St. Bonaventure head coach Jim Crowley enters his 19th overall campaign with his team and third in this second stint. He admits that while the previous two prove challenging, his side, picked 14th in the Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll, has turned a corner.
“We feel we’ve put together a roster that fits how we want to play, has some added maturity and physicality and just has a skillset how we want to teach it,” he declared. “The group has been really open to the challenges of building relationships quicker, being a student-athlete here is different, and we’ve enjoyed this group.”
Here is a look at the Bonnies:
Coach - Jim Crowley 19th overall season.
Last year- St. Bonaventure was 6-24 and 2-16 in A-10 play. Its season ended in a first round Atlantic 10 Championship contest against Saint Louis.
They’ll miss- Dani Haskell (13 ppg), Zoe Shaw (11 ppg), Caitlin Frost (9 ppg/5rpg)
Impact returners- Mackenzie Pettinelli (4.7 ppg/played all 30 games)
“Mackenzie played a lot of minutes for us, probably top three or four and at a lot of different spots, so she understands what we want to do,” stated Crowley. “She was recruited for how we want to play and she’s able to do that a little bit more with some of her teammates.”
Gabby Robinson Forde (2.1 ppg)
“For Gabby I don’t know if I’ve had a player recently that’s gotten better in 12 months like she has,” Crowley analyzed. “She was producing for us pretty well at the end of last season and had an even better spring and summer… Both have embraced a leadership role in different ways, whether vocal, actions or looking out for one another, so they have put a good foundation for what we want to do and neither liked how last year went. That’s one of the ways to get better quicker, to have some people in the program who don’t really like how things were going and want to do something about it.”
Newcomers of note- Aaliyah Parker (Niagara), Laycee Drake (Albany), Kaylee Krysztof (Binghamton), Kylie Buckley (Oakland)
Given the Bonnies return 12.7% of its scoring and 22.7% of rebounders from a season ago, there is plenty of opportunity for a group Crowley feels will take an important step forward this season.
He did not project a starting lineup, or top eight, a sign that practices have been quite competitive. Crowley did expect a couple of freshmen who can immediately help the cause.
“It's early but we think all of our young folks and newcomers can help us,” he stated. “Aaliyah has proven she can do it at a high level. Laycee Drake is someone who has played a lot of basketball, maybe not as much time at UAlbany, but had a really good sophomore year at UMBC and is someone we’re familiar with.”
Reasons to be optimistic: Bona’s post size is the best it has been since Crowley’s return and that would go to the plan of going inside out with an improved roster and being on the more physical side. Part of that comes with winning the rebounding battle and a refusal to get pushed around.
X Factor- Toughness will be a key trait of this Bonnies team, and St. Bonaventure has a "Buffalo tough" addition with Aaliyah Parker’s transfer in from Niagara.
“She’s very talented and has great feet defensively, great anticipation,” Crowley offered. “She’s physical, she can score around the rim, is a really good passer. To me the biggest thing is she is Buffalo tough. Folks in Buffalo don’t back down to anybody and that’s something I take great pride in our program, and we’ve been working to get back to. To add her with her talent and know she has that, it was a great get for us.”
For her part, Parker is coming off an injury last season but expressed how grateful she was to her coaches and teammates for believing in her.
Circle the date- St. Bonaventure has several games in New York to open its non-conference slate. This includes consecutive home games Nov. 19 and 22 respectively against Buffalo and UAlbany. Buffalo won 30 games last year, emerging victorious in the WNIT and UAlbany had 26 wins, making the WBIT. What follows is the Cleveland State MTE which begins Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving, against the tournament hosts who a year ago made the WNIT’s Fab 4. A final test before A-10 play comes Dec. 20 at Howard, a team which won 22 games last season and made the second round of the WNIT.
Bottom line: St. Bonaventure has the talent and is picking things up at a quicker pace in the early going. This only bodes well for a team committed to and that fully believes in taking the next steps together.
“I think that’s the maturity part that we added,” concluded Crowley. “They understand ‘we might’ve screwed up in the first half hour, but we have another two hours we’re going to be better.’ Some people say it with their words; some people do it with their actions, but they really have utilized that to have more productive practices so far.”