Friars Look to Come Up Aces Against St. Bonaventure at Mohegan Sun
A preview of the Bonnies, and a look at how Providence has fared on both ends of the floor since the return of Bryce Hopkins.
For the first time since 1980, Providence and St. Bonaventure will square off — and they’ll do so in the Friars’ home away from home at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.
Led by North Attleboro, MA native and former Boston College guard in coach Mark Schmidt, the Bonnies are coming off of a 20-13 season a year ago (9-9 in the A10), but had to replace virtually everyone from last season’s group that fell in the A10 semis to Duquesne.
Schmidt saw three players graduate and another six transfer, losing all five of last year’s starters in the process. Life as a mid-major in 2024…
He’s been at St. Bonaventure since the 2007-08 season and has had six 20+ win campaigns and reached the NCAA Tournament three times. They are off to a 9-1 start to this season, against relatively light competition, and their rebuilt roster features some familiar faces for the likes of Bensley Joseph and Oswin Erhunmwunse.
The Friars and Bonnies met often in the 1960s and ‘70s with PC trailing 11-12 in the all-time matchup. Although, Marvin Barnes’ 32-point, 22-rebound double double to lead #6 PC to a victory in 1973 has to be the best performance of anyone in the series.
St. Bonaventure doesn’t present any glaring challenges offensively. Their offense ranks 142nd in the country in efficiency, 216th in 3-point percentage, and 106th in Effective Field Goal Percentage.
A familiar name for Friar fans might be point guard Dasonte Bowen, who had a PC offer when he suited up for Brewster Academy and BABC in high school before he committed to Iowa. The junior guard has good size at 6’3 and should be very familiar with Bensley Joseph from their days on the New England prep circuit, as well as when they both played on the Nike EYBL. Bowen didn’t get much of an opportunity at Iowa, but is averaging 11.1 points, 4.2 assists, and 3.8 rebounds per game this year. Readers who made the switch with us from Friarbasketball.com to our new home at Substack may recall reading about him back then.
Schmidt’s leading scorer is Chance Moore, a wing who started his career at Arkansas and made his way from Missouri State before this season. He’s averaging 15.6 points per game and 6.8 boards, while 6’11 senior center Noel Brown is at 12.0 points and 4.3 boards a night.
The rest of the offense comes from Wagner transfer Melvin Council (12.0 points, 5.3 rebounds), freshman Lajae Jones (8.9 points), and sophomore Jonah Hinton (7.3 ppg).
Schmidt has had success recruiting at powerhouse Putnam Science Academy, and he has two young players that teamed with Erhunmwunse in high school — redshirt freshman forward Duane Thompson and sophomore guard Miles Rose.
The Bonnies’ 11.7 bench points per game ranks #351 in the nation.
Defensively, St. Bonaventure ranks 52nd in the country in Defensive Efficiency. In the only game I saw them play this season (their only loss of the year vs. Utah State) they were aggressive on the ball. They turn opponents over on 21.5% of their possessions, good for #42 in the nation.
Providence will be just the second top 100 team they have played this season.
Kim English is 1-1 in his head coaching career against St. Bonaventure, taking home a 75-66 road victory in 2022 before falling, 73-69 a year later.
Christ Essandoko went for 14 points and five rebounds in St. Joe’s 91-72 loss to them last season.
For the Friars, Saturday marks the end of a critical two-week stretch following their brutal trip to Atlantis. They enjoyed a rousing victory over BYU at home in the return of Bryce Hopkins, fell at URI last weekend, and rebounded with an overtime victory at DePaul on Tuesday night. A 3-1 record through this stretch feels like a necessity as much from an emotional standpoint than in the metrics.
Saturday marks the final non-conference game of the year before PC welcomes a pair of tough opponents to the AMP in St. John’s and Marquette. They then head on the road to visit UConn.
The Friar defense has been more than solid enough since Hopkins’ return, holding high-scoring teams in BYU (85.7 ppg), Rhode Island (86.6 ppg), and DePaul (82.3 ppg) each to under 65 points. The Rams and Cougars are both top 25 in the country in points per game — and that’s including scoring 20 points fewer than their average in games against PC.
But Providence’s offense continues to lag, and its wing rotations change by the game. Hopkins, Jayden Pierre, and Bensley Joseph have all played well offensively the past three games, but outside of Jabri Abdur-Rahim’s outburst versus BYU and Oswin’s dunkfest on Tuesday, the production drops off. Reengaging Corey Floyd Jr. and Wesley Cardet Jr. seems like an important next step.
Here is a scoring breakdown from the past three games:
This is a winnable game for the Friars in what should be a very friendly neutral court. It feels like one they’ve got to have.
More from Friar Basketball:
Check out the latest from Bill Ricci, who writes about the wild swings in PC’s win over DePaul:
