by Jack Godar
It’s been a tumultuous year in Olean (looks around for that one guy who used to be on A-10 twitter that would go psychotic if you said St. Bonaventure was in Olean), punctuated by the “retirement” of Mark Schmidt, who will go down in history as a St. Bonaventure legend. This was the first year that another Bonaventure legend, former ESPN newsbreaker Adrian Wojnarowski, truly put his stamp on the team as GM. It didn’t go as planned, with the Bonnies finishing 15-16 and 4-14 in conference play. To say the wheels fell off is an understatement and St. Bonaventure ended the season as the 13 seed.
Bona does have some talent that could make some noise in the A-10 Tournament. Frank Mitchell is a load down low, averaging a double double, and Buddy Simmons is a great shooter who can go off from deep at a moment’s notice, and Achille Lonati is a talented freshman. Bonaventure’s non-conference showed that it’s a team capable of winning games. Bonaventure’s conference play showed that it’s a program that is not aligned currently. It’s rare seeing Bonaventure in the pillow fight, but they certainly have the capability to win a game or two in Pittsburgh. Can they send Mark Schmidt off with a couple of wins? It would be a great story (and a boon to the bar owners of Pittsburgh to keep Bonnies fans in town as long as possible)!