ST. BONAVENTURE (17-9, 5-8 A-10) at UMASS (11-14, 6-6 A-10)
Saturday, Feb. 15 - Noon
Amherst, Mass.
TV: ESPN+
Radio: Bonnies Online Network / 100.1 FM The Hero

OPENING TIP

• The St. Bonaventure men's basketball team finishes up a week on the road as their Northeastern swing continues at UMass Saturday afternoon. The Bonnies opened their trip with a heartbreaking loss at Rhode Island Wednesday night as the Rams erased a 13-point deficit to score the win in the waning moments. Bona practiced at Providence on Thursday before heading to Amherst.
• A February losing skid has been extremely rare for the Bonnies in recent years. Since 2015-16, this is just the fourth time the Bonnies have lost back-to-back games in the month of February.
• Melvin Council Jr. has continued his strong play. He entered this week ranking as the Atlantic 10 steals leader with 52 while also standing fourth in assists with 103 dimes. He paces the Bonnies in scoring at 14.2 ppg.
• The Bonnies will need to find success on the road – four of their final six games will come away from the Reilly Center. SBU started the year 5-0 on the road but has lost the last five contests away from home.

BACK IN THE COMMONWEALTH
Multiple Bonnies have strong ties to Massachusetts.

Assistant coach Chris Lowe is one of the best players in UMass program history, graduating as the Minutemen's all-time assists leader with 678 between 2005-09. He became just the seventh Atlantic 10 player to post 1,000 points with 600 assists while serving as the program's starting point guard for four seasons.

Head coach Mark Schmidt, of course, is a noted Massachusetts native, hailing from North Attleboro before playing his college ball at Boston College.

Associate head coach Sean Neal calls Springfield home and he was the Massachusetts Coaches' Association Player of the Year during his high school career. Fellow assistant coach Dana Valentine is a Massachusetts native, hailing from Roxbury.

On the active roster, Saturday's game is a homecoming of sorts for redshirt freshman Duane Thompson who hails from Boston, as does junior Dasonte Bowen. 

ABOUT UMASS

• The Minutemen play host to the Bonnies with an 11-14 record, sitting at an even 6-6 in A-10 competition. They own the all-time series lead over SBU, 41-35. 
• Massachusetts is coached by Frank Martin in his second season with the program. When hired, he brought to the table 10 years of Division I coaching experience at South Carolina, where he took the program to its first Final Four as a seven seed in 2017. Last season, he led the Minutemen to a 20-11 record and a Myrtle Beach Invitational title, though the Bonnies swept the season series, 2-0. 
• This season UMass has found success from the paint, as they rank eighth nationally in both blocks and offensive rebounds per game. They also rank 15th nationally in combined rebounds per game. Pacing the team on the glass is senior forward Daniel Rivera, who grabs an average of 7.6 boards per game. A fellow forward, 6'10 junior Shahid Muhammad, is the team's current blocks leader, totaling 42 on the year. Senior guard Rahsool Diggins has been lighting it up in conference play, averaging 23.3 points on 42.4% shooting from the field across 12 A-10 contests. On the year as a whole, he leads the team in points per game (17.4) and is shooting 32.9% from deep on 222 attempts. 

SERIES HISTORY
The Bonnies and Minutemen will be meeting for the 78th time when they lock up Saturday.

St. Bonaventure has played just four schools more – Canisius (172 meetings), Niagara (162), Duquesne (131) and Saint Joseph's (84). 

UMass holds a 42-35 series lead after dominating the early years, but the Bonnies have won 12 of the past 13 meetings and 16 of the last 19. The Minutemen snapped what was a 10-game Bonnies winning streak in the series in March 2023 as UMass came away with a 71-61 home win.

Last year, though, the Bonnies got back on the winning side of things as they scored a season sweep with a home win, 79-73, before taking a 75-67 victory in Amherst.