecting (re: “favoriting”) Bona over the next two months as one of its few legit NCAA contenders?
Will this nightmare finally come to an end on Tuesday at La Salle?
The small solace, like last year, is that the Bonnies are far from the only ones dealing with all of these COVID-related headaches. But again, it will ultimately be up to them how they choose to respond. If it’s the Bona we’ve come to know over the last several seasons, expect it to use every bit of this as fuel for a strong finish.
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)
