Tuesday, February 27, 2024 6:00 p.m.
Reilly Center, Olean, N.Y.

Loyola makes their first trip to Saint Bonaventure since the early 1950s on Tuesday night, for a crucial A-10 conference battle with the Bonnies. The Ramblers are 12-2 in conference-- tied for first place—and 20-7 overall. The Bonnies, in Coach Mark Schmidt’s 17th year at the helm, are 17-10 on the season and 8-7 in the A-10.

Saint Bonaventure University is located in Olean, N.Y., a town with 14,000 residents in the Southwestern corner of the state, 72 miles south of Buffalo, 90 miles east of Erie, Pa. With its relatively isolated location, Bonnies fans have developed a rabid fanbase and energetic home court atmosphere. KenPom ranks every team’s home court performance and has St. Bonaventure at 14th best at home, tied with Rutgers and Tennessee. This season, they’re 10-3 at the 5400-seat Reilly Center.

The Bonnies were picked to finish third in the 2023-24 A-10 Preseason Poll, thanks to returning players at every starting position and a few high-profile transfers. KenPom ranks SBU #1 in the country in previous D-1 experience, with two grad seniors, a conventional senior and a redshirt junior in the starting lineup. In non-con play, the Bonnies were 9-3 with losses to Auburn, Florida Atlantic, and Canisius, and good wins over Oklahoma State and Akron. Their conference record is a bit befuddling, with some impressive feats (home/road sweeps over VCU and UMass), and some real head-scratchers (a loss to Fordham at home, a loss at LaSalle, and a sweep at the hands of Duquesne).

The projected starters are 6’3” senior guard Mika Adams-Woods, 6’3” senior guard Moses Flowers, 6’4” senior guard Charles Pride, 6’6” sophomore forward Assa Essamvous, and 6’10” redshirt junior center Chad Venning. Adams-Woods is a grad senior point guard who transferred over the summer from Cincinnati, and averages 13.3 points, 3.7 assists. Adams-Woods leads the team in three-point shooting at 46.4% and is one of three Bonnies that shoots over 80% at the line. Pride, a Bryant grad transfer, averages 11.6 points, leads the team in rebounding at 6.1 per game, and leads the team in steals at 1.2 per contest. Flowers averages 9.5 points, and is tied for the team lead in made threes with Adams-Woods. Essamvous (known as Yann Farrell last year) averages 7.4 points and 5.3 rebounds.

Chad Venning, the Bonnies' leading scorer at 14.3 ppg, might be the most under-rated player in the A-10. He's listed at 6'10", 255, but last year he was listed at 270 after transferring from Morgan State, where he was listed at 295. When Venning scores more than his average, SBU is 9-3. When he fouls out, they're 1-3. And when The Big Guy from Brooklyn shoots under 50% from the field, the Bonnies are 4-6.

The Bonnies bench features 6’3” senior guard Daryl Banks, 6’11” junior center Noel Brown, 6’8” sophomore forward Barry Evans, and 5’10” junior point guard Kyrell Luc. Banks has been in and out of the starting lineup; he averages 8.3 points, 2.6 assists, and 1.9 rebounds. Brown plays about 13 minutes per game and shoots 72% from the field while averaging 5.9 points and 2.1 rebounds. Evans averages 3.3 points per game. Last year’s starting point guard Kyrell Luc has fallen way off in minutes, but still contributes 2.4 ppg.

As of Monday, St. Bonaventure’s NET ranking was 71, making this game a Quad 1 opportunity for the Ramblers…. ummm, at least for the time being. The NCAA’s definition for a Quad 1 win on the road is if the team is in the Top 75. But what if Loyola wins, and drops them to 76? If I’m not mistaken, that happened earlier this year when Loyola beat St. Joe’s in Philly. And coming up on Friday, Loyola plays Dayton (#20 in the NET) at home, and it’s possible that if Loyola wins and Dayton loses another game or two, they could drop under 30-- the cutoff for home Quad 1 wins.

The Ramblers have locked up a double bid to the A-10 Tournament and a 20-win season. And they have slowly, steadily dug themselves out of the deep hole they put themselves in with some bad early losses that still haunt their NET ranking. Loyola was at 120 in the second week of January, but now sit at 92 in the NET. That doesn’t mean much for an at large bid to the NCAA, but winning a few more before the tournament could help secure an NIT bid (the rules on NIT have changed, and SURPRISE!—it’s harder for non-Majors now).

The regular season title, an A-10 Tournament run, a possible NCAA berth, and assorted accolades are all there for the taking…. If the Ramblers can keep the same focus, intensity, resilience and resolve for the next 20 days. Go Ramblers!


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... enture.pdf

Saint Bonaventure game notes: https://gobonnies.com/documents/2024/2/ ... hicago.pdf

TV/Streaming video: ESPN + https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eve ... =401596922

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=178&type=Live

Live stats: https://gobonnies.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

Vegas odds: St. Bonaventure by 3.5

Thanks for the great game preview, the only thing I would add is the Reilly Center is a very hostile place to play as the students and community come out for games. Should be a good game, Go Ramblers!

I will be at the Reilly Center on Tuesday night. As genuinely excited as I am regarding Loyola's season thus far, I am equally disappointed in the Bonnies. The Bonnies can best be described as erratic. They have the talent to compete for the A10 Tournament title. They have not played up to their potential.

I have never rooted against the Bonnies or the Ramblers. I was thrilled that Loyola joined the A10 because it provides a platform for the program to keep growing along with greater media exposure. However, I hate the fact that Bona and Loyola must compete head to head. Tuesday will be bittersweet. I hope to see a great basketball game. Loyola will have the benefit of a Reilly Center without students. I believe that they are on break. The RC is not the same when the students are gone.

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Loyola '86
St. Bona '83

Speaking of students... Loyola's spring break starts on Monday the 4th. Hope enough students stick around Friday night for our date with the Flyers.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Coach Drew's comments on Charles Pride's transfer story riled up some people on Twitter. I love that he has that passion and is using it as motivation for his team. But I think he should have kept that in the locker room and then said something after the game (if/when we win). I'm a little nervous we are going to run into another situation like we had with Greer last year!

I think the fact that Drew brought up the Charles Pride situation in the post-game interview indicates that there was something really bad that happened on that front, or there is a larger story about what happen with his recruitment. I remember there being multiple reports on twitter around that time that Pride to Loyola was a done-deal, and then all of the sudden it wasn't.

They are on break as of Friday until March 3.

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Scott Sudikoff (X/IG @Sudikoff)
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1. If I am not mistaken Steve Watson our AD would have been the AD at St.Bonnies and the AD for their current coach? Having left the Bonnies in 2014.
2. Chit...always tough when you are watching with divided loyalties.
3. Will be a homecoming of sorts for Greg Dolan. Greg is from the Buffalo area. He has gotten a lot of publicity in the local papers. And in one of the articles he gave the thumbs up to Buffalo pizza over Chicago deep dish....still like him.
4. I think how the post play, plays out will be a big factor. There post guys Venning/Brown average together about 20. Good news is Venning has fouled out 4 times this year. Maybe Dame can YMCA him to death and Miles can sweep the glass clean as Red Rush used to describe Jim AJAX Tillman
5. Also would prefer that Coach had left the Pride thing alone...but I am nervous by nature and Coach V does not mind going toe to toe.

this is the one that worries me the most

Bulletin Board material goes both ways. It was gonna be a hostile environment either way as we are in 1st place. If you want to be a Champion, you you have to win in all types of environments. Drew has a tough mindset and the team is taking on that mentality. Let the games begin.