Bona BigCat

St Bona alum from Akron here — not to gloat but to say we know this was a tough loss for Zips Nation. Like most of our fans, I too have tremendous respect for the Zips. The banter on our fan board is that this is a big win for us. I’ve been a Zips admirer dating back to the Huggins years, and hope to get to a couple games soon. Both teams battled hard, especially on D. As Groce said “it sucks to lose” a game like this because he knows it would have been a quality W. The refs were horrible for both teams which hurt the flow of the offenses. They called the wimpy contact but missed some major body bangs. Bonnies had a 10-4 foul disadvantage at one point of the first half. Our little PG Tyrell Luc had a breakaway dunk and got undercut, fell hard to the ground. No call. You had a guy get blasted on a drive and no call. The Zips are the best team in the MAC. We fans are always blasting the head coach when we feel a close one got away. If you shoot better from the line today we all know that your coach is getting accolades and not ridicule. Zips battled from 10 down in the first half and 8 down in the second half against an SBU defense that held potent #6 FAU to 64 points on 40% shooting and 25% from deep. Our offense is as deep and as potent as you will face this season … and we struggled and scratched for every point. Our 5th year PG made a stupidly ridiculous shot over Freeman’s 7-2 wing span, and then our best defender Evans got a big deflection on the inbounds play to disrupt your final play. It’s the smallest of margins. Would love to have the Zips and Bonnies play again in the near future. Olean NY is a lovely place this time of year to see a college game. Good luck in conference play. Hope to see both teams in March at the big dance!

Ha ha. Funny stuff. Be happy to answer any questions about the Bonnies … I’m here all week (badaba). SBU fans enjoy beating up on Dambrot at Duquesne, though he has a good squad this year with 9 transfers on his 18-player roster. Yes, 18 players!! Would like to see us play the Zips more often. Some of our non-conference games have been a joke.

Hello Zips Nation. I am a St Bonaventure alum from the dark ages who has lived in the Akron area for 35 years. Big MAC hoops fan here, who tries to attend several Akron and Kent games a year. The Bonnies fan base really is looking forward to Saturday’s matchup at RM Fieldhouse. It should be a good one. Zips have a great roster with Ali back in the mix. Here’s some insight on the Bonnies: we started slow the first month, with a 3-point home loss in game 2 to rival Canisius that sent the fans into a sky-is-falling frenzy. Our other two losses are to top 30 teams Auburn and FLA Atlantic. Hopes are very high this season with all five starters returning from last year’s 14-18 season. It was the Bonnies first sub-500 record in more than a decade but we were very inexperienced. Now with three key transfers the Bonnies are the oldest team in D1. Go figure. Bona has been playing great D the last month while shooting much better. In a recent 10-point loss the Bonnies held FAU to 64 points … 23 below FAU’s average. Our downfall was 21 turnovers when FAU turned up the pressure. The Bonnies are lead by two grad transfers who have emerged as our best players. Mika Adams-Woods (6-3 PG from UCincy, 15 ppg) and Chuck Pride (6-5 wing from Bryant, 12 ppg) are experienced, solid guys who are childhood friends from Syracuse. Bonaventure gave them a chance to play together this season. It’s been a great fit. Exactly what the Bonnies needed. Woods is an excellent floor leader, defender and scorer … exceeding all expectations and stat lines from his 4-year Cincy career as a starter. Woods is shooting 60% from the field and 50% from deep. In one 3-game stretch Woods made 19 shots in a row including 10 three-pointers. He has 48 assists to 19 turnovers. Pride has deep, deep range. He’s a solid rebounder and passer who gets to the basket when healthy. He missed several games with a high ankle sprain this month and has been getting back up to speed. He was averaging 16 pts, 6.5 rebs before getting hurt. We are hopeful that Pride will benefit from having the holiday week off. The Bona big men, Venning and Brown, both are 6-10, 250+ lbs, — very physical dudes which is the MO for the Atlantic 10. They can score when not hurt by foul trouble which is about half the games. Unlike the Zips front-court players, our centers like to work inside and can bog down the offense if they don’t see double teams. How we match up on D with Freeman and Ali will be a key to the game. The Bonnies go 9 deep. We start four guys between 6-3 and 6-6. Barry Evans, a 6-8 high-energy athlete off the bench, likely we be our best option to control Ali or Freeman. Evans is a solid defender and rebounder … he can fill any role off the bench. Moses Flowers (6-4 win) is a dangerous outside shooter as our 6th man. Flowers is coming off of a career-high 25 vs Binghamton. Other starters are Darryl Banks III of St Peter’s NCAA fame two seasons ago, and Assa Essamvous (formerly Yann Farrel) are streaky shooters. Both have had games with 5 threes made in the last year. Banks has been struggling and losing minutes to Flowers. Despite a solid roster and some solid stats, the Bonnies have feasted on bad teams. Bona is prone to scoring droughts and sometimes too dependent on the three. The Zips will be a good test and it should be the best of the 3 games Saturday.