MBB Preview: St. Bonaventure

So, the 2-1 Falcons head to Olean, New York to take on the St. Bonaventure Bonnies. The Bonnies represent a story that I fear will become more common in the coming years.  This has been a really strong program.  They were 16-5 in the pandemic year and ended with a kenpom of 32.  Then last year they were 23-10, lost in the first round of the A10 tournament but made the NIT semi-finals. They finished with a kenpom of 78.

As they say in "Behind the music," that's where the laughter turned to sadness.  One player went pro, two players NIL'd to Iowa State, one to Florida and one to Alabama.  THEN, to make matters worse, all the reserves transferred because they were worried they would be stuck behind the original starters.

So, they have 9 new players and two redshirt freshmen elevating to the main team. 

So. transfers from Holy Cross, St. Peter's, Hartford, Pitt, Morgan State and Farleigh Dickinson and five outright freshmen.

This is the sixth meeting.  BG leads the series 3-2.  The teams have not met since 1998, when the Bonnies won in Olean.  The first meeting was 1971, which was my first Falcon basketball game, which BG won.  Just sayin'.

The offical A10 pre-season poll had the Bonnies 10th and Blue Ribbon picked them 8th.

Nonetheless, they started the year with a kenpom of 119, which would put them in the top third of the MAC. They are off to a 1-2 start.  They beat St. Francis (PA) (315) but lost to Canisius (292) in OT and South Dakota State (118).

The only home game was St. Francis.

They play a slower tempo than BG at 68 per game. On offense, they are scoring 1.01 points per possession, just above the D-1 average of 1 point per possession.  On its side, BG is allowing 1.06 per possession, which is #304 in the country. They are a below average shooting team from 2FG and 3FG, but take good care of the ball and are good on the defensive boards. They don't get to the line very much and are well below average in making FTs.  Somehow that all works out to being slightly above average on offense.

Defensively, they are good at .98 points per possession. They are a little above average defending 2FG and 3FG.  They are #87 in the country in forcing turnovers and they are also good on the defensive boards.  They are #346 in allowing FTs.

They have two players scoring in double figures, but not efficiently.  Kyrell Luc (Holy Cross) is scoring 17.7 on 43% shooting, almost all from 2FG. Plays 39 minutes a game, too. He's 5'11" and has a little over 6 assists per game.

The other double figure scorer is Daryl Banks III (St. Peters), who is scoring 16.7 PPG on 29% from 2FG and 30% from 3FG. He is also playing 39 minutes a game.  (They did have an OT game). Their leading rebounder is Yann Farrell with 6.7 per game.  He's 6'6" and played prep fall.

They have 9 players with 10 minutes or more a game.

This will be an interesting test.  This is a team finding its way and they lost to Canisius, a team (sadly) comparable to BG.  But that was on the road.