Head Coach: Mark Schmidt (302-226; 18th season)
Theme song: Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars) by Mark Ronson
Last season: Mark Schmidt has always been consistent in Olean with how he runs his program. He’s gone out of his way to develop his incoming talents, even if he never lets his freshmen see the floor most games; good food takes time to cook.
Unfortunately, Schmidt’s days as the Iron Chef of the Atlantic 10 are possibly numbered following the last two seasons. 2022-2023 was marred with severe roster turnover and several growing pains that saw Bonaventure fall four games below .500 for the first time since 2012-2013. While Schmidt doesn’t have to concern himself with job security, he did adapt and brought in higher-end talent.
Their high-end additions of Mika Adams-Woods and Charles Pride became revelations for Schmidt as the second and third scoring options. Adams-Woods gave the Bonnies a different dynamic at point guard after Kyrell Luc’s apparent struggles. Chad Venning became an elite post-up threat and one of the best centers in the league, earning a second-team all-conference nod.
Say what you want about their questionable OOC; Bonaventure came into conference play 9-3 and made a resounding statement in their A10 opener, beating VCU on their turf that signaled they were for real…or so we thought.
Bonaventure dropped early games to Richmond and Fordham and lost some close contests to George Mason and Duquesne, even though they pulled off some good wins against other formidable A10 teams such as UMass and Loyola-Chicago. Players such as Daryl Banks, Assa Esamvous, and Barry Evans did not take the leaps we expected. Instead, they took steps backward, limiting this team’s ceiling.
Still, the Bonnies couldn’t string more than two wins together in a singular streak during A10 play. They did close out the regular season at 18-12 (losing to George Washington and Saint Louis in the last two games was a choice), but still, the Bonnies geared up for the A10 tournament and made a surprise run to the semi-finals.
For the second time in three seasons, Mark Schmidt is essentially turning over his entire roster while keeping Noel Brown and two freshmen who didn’t play last season. I question their potential and whether Schmidt can continue in this college basketball environment. In some ways, this could be Schmidt’s demise that sends him into retirement. This amount of turnover in such little time isn’t something he’s used to, hindering his ability to produce a winning product.
Arrivals: Dasonte Bowen (Iowa), Chance Moore (Missouri State), Lajae Jones (J), Jaxon Edwards (Valparaiso), Jonah Hinton (J), Melvin Council Jr. (Wagner), Ebrahim Kaba (F), Michael Folarin (Eastern Washington), Adrian Wojnarowski (ESPN), Xander Wedlow (F)
Departures: Mika Adams-Woods, Chad Venning (T), Melian Martinez (T), Charles Pride, Barry Evans (T), Assa Esamvous (T), Kyrell Luc (T), Moses Flowers, Daryl Banks
Returnees: Noel Brown*, Miles Rose, Duane Thompson
Potential Strengths: Schmidt’s roster has a lot of turnover, but he is excellent at identifying under-the-radar talent that he can use. He’s also as good a tactician as you’ll find in the nation—it doesn’t matter who Bonaventure has on the roster because Schmidt can draw up any play that matches his personnel, so long as said play is executed correctly.
Iowa transfer Dasonte Bowen looks to be one of those diamonds in the rough that Schmidt could turn into a productive guard for Bonaventure. Although he saw limited minutes at Iowa, he has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3%, which should help with the Bonnies’ playmaking issues. It also doesn’t hurt that Bowen has legitimate experience in a high-major conference, which should be helpful given the team has limited division-one experience.
If you dig hard enough, junior college transfers can become foundational pieces. Lajae Jones was the leading scorer for his NJCAA national champion team—averaging 15.4 points and 9.2 boards per content. He was a wildly efficient shooter with splits of 54% from the field and 42% from three; Jones certainly adds some juice to the Bonaventure offense as a legit scoring option.
Fellow JUCO snag Jonah Hinton is a long-term option for the Bonnies at guard. Hinton posted 14.2 points, 3.2 assists, and 41/40/80 shooting splits last season. He’ll have three years of eligibility to help ease any intense roster turnover Bonaventure may have in the next few seasons, playing a significant role in reshaping the Bonnies’ backcourt.
Chance Moore is a fascinating player who I see as a candidate for all-conference honors. He was a former top-100 recruit who spent the last two seasons at Missouri State. Coming to Olean, Moore certainly has much to prove. His previous two seasons saw steady production of 10.6 and 10.7 points per game the last two years. Moore is a ridiculous finisher, hitting 68.5% of hit shots at the rim. Because Schmidt likes physical guards, Moore will excel with that coaching style.
Jaxon Edwards arrives after a season in which he significantly increased his playing time and production (mind you, for a seven-win Valparaiso team). Edwards has a solid length at 6’6” and can knock down the three at a fair 32% from a distance. There is potential for him to be one of the more versatile “3&D” wings in the league, which will play nicely into Schmidt’s brand of physical defense.
Redshirting freshmen is one of the more underused tactics in the entire sport, but it can have profound benefits if you manage your players correctly; just ask Jay Wright. Miles Rose and Duane Thompson reek of being impact redshirts this season. Both have good size at their positions, but we are yet to see what sort of impact they’ll have on either end.
Wagner transfer Melvin Council will take on primary scoring duties to alleviate the loss of Charles Pride. Council’s track record indicates he gets better once conference play rolls around, and considering most of the Bonnies’ options last year didn’t get better in conference games, Council doing so is crucial for the Bonnies’ success. Council also brings NCAA tournament experience, averaging 19.5 points on 42% shooting from the field in the two games Wagner played.
Underneath, the Bonnies will likely platoon Noel Brown, Washington State transfer Michael Folarin, and freshmen Xander Wedlow & Ebrahim Kaba. While there is very little to discuss on Folarin due to the lack of volume, he should provide a steady backup presence while Brown holds the starting minutes. Brown is coming off a career season where he averaged 6.1 points, 2.2 boards, and 0.5 blocks per game on 71% shooting from the field.
Potential Weaknesses: Earlier, I touched on Schmidt’s ability to manage in this current climate of college basketball. This is the second time in three years Schmidt has had to overturn the roster at an extreme level. Remember the 2022-2023 season for the Bonnies? They returned nobody from the previous season and went 14-18. Growing pains, lack of chemistry, adapting to a new system, and simplifying things for a new roster all plagued Schmidt that season.
He’s going to run into a similar problem this season. Things will go astray when the only returning players are the backup center and two guys who barely saw the floor. It’s not that the departed weren’t irreplaceable; these replacements are just unsuitable compared to what the Bonnies lost.
For example, the center position: Folarin doesn’t get me up and out of my seat due to the lack of volume (he played in nine games last season). And while Brown will likely win the starting center job after a career year, he won’t have the same impact Venning had for this team.
I remember the 2022-2023 season of grave immaturity: the Bonnies were a horrendous team away from the Riley Center. They posted a 2-11 record in true away games with a 1-3 neutral site record. Could the Bonnies run into that issue again? This team is older than the 2023 squad, but I won’t get my hopes up that they will click immediately like that.
There was a point, and I think this was spoken about in the Field of 68’s almanac (when they took time to write it), where Schmidt discussed simplifying the playbook so his team could adjust better. He’ll have to conduct a similar process this season with his playbook—if anyone can get creative with generating sets to maximize his players, he’s the one who can do it.
Everyone will have a learning curve; some will take longer than others, but the constant resetting every other season will affect how this team performs. This leads me to my next talking point, which I alluded to in my opening sequence: How much longer can Schmidt tolerate this iteration of college basketball?
This discussion is different from the one about Chris Mooney. In a similar amount of time in this league, Schmidt has done similar (some will argue better) work in what most consider a more challenging job. Schmidt is also on the older side, at 61, compared to Chris Mooney, who is 52. My concern lies in the difference in how both of these coaches have adjusted to the new age of college basketball.
Although his postseason performances leave much to be desired, Chris Mooney has demonstrated the ability to manage the transfer portal with minimal effect on Richmond’s performance. It also accelerates the development time of players within the Princeton offense: rather than spending a few seasons sculpting the player needed, you can simply go out and acquire a player who will have an impact immediately.
Schmidt is the antithesis of Mooney; perhaps, in a way, the evil twin. For the second time in three seasons, Schmidt will need to spend most of the early part of the season developing a new foundation for the 11 new players on the roster. The transfers brought in, some of whom have legitimate tournament experience, are coming from inferior conferences—again, the theme of the learning curve. How long guys will adjust will be answered once the season begins.
X-Factor: From breaking NBA news to serving his alma mater. Adrian Wojnarowski is the most significant addition to this program by a country mile. Let’s be honest: who wants to go to Olean for college, let alone play basketball? Woj will be the guy who will turn that all around as the general manager of NIL. As you can tell, Bonaventure has their struggles with NIL. Given some of their transfers in the last few seasons, having Woj command fundraising will give this program a shot in the arm it needs to attract quality A10 talent, a move that may take a year or two to see the fruits of their labor.
Outlook: The roster for the present is going to have their share of struggles. Everyone has to take time getting adjusted to each other in another big turnover for Bonaventure. This team can find their way in the middle of it all, but who sticks in their rotation is still up for discussion as of now. And while I talked about how much longer Schmidt may have coaching, and as crazy as this may sound, hiring Woj may have given him new motivation to stick around. Some of those fruitions could take a few years to take shape, but Bonaventure building a new foundation for the new era will have this program back atop the A10 in no time.
