The Starting Five Notes:
1. Saturday brings the start of a "new" season when St. Bonaventure travels east to UMass to open Atlantic 10 Conference play. This season is the first time with an 18-game conference schedule – up from the long-standard 16. The Bonnies split two hard-fought games with UMass last season, with each team winning on its home floor.
2. Junior guard Marcus Posley, who is in his first season at St. Bonaventure, has been the impact scorer that the Bonnies hoped he would be. Posley has scored 20 points or more in each of the last three games and he ranks second in the Atlantic 10 in scoring at 17.7 points per game. Posley has connected on 32 three-pointers and ranks second in the A-10 with 2.9 three-pointers per game.
3. The Bonnies hope to get back to playing the defense that was a staple for them over the first nine games. Even after two poor defensive games, the Bonnies still rank fourth in the A-10 in defensive field goal percentage (.407) and lead the A-10 in blocked shots (4.7 per game).
4. Senior center Youssou Ndoye is the centerpiece of the Bona defense. He leads the A-10 in both rebounding (11.4) and blocked shots (3.0 per game). He ranks fourth and 15th, respectively, among all Division I players in those categories.
5. Junior forward Dion Wright has become a consistent scorer and rebounder, entering A-10 play second on the team in both scoring (13.5) and rebounding (8.2). His 4.0 offensive rebounds per game are second best in the Atlantic 10.
Series Notes:
This will be the 63rd meeting all-time between the longtime A-10 rivals. St. Bonaventure has won three of the last four meetings, most recently a 78-65 win last season in Olean, which was the Bonnies' first win over a ranked team since 2000.
UMass Notes:
• UMass went 7-6 through a challenging non-conference schedule. The Minutemen lost to Notre Dame, Harvard, LSU, Florida Gulf Coast, Providence and BYU. UMass' last game was an 87-82 home win over Iona Dec. 30. UMass is 5-1 at home.
• Maxie Esho (13.9 ppg) leads a balanced scoring club as one of five players averaging better than 9.4 points per game. Center Cady Lalanne averages 13.1 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks. Derrick Gordon (12.1), Trey Davis (10.9), Donte Clark (9.4) and Jabarie Hinds (7.8) are UMass' other top scorers.
Bonnies In A-10 Openers
St. Bonaventure is 19-16 all-time in Atlantic 10 Conference season openers (17-17 when factoring in a 2002-03 victory which was later vacated). The Bonnies are 13-3 in A-10 openers at the Reilly Center, and 5-14 in conference lid-lifters on the road. Under head coach Mark Schmidt, the Brown and White are 4-3 in A-10 openers.
Rebounding Strong
St. Bonaventure is off to a good start to the season in many ways, and rebounding is one of those:
• The Bonnies have outrebounded seven of their 11 opponents with two ties.
• St. Bonaventure outrebounded Pitt by three. The Panthers came into the game with a +8.8 rebound margin.
• The Bonnies rank fourth in the Atlantic 10 in rebound margin (+5.1) and second in total rebounds per game (39.3).
• Youssou Ndoye leads the A-10 and ranks fifth among NCAA Division I players in rebounding at 11.4 per game.
• Dion Wright ranks sixth in the A-10 in rebounding at 8.2 per game; Andell Cumberbatch stands 19th with a 5.7 average.
Ndoye A Force On Defense, Boards
While his scoring has fluctuated this season, 7-0 senior center Youssou Ndoye's defense and rebounding have remained a constant.
• He leads the A-10 in both rebounding (11.4) and blocked shots (3.0 per game), ranking fourth and 15th, respectively, among all Division I players in those categories.
• His average of 8.4 defensive rebounds per game ranks second nationally.
• Ndoye has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in nine consecutive games with a high of 13 against both Buffalo and Binghamton.
• Ndoye has also blocked at least one shot in every game this season with seven games of three or more rejections.
• With his 12 rebounds against Maryland Eastern Shore, Ndoye became only the fourth player in school history to record 500 rebounds (he now has 517) and 150 blocks.
Get Well Coach
When the news spread of a serious injury at practice on Dec. 19, no one thought of head coach Mark Schmidt. But he is exactly who suffered the injury - a ruptured Achilles tendon in his right foot. Schmidt hurt himself when he planted to pivot in the opposite direction. Not surprisingly to those who know him, Schmidt didn't miss a beat, caoching the rest of practice from a chair. He then boarded the team bus to Binghamton and coached the game the next afternoon wearing a protective boot. He has undergone surgery and will continue coaching through his recovery, which includes the 10 days following surgery when he cannot place any weight on his foot.
Posley Makes Immediate Impact
Replacing 2014 graduate Matthew Wright, who averaged 16.3 points per game last season and scored over 1,000 career points, was a tall task for the Bona program. Marcus Posley, however, has gained the confidence of Bonnies coaches and fans. He leads the Bonnies and ranks third in the Atlantic 10 at 17.7 points per game. He has six games of 20 points or more, including each of the last three: 20 at Binghamton, a career high 26 vs. Maryland Eastern Shore and 22 at Delaware. Posley has scored before; as a freshman point guard at Ball State in 2012-13, he averaged 6.5 points per game in a reserve role. Last season at Indian Hills Junior College, when he switched to shooting guard, he averaged 13.5 points a game.
New Backcourt Productive
Entering the year, the major question mark about this Bona team was how it would replace the production and leadership of its 2013-14 senior backcourt of point guard Charlon Kloof and shooting guard Matthew Wright, who both had outstanding senior seasons. So far, the new starters have been just what the Bonnies hoped they would be. Jay Adams is the first freshman point guard to start for Bona since coach Mark Schmidt's first season of 2007-08 (Andrew Nicholson, a power forward, did start as a freshman in 2008-09; Malcolm Eleby was the freshman guard who started in 2007). Between them, Adams (24) and Marcus Posley (32) have made 52 three-pointers and are shooting .392 from long range. They combine to average 29.5 points per game.
Dion Wright Backing Up Sports Illustrated's Breakout Projection
Following a sophomore season that could easily been described as a breakout, St. Bonaventure junior Dion Wright has been named to Sport Illustrated's list of the "Projected Breakout Players" for the upcoming year. Wright was slotted 22nd on the list of 50 players based upon a projection that he will increase his scoring to 13 points per game this season.
The SI system "forecasts advanced statistics -- such as offensive efficiency, usage rates, and rebound and assist rates -- for each player and then fits them within the context of their team's rotation to yield raw stats."
A 6-7 forward from Carson, Calif., Wright averaged 8.7 points and 4.8 rebounds per game coming off the bench in all 33 games as a sophomore. Wright more than doubled his per-game scoring and rebounding averages from his freshman season. So far this season, Wright has lived up to the hype. He's scored in double figures 10 out of 11 games and ranks second on the team in scoring at 13.5 points per game. Wright, who has rarely left the floor this year, is also averaging 8.2 rebounds a game, which is sixth among A-10 players. He has snagged 44 offensive rebounds (4.0 pg), which is third-best among all A-10 players.
