It’s only one game, but a massive chance for a resume builder.
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, riding a five-game win streak, heads to Springfield, Mass. — home of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame — to play Florida Atlantic in the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic at the MassMutual Center today at 4 p.m. (ESPNU).
The Owls were one of the top stories of last year’s NCAA Tournament, making a run to the Final Four as a No. 9 seed. Remarkably bringing back 14 of their 15 players from that squad, the Owls (8-2) have kept themselves in the AP Top 25 this year, currently sitting No. 15 (No. 14 USA Today, No. 17 NET).
Point guard Mika Adams-Woods sees it as a “big opportunity” for the Bonnies.
“They get us ready for obviously conference play,” Adams-Woods said last week, looking forward to playing FAU after a runaway win over Siena. “But we’ve got a chance to go in and get a win against a great team. Shout out to FAU, they had a great year last year. I just feel like it’s a great opportunity for all of us to show the world what we can do, and we can play with anybody in the country in my opinion.”
MARK SCHMIDT sees some parallels to his 2021-22 team in these Owls. But where the Bonnies’ starting five that year all chose not to return for a fifth year, FAU’s team is almost all back. And its experience shows.
“They were very similar to us where they had those guys able to come back for another year and our guys left and they had their whole team come back,” Schmidt said. “All those guys could have put their name in the portal but they all decided to come back, and I don’t know if it was NIL money or what the reason for them coming back, but that’s one of the main reasons why they’re so good, they have a veteran team.
“You watch them play, they’re all tied together, but they’re a veteran team and you win now at this level when you’re older and they’ve got an old team.”
FAU, which boasts a win over No. 12 Texas A&M and a 34-point win over Virginia Tech, lost to No. 20 Illinois 98-89 last week. Junior Vladislav Goldin, a 7-foot-1 center from Russia, leads the Owls with 15.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, with junior guards Johnell Davis and Alijah Martin adding 14.4 and 13.5 points per game, respectively.
WHILE BONA guard Charles Pride remains listed “day-to-day” with an ankle injury after missing the last three games, he appears closer to a return.
“We’ll see how he feels,” Schmidt said. “We’ll go through the pregame stuff tomorrow and we’ll see how he feels.”
In Pride’s absence, his fellow fifth-year transfer and Syracuse native, Adams-Woods, has picked up more scoring, now at a team-high 16 points per game. And while Adams-Woods’ shooting numbers have skyrocketed thanks to 10-for-11 and 9-for-9 games against Niagara and Siena, Schmidt is pleased with his point guard’s performance in taking care of the ball. Adams-Woods has just one or no turnovers in seven of his nine games.
“You look at the stats, forget about the shooting, it’s the assist-turnover ratio (4.3 to 1.6),” Schmidt said. “You want 2-1 and 3-1 is terrific and right now he’s going towards 4-1. He’s learning his position here at Bonaventure, what we expect, running the sets and controlling the game and he’s the quarterback and it’s a process. Even though he started for four years at Cincinnati, it’s a whole new system here and he’s still learning. He doesn’t have a full grasp of what he’s doing yet, but every game, every practice he’s getting better.”
Bona had a full week between the Siena game and Saturday’s Massachusetts trip, but a lighter practice schedule due to finals week for the fall semester.
“We gave them a couple days off and then we’ve had some light practices Tuesday and Wednesday, went a little bit harder on Thursday, had a light practice (Friday),” Schmidt said. “This is a tough week just mentally with finals and so forth, probably the worst week for a player. I think we’ve had some good practices, we’ve gotten through finals so now the next four weeks, we’re like professional basketball players, so (we’re) looking forward to that.”
IN HIS early years at Bona, Schmidt’s teams “couldn’t get a sniff” of these neutral site games against such quality opponents, even with Andrew Nicholson, he said.
“It just shows the growth of our program and what the players before these guys have done to get the opportunity to play in some prestigious events and so we’re lucky,” Schmidt said. “Our guys should be appreciative of what the guys that came before them gave them, and they gave them this opportunity. Now we’ll see if we can seize it.”
Schmdit sees this opportunity as similar to the two games Bona split in Brooklyn last month against Oklahoma State and Auburn.
“They’re not a Power 5 team in terms of their league, but the AAC is pretty damn good,” he said of FAU. “It’s another test. We’re going to be tested. Just like we were tested against Oklahoma State and Auburn, we’re going to be tested again with high-major athletes, but it is just another game.
“We have 31 opportunities and the kids work their tails off all winter, all summer, all fall, for 31 opportunities so each one is special and that’s how we approach them. This one is the one on the schedule and it’s Florida Atlantic and our guys know the success that they’ve had. We’re looking forward to the opportunity to really measure up and see where we’re at.”
