The St. Bonaventure Bonnies got a tough draw in March’s NCAA Tournament. As a nine seed, the Bonnies got matched up with eight seed LSU. The Tigers were a perfect match for them and beat them handily. But that doesn’t take away from the quite good season that St. Bonaventure had last year. That should continue this year.
The Bonnies return all five starters from last year’s Atlantic 10 regular season and conference tournament champions. All five of them are seniors now and with that have a lot of experience. Together will two high-major transfers, they will look to take the program to new heights this season.
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St. Bonaventure Bonnies Preseason Preview
The Bonnies
Like I stated above, St. Bonaventure is returning all five starters from last year’s team. All five of them scored in double figures last season. Kyle Lofton, Jaren Holmes, and Osun Osunniyi, all earned All-A10 honors last season. Osunniyi also won the A-10’s Defensive Player Of The Year award.
Osunniyi averaged 2.9 blocks per game last season to easily lead the conference and had sixty total. Nobody else on the team had more than 7. In addition to being a dominant presence in the post, he also averaged just short of a double-double. Lofton led the team in scoring at 14.4 PPG. His 5.5 APG was third in the A-10 and he had the third-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the conference. Holmes was second on the team with 13.8 PPG and is the team’s second-best three-point shooter. However, he’ll need to improve his free throw shooting percentage. Jalen Adaway and Dominick Welch are the other two returning starters. Both are double-digit scorers and both contribute on each end of the floor.
The Bonnies are also bringing in two high-major transfers in former Pitt forward Abdoul Karim Coulibaly and former Wake Forest guard Quadry Adams. Coulibaly brings St. Bonaventure some much-needed size off of their bench. The 6’9″ 235 lbs. forward started 20 of 22 games last season as a sophomore for the Panthers, averaging 5.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. Adams did not play very much as a freshman for the Demon Deacons. He appeared in only nine games and only averaged eight minutes per game in those games. He was a three-star recruit in the class of 2020 upon committing to Wake Forest, and if he can play like one then he should be yet another dynamic guard for the Bonnies.
St. Bonaventure will have plenty of opportunities to show people what they are made of early on. They very well might be the favorite in a solid Charleston Classic field. They play Boise State in the first round of the eight-team tournament and could face West Virginia in the tournament’s championship game. The Bonnies will take on UConn at The Rock in Newark as a part of the Never Forget Tribute Classic. Six days later they will be in Charlotte to play Virginia Tech in the Hall Of Fame Shootout. And that is not to mention what should be yet another strong year for the A-10.
Projected Lineup:
PG – #0 Kyle Lofton (14.4 PPG/ 3.5 RPG/ 5.5 APG/ 1.4 SPG)
SG – #5 Jaren Holmes (13.8 PPG/ 5.3 RPG/ 2.0 APG)
G – #1 Dominick Welch (11.4 PPG/ 6.0 RPG/ 2.1 APG/ 1.2 SPG)
G – #33 Jalen Adaway (12.2 PPG/ 6.0 RPG/ 1.4 APG)
C – #21 Osun Osunniyi (10.7 PPG/ 9.4 RPG/ 2.4 APG/ 2.9 BPG)
Main Photo
Embed from Getty Images
