What a 30 hours it was for Buffalo Bills and St. Bonaventure basketball fans from last Thursday afternoon until early Friday evening.
First the Bills, on Thanksgiving, in a must-win situation, went to Detroit for the second time in five days, and gutted out a last-second 28-25 win over the relentless Lions.
Then, a day later, the evolving Bonnies hung an embarrassing loss on then-undefeated Notre Dame, 63-51, at UBS Arena in Belmont Park
FIRST, the Bills.
The betting public obviously thought this one would be easy, oddsmakers setting a line that favored Buffalo by a way-too-much 9½ points.
Detroit is a team, behind fiery coach Dan Campbell, no NFL contender wanted to play. Despite a 4-6 record coming in, the Lions had won three straight and were playing in front of a festive, holiday home crowd.
And, with just over 2½ minutes to play, Buffalo was down 22-19.
Placekicker Tyler Bass’ missed extra point let the Lions charge back to tie it at 25 with under a half-minute to play in regulation.
But, with only 23 seconds left, quarterback Josh Allen made a perfect 36-yard connection with wideout Stefon Diggs and two QB runs later set up Bass’ second chance and his 45-yard field goal with two seconds left provided the game-winner.
Coach Sean McDermortt and Allen both admitted the Bills played far less than their best, but conceded, in this case, any win, no matter how achieved, is crucial.
However, it’s not over for Buffalo as it plays a third game in 12 days, traveling to Foxboro, Thursday night, to face the Patriots.
It concludes a brutal scheduling stretch that wasn’t entirely the league’s fault. Six-and-a-half feet of snow in Orchard Park moved the Browns game to Detroit, and five days later it was back to the same site for the Lions on Thanksgiving. New England is the last stop.
Three straight road games is tough enough, but over such a condensed span is brutal.
Worse, the Bills are 0-2 in the division and can ill-afford an 0-3 start, especially with home games against the two AFC East foes — Jets and Dolphins — coming up immediately afterward.
As it is, Buffalo, 8-3, is looking up at Miami, also 8-3, in the division having lost head-to-head and Kansas City, 9-2, in the conference though it has beaten the Chiefs if they tie record-wise.
THEN, THERE are the Bonnies.
The cliche “pleasant surprise” might be an understatement.
Six games into the season, coach Mark Schmidt’s team is 4-2, the losses an overtime defeat at Canisius, where one play would have changed the outcome, and a mere four-pointer at South Dakota State.
Three of the wins are at home, which is to be expected given Bona’s non-conference success at the Reilly Center, but the victory over Notre Dame, at the New York Islanders home arena, stands out in bold print.
Coach Mike Bray’s team was off to a 5-0 start with five fifth-year senior starters and a five-star freshman recruit who isn’t expected to be there near that long.
The Irish were favored by only 5½ points but this seemed a mismatch against Schmidt’s crew, an entirely turned-over team, a mere five games into their St. Bonaventure careers.
This game WAS a mismatch … but the other way.
Notre Dame never led, was 3-of-17 on threes, 0-for-9 in the second half and Schmidt’s defense, which is his Bona calling card, held the Irish to nearly 30 points under their scoring average.
What’s encouraging about all of this, heading into Wednesday night’s game against Middle Tennessee at the RC, is that four Bonnies have established solid credentials … they’re not being carried by one player.
Three of them are transfers, so they bring experience.
The starting guards have been even better than expected. Former St. Peter’s star, Daryl Banks III, a redshirt junior, is averaging 17 points and three assists and Holy Cross’ Kyrell Luc, a sophomore, is logging 16 points, six assists and four boards. But the most unexpected immediate contribution has been from Morgan State’s redshirt sophomore, Chad Venning. The 6-foot-10, 270-pound center is scoring 12 with six boards and is seemingly improving every game as a back-to-the-basket player. The other main contributor is 6-foot-6 freshman forward, Yann Farrell, averaging a near double-double, 10 points and eight boards.
In short, the Bonnies have played a shade less than 20% of their season and have already established they’re going to be fun to watch.
(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
