St. Bonaventure Bonnies Stats at Insiders Betting Digest

Bonnies

St. Bonaventure Bonnies

NCAAB – ATLANTIC 10

Arena: Reilly Center Arena
Coach: Mark Schmidt

TEAM LEADERS

St. Bonaventure Bonnies

Team Summary

The 2021-22 St. Bonaventure Bonnies came into the season with lofty expectations with an AP ranking of 23rd in the nation. St. Bonaventure has been ranked as high as 16th in the nation and has a solid resume with victories over Boise State, Clemson, VCU and Marquette.

The expectation was that St. Bonaventure had the coach in Mark Schmidt and a senior laden roster to lay waste to the Atlantic 10. However, the league appears to be better than expected with Davidson and Bob McKillop running out to an early conference lead.

The Bonnies start five seniors including stars Jaren Holmes and Kyle Loften. Holmes currently leads the team in scoring at over 15 points per game while Loften has struggled with his efficiency while still averaging 13.8 points and 5.5 assists per game. Holmes and Loften are not the only straws stirring the drink though; all five senior starters are averaging double digits in scoring while big man Osun Osunniyi leads the team in rebounding at 7.7 rips per game and blocks at 3.3 per contest.

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Bonnies History

St. Bonaventure’s men’s basketball program came into existence in 1919 and has a very successful history in terms of wins and losses. The program has a 57.1% winning percentage with 1,408 wins and 1,059 losses.

Outside of being an independent, the program has been a member of three conferences in its history. The first conference the Bonnies joined was the West New York Little Three which consisted of just three programs. In addition to St. Bonaventure, the league included Canisius and Niagara. The league existed from 1946 to 1957.

St. Bonaventure would return to independent status until 1978 when they joined the Eastern Athletic Association where they played just three seasons before the league officially changed its name to the Atlantic 10 in 1982.

2022 Key Stats

As stated, the Bonnies entered the season with Atlantic 10 championship aspirations and for the most part have lived up to those goals. They are currently 11-4 overall on the season with a 3-1 record in league play.

Despite their solid record and good league standing, the metrics have not quite met preseason expectations with two high level players like Holmes and Loften. The Bonnies rank just 52nd in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency and 254th in three-point percentage at just 31.8%.

St. Bonaventure has had trouble protecting their home court in terms of betting as well at just 2-5 against the spread in their home arena. Overall, the Bonnies rank second to last in the league ATS at just 5-9-1. They are underperforming the number by -4.7 points per game which is a league worst.

Championships

Saint Bonaventure won a quartet of West New York Little Three titles from 1950 to 1958. The tail end of that run is known in program circles as the beginning of “The Golden Age” of St. Bonaventure basketball. In 1970, the Bonnies made it to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

The Bonnies have also hung two Atlantic Ten regular season title championship banners. Their first A-10 championship came in 2016 with the second coming in 2021. Coach Mark Schmidt also won the conference tournament championship in 2021 to go along with this postseason tournament championship in 2012.

The program has also been a part of the postseason National Invitational Tournament sixteen times in their history. They have a winning record in the event at 18-17 overall and were the champions in 1977 when they defeated Rutgers, Oregon, Villanova and Houston.

Important St. Bonaventure Events

The St. Bonaventure home court, The Reilly Center, was opened in 1966. The arena seats 5,480 people and is one of the largest basketball arenas in western New York. It is widely considered one of the toughest places to play in the nation. The court itself is named after former player and star Bob Lanier who led the program to the final four in 1970.

In 2001, the program hired Jan Van Breda Kolff after Jim Baron left for Rhode Island. The program had been on the upswing under Baron, making the NCAA Tournament in 2000 and taking Kentucky to overtime in the first round. In 2003.

In Van Breda Kolff’s second season, he permitted Jamil Terrell to play despite not graduating from Junior College. The program was forced to forfeit the entire season and lost three scholarships and was placed on probation by the NCAA, including a postseason ban. This effectively destroyed the program until Mark Schmidt was hired.

Top Players in Program History

Program historians and superfans would almost unanimously consider Bob Lanier to be the best player in St. Bonaventure basketball history. Apart from leading the program to the Final Four, Lanier is the all-time leader in rebounds with 1,180 and fourth in scoring at 2,067 points.

Andrew Nicholson also deserves to be on the GOAT list as the program’s second all-time leading scorer at 2,103 points. Nicholson was named the A-10 conference Player of the Year in 2011-12 after averaging 20.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.

Greg Sanders is the program’s all-time leading scorer in St. Bonaventure history at 2,238 points. Sanders played for the program from 1974 to 1978. He led his team to the NCAA Tournament as a senior after averaging over 22 points per game. The Bonnies had the unfortunate luck of playing Pennsylvania at the Palestra in Philadelphia and lost 92-83. Sanders scored 30 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the loss.

The only other player (other than those mentioned) to score 2,000 points in their career is Earl Belcher. Belcher played for the Bonnies from 1977-1981 and averaged over 20 points per game three times over the course of his career.

Historical Coaches

St. Bonaventure has had nineteen coaches in their program’s history. The three most successful of which have all come since 1962. Since ‘62 the program has made six of their eight NCAA Tournament appearances and a final four.

Mark Schmidt is the all-time leader in victories at 256 wins. Unfortunately for Coach Schmidt, he is also the programs leader in losses at 189. He has won two regular season titles and two conference tournament titles while making the NCAA Tournament three times since 2008.

Edward Donovan has the highest winning percentage among coaches with 100+ games at nearly 71%. Donovan led the program for eight seasons from 1954-1961 and is responsible for one of those two other NCAA tournament appearances. He was the first coach of St. Bonaventure’s “Golden Age”.

Larry Weise, a Bonnies alum, is the coach that led the Lanier team to the Final Four. Weise was hired after Donovan. He posted a 69.2% winning percentage with 202 wins and 90 losses.