St. Bonaventure has been a SLU killer the past two seasons. The Bonnies win in beautiful Olean two years ago was the game that effectively led to Brad Soderberg getting fired and last year’s loss at Scottrade started a three-game losing streak that closed out the season.
So there shouldn’t be any looking past the Bonnies tonight, even if they are in 12th in the league.
St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt on SLU: ”They play tremendous. Rick does a great job half in the half court, forcing contested jump shots and they do a good job on the backbaord. We’ll have a hard time scoring, which is why it’s paramount we do a good job on the defensive end. We know we’ll have a hard time scoring baskets against them.
“With Lisch and Liddell they have two very good leaders and when they buy into it, it’s easy to get younger classmen to buy into it. I would assume Lisch and Liddell are hard workers. They set the bar and when those guys are doing it, the young guys will follow.”
Majerus on the Bonnies:
“Last year they beat us, they really beat us. They’re well coached, the guy does an outstanding job. They play hard, the man in the middle, 44, (Andrew Nicholson) should be rookie of the league. He’s an outstanding talent. They’re a well balanced team and they’ve been right there to win a lot of games. They have youth and inexperience and may have a more onerous road schedule than ourselves. I know it will be a difficult game. They won’t catch us unaware. The first thing that stood out is how disciplined and well coached they are. At the juncture they beat us, it was senior night. They won only won two or three games prior to that, but you couldn’t tell if they won three or lost three by their enthusiasm or effort. I expect the same. They’re much better this year than last year.”
Around the league:
The big game today is Dayton at Rhode Island. If Rhode Island wins, it will jump ahead of Dayton in the standings. The people at Rhode Island realize it’s a big game. I can’t get any of the Dayton Daily News links to work, but here’s one to their blog. I’d call your attention to the comments below, where Glen writes that because Rhode Island isn’t in ESPN’s Bubble Watch and Dayton is, the Rams are no good and Dayton will win easily. Even Flyer faithful stepped in with voices of reason.
Ron Musselman writes in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Duquesne is still in the chase for a first-round bye, which is technically true but looks to me like a longshot. The Dukes do have the advantage that after today’s game with UMass, they play the teams they’re trying to catch. UMass is looking to win two in a row for the first time since December.
The Richmond Times-Disaptch doesn’t have much to say about the game with Fordham and the New York papers counter with less. The same goes for Charlotte at George Washington.
The three Philly schools are all in action on Thrsday, along with Xavier.
