St. Bonaventure Basketball: In the battle of the undefeated, the Bonnies face their tough test on Thanksgiving

By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun senior sports columnist

It’s hard to do better than perfect, and here the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team faces its toughest test of the early season on Thanksgiving afternoon.

The Bonnies are 6-0, on SBU’s longest undefeated streak to start the season since rookie head coach Jim Satalin opened the 1973-74 schedule with the same record.

Mark Schmidt’s virtually all-new team has a half-dozen wins against California State-Northridge, Canisius, Florida Gulf Coast, LeMoyne, Mansfield and Bryant.

Critics will say that Mansfield is a div. II school and that LeMoyne is in his second season as a DI and that only one of those victims has a track record, although it’s worth noting that Cal-St. has won five times in a row since losing the opening game against Bona.

NOW SCHMIDT Crew, ranked 106th out of 352, moves up in class and will face Utah State (5-0) on Thursday at 5:30 a.m. in the opening round of the ESPN NIT Tip-off Tournament at State Farm Fieldhouse in Kissimmee, Fla. . first game (ESPN2-TV, Bonnies Online Network, 100.1 FM).

Then, at 8 a.m., North Texas (5-1) will face Northern Iowa (3-2) in Game 2.

On Friday, the losers of the first game will meet in the third-place game at 6:30 a.m. (ESPNU), while the championship is scheduled for 9 a.m. (ESPN).

The last time the Bonnies eclipsed a 6-0 start was Larry Weise’s 1970-71 NIT team, which started with eight straight wins.

“THAT IS “It’s an honor,” Schmidt said of his participation in the ESPN event. “You called us and I guarantee you that 18 years ago we wouldn’t be playing here.

“You get a chance to play on a neutral court against good teams, and those neutral courts are like playing in the Atlantic 10 tournament. This makes our boys feel more comfortable playing against a really good team away from home. You don’t want to play against these teams in their place.”

He added: “We can’t settle for 6-0. We have to improve. We can’t listen to the noise and the talk about how we’re 6-0 and this and that. It’s the next game. We have to prepare for the next game.”

AND THAT “next game” will be a handful.

Utah State has beaten Alcorn State, Charlotte, Westminster (Utah) and Montana, but its biggest win was a 77-69 road decision against Iowa.

But as Schmidt pointed out, the 45th-ranked Aggies’ win was “no surprise.” And what’s catching the eye of pollsters is that Utah State is averaging 98 points per game.

He added: “They hold teams to 41 percent (from the field), 31 percent on threes, they outscore teams to 11 percent. They are a complete team.” They have good guards, good size and hit ten three-pointers per game. They are very well trained and do good things. Not only are they good on offense, they also do a good job on defense, stealing on average 12 times per game. They get a lot of their offense from their defense.”

ONE THING Schmidt was able to make some personnel decisions in his undefeated season opening series.

In fact, he has a solid starting lineup, a four-man attack built around returning 6-foot-3 center Noel Brown (13 points per game; George Washington).

The guards are Chance Moore (16 ppg, 8 rebounds; Missouri State), Melvin Council Jr. (13 ppg; Wagner), Dasonte Bowen (10 ppg, 4 assists; Iowa), Lajae Jones (10 ppg; Barton).

Everyone started every game except Jones, who missed one.

The two key reserves are Jonas Hinton (8 ppg; Northwest Missouri St.) and returning redshirt freshman Duane Thompson (4 ppg).

Of the game against Utah State, Schmidt concluded: “It’s a big test, it’s by far the best team we’ve played all year…so we’ll find out where we’re at.”

(Chuck Pollock, a senior sports columnist for the Wellsville Sun and Olean Star, can be reached at [email protected].)