Bona faces its toughest test yet in Syracuse
Published: December 18, 2009, 10:25 pm
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There are at least four opponents St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt scheduled to prepare his Bonnies for the Atlantic 10 season. Among them:
Taking on Big East foe St. John's in Rochester, playing in the BTI Classic hosted by Illinois State, and traveling to Mississippi State to face a contender for the Southeastern Conference championship.
Tonight's 7 p.m. tipoff against a red-hot Syracuse team brings another test. SU leads the nation in field-goal percentage (55.2) and steals (14.0). The meeting between St. Bonaventure (6-3) and No. 5-ranked Syracuse (10-0) is the first of four non-league games before Bona starts A-10 play on Jan. 6 against George Washington.
It also presents an opportunity for the Bonnies to gauge their strengths and weaknesses that have emerged over the first nine games of the season.
"We've won the games we're supposed to have won and lost the games where we were underdogs," Schmidt said. "The St. John's game we had a great shot at winning, the Illinois State game we were right there and the Mississippi State game was the Mississippi State game. They broke a school record on three-pointers and we just didn't have a chance."
The highlights have been the play of point guard Malcolm Eleby, who is averaging 4.5 assists a game and is improving at initiating the offense. Senior guard Chris Matthews is shooting 54.2 percent (32 for 59) over the last six games and sophomore guard Michael Davenport is becoming a reliable scorer (8.9 points per game) off the bench. Sophomore Andrew Nicholson (averaging 15.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.7 blocks) has picked up where he left off a year ago when he was the A-10 Rookie of the Year. His biggest improvement may be on the defensive end where he's blossomed into more of a presence.
"We're getting production from a number of guys and we have to continue to do that," Schmidt said. "We don't have just one guy we can go to and score every time. We have to work the ball around and we have to share the ball."
The Bonnies' weakness is glaring: turnovers, which allowed a good Illinois State team to win a game the Bonnies could have easily tucked away handily.
Syracuse is great at forcing opponents to cough up the ball — it carries a plus-4.5 average turnover margin — and converting the faux pas by filling the lanes to ignite a lethal fast break.
On defense, St. Bonaventure's biggest task will be muzzling small forward Wesley Johnson, who averages 16.5 points a game. Senior shooting guard Andy Rautins is shooting 46.4 percent from three-point range while freshman Brandon Triche and sophomore Scoop Jardine combine to average 9.2 assists a game.
"Wesley Johnson is one of the best players in the country, Andy Rautins is one of the best shooters in the country," Schmidt said. "They have great size inside. Everyone talks about their point guard being a weak point but those two guys are playing extremely well."
Syracuse was expected to undergo some retooling after Jonny Flynn, Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf all turned pro. Instead the Orange has knocked off California, North Carolina and Florida to start the season. For the Bonnies, Syracuse also represents the best team they've faced to date.
"It's a tough game and an exciting game for us," Schmidt said. "We've got nothing to lose. We're going to go up there and see what happens but we know what we're up against."
In other Big 4 news, Canisius coach Tom Parrotta announced that freshman guard Reggie Groves will miss the remainder of the season after tearing the ACL in his right knee last week in practice. He averaged 2.4 points and 2.4 rebounds in seven appearances. Groves is eligible for a medical hardship waiver, and Canisius plans to apply to the NCAA for the redshirt so that Groves can still have four years of eligibility left.
In other Big 4 men's games before Christmas, Canisius (4-5) plays at North Florida (1-6) from the Atlantic Sun Conference at 5:30 p.m. Monday.
On Tuesday, Niagara (7-4) hosts St. Bonaventure at 7 p.m. and the University at Buffalo (5-3) plays at Green Bay (9-3) at 8 p.m.
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