Opening Tip: St. Bonaventure heads to Brooklyn, N.Y. as the No. 9 seed in the Atlantic 10 Championship Tournament. The Bonnies will face La Salle in the first round Thursday at noon. These teams know each other well, having split the season series. In the most recent matchup Feb. 26 in Philadelphia, the Explorers won 75-67. This will be the Bonnies' first game at Barclays Center as they did not qualify for last year's A-10 Championship.
The winner of this game will advance to the quarterfinals to face top seed Saint Louis on Friday at noon.

The Series: La Salle leads, 15-12. Under Mark Schmidt, the Bonnies are 4-6 against La Salle.

La Salle Scouting Report:
• The Explorers won at Saint Joseph's on Sunday afternoon, 71-63, to finish the regular season with three wins in their last four games.
• La Salle features the inside-outside combination of forwards Jerrell Wright and Steve Zack and guards Tyreek Duren and Tyrone Garland. Wright is at 12.9 points and 6.6 rebounds while Zack averages 8.7 points and an A-10 best 9.5 rebounds per contest.  Dureen, who scored 27 points in Sunday's win over Saint Joseph's, leads the Explorers in scoring at 15.2 points per game while Garland is at 13.0. Swingman Sam Mills (7.5 ppg, 48 three-pointers) completes the starting five.
• Among the reserve players, only guard D.J. Peterson averages more than 20 minutes per game. Peterson scores 4.2 points per game.
• All five of La Salle's starters were on last year's club that won 24 games and made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. 

Bona's A-10 Tournament History: This is St. Bonaventure's 31^st time playing in the A-10 Championship Tournament. The Bonnies were one of four teams who did not qualify for the tournament last season, its first year at Barclays Center. In 2012, St. Bonaventure captured its first A-10 title, defeating Saint Joseph's, Massachusetts and Xavier behind the leadership of A-10 Player of the Year and Championship MVP Andrew Nicholson. All-time, the Bonnies are 16-28 in A-10 Tournament games. Before 2012, the last time the Bonnies made it to the quarterfinals was 2010.

Wright Heats Up, Reaches 1,000 Point Mark: Senior Matthew Wright has been a key to the Bonnies' success all season but even moreso over the past month. Over the last 10 games, Wright averaged 19.0 points and 3.2 assists per game while shooting 44 percent from the field and 41 percent from three-point range. For the year, the senior shooting guard ranks fifth in the Atlantic 10 in scoring at 16.7 points per game and has scored in double figures 23 times. He leads the A-10 in free throw shooting percentage at .872. March 1 against Saint Joseph's, Wright's game-high 27 points included the 1,000th point of his career. He is the 40th player in the 93-year history of the program to reach the milestone. Wright now has 1,037 points. A look at Wright's improvements from last year to this season:
                                    '12-13  '13-14  Current A-10 Rank
Points Per Game            7.3        16.7       5th
Assists Per Game           1.9         3.2       10th
Three-Point Pct.             .306      .352      23rd
Free Throw Pct.             .813      .872       1st

Kloof Leads The Pack: Senior point guard Charlon Kloof certainly has to be in the conversation about the most improved players in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Last season, Kloof lost his starting spot midway through the year, and his playing time and production dropped. This season, as a team captain, he has been a completely different player. Kloof's scoring has more than doubled from last season (5.3 to 11.5 points per game). Kloof averages 5.0 assists per game average (second best in the A-10) compared to 2.0 per game last season, and he is also second in the A-10 in assist-to-TO ratio (2.3) with 150 assists against 69 turnovers.

Ndoye's Progression: While he is in just his fifth season playing the game, junior center Youssou Ndoye has shown growth in all facets. The 7-foot Ndoye came to St. Bonaventure weighing about 200 pounds and now, after almost three years working with Director of Strength and Conditioning Darryn Fiske, Ndoye weighs around 240 pounds. His freshman season, playing behind A-10 Player of the Year Andrew Nicholson, Ndoye averaged 2.6 points and 2.4 rebounds. He's improved each season and is now enjoying his best year production-wise.

Dion Wright - Sixth Man Extraordinaire: After a year spent in a role typical for most freshmen, this year Dion Wright emerged as one of the best "sixth men" and most improved players in the A-10. The 6'7" swingman from Carson, Calif., played in only 13 games and averaged 2.3 points per game last year, but this season he has played in every game and is averaging 9.0 points per game. Wright, who is not related to teammate Matthew Wright, also ranks third on the team in rebounding at 5.1 per game. He has been equally effective against A-10 opponents as he was prior to conference play, averaging 8.8 points and 5.4 boards vs. A-10 teams.

Gathers Another Super-Sub: Like Dion Wright, junior guard Jordan Gathers has also been a super-sub this year. While he started six times early in the season, he's played even better in his role coming off the bench and filling in at either guard position. He broke out of a scoring slump with 18 points at George Mason, and followed that up with another 18 point game in the win over Duquesne. Gathers shot 7-12 from three-point range over those two wins. March 8 at VCU, Gathers returned to the starting lineup for the first time since Dec. 17.

Bench Press: St. Bonaventure's bench has outscored opponents in 21 of 30 games this season, including 12 of the 16 conference games. The four main players off the bench contribute 22 points per game.

A-10 Free Throw Leaders: After struggling at the free throw line earlier this season, St. Bonaventure has turned what was a weakness into a strength. The Bonnies shot only 65 percent at the line over their 14 non-conference games, missing 10 or more free throws in losses to Siena, Louisiana Tech and Buffalo. In Atlantic 10 games, the Bonnies shot at a .765 clip at the free throw line -- which is the best in the conference. Overall, St. Bonaventure has raised its free throw percentage to .711.

Scoring Options Increase: With the emergence of Dion Wright, Marquise Simmons and Jordan Gathers as capable scorers, St. Bonaventure has more offensive options than it did last year, when Demitrius Conger, Chris Johnson and Eric Mosely accounted for nearly half of the team's scoring. The Bonnies now have seven players averaging more than 7.8 points: Matthew Wright (16.7), Charlon Kloof (11.5), Youssou Ndoye (9.9), Dion Wright (9.0), Andell Cumberbatch (8.7), Gathers (8.3) and Simmons (8.0). Every one of those players except Dion Wright have led the Bonnies in scoring at least once. The Bonnies rank third in the A-10 in scoring at 74.0 points per game. 

2012 A-10 Championship: In 2012, St. Bonaventure won its first Atlantic 10 Championship, topping Saint Joseph's, UMass and Xavier (in that order) to claim the A-10 title at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. The Bonnies' automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament was their first since 2000. The Bonnies were led by A-10 Player of the Year Andrew Nicholson, who went on to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic. Nicholson remains a member of the Magic. Remaining members of that title team still active on this year's team are Matthew Wright, Charlon Kloof, Marquise Simmons (who missed that season due to an injury), Danny Farrell, Jordan Gathers and Youssou Ndoye.