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St. Bonaventure Basketball: Previewing the 2018-19 season for the Bonnies

By Bryan Mauro

DAYTON, OH - MARCH 13: Ikpeze
DAYTON, OH - MARCH 13: Ikpeze /
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DAYTON, OH – MARCH 13: Courtney Stockard #11 of the St. Bonaventure Bonnies celebrates the basket against the UCLA Bruins during the second half of the First Four game in the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at UD Arena on March 13, 2018 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
DAYTON, OH – MARCH 13: Courtney Stockard #11 of the St. Bonaventure Bonnies celebrates the basket against the UCLA Bruins during the second half of the First Four game in the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at UD Arena on March 13, 2018 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Schedule Overview and Projected Finish

The Bonnies are coming off a great year in which they won 26 games and 14 games in the Atlantic 10. That season is going to hard to repeat especially with the pieces that they lost. The schedule has a nice mix of buy games and challenging games. If St Bonaventure is able to navigate their non-conference schedule as they did a year ago, there is enough on the schedule to earn them an at large bid to the NCAA tournament.

The crucial games on the schedule for the Bonnies were both tournament teams. The Buffalo Bulls fresh off an upset win over Arizona in the NCAA tournament are going to make the journey to Olean, and St Bonaventure is going to travel to Syracuse. Even though none of the teams have to leave their home state, these games have a lot more than just a win or a loss at stake. These are rivalry games as each team is one of the premier basketball programs in the state of New York currently.

The Bonnies complete their tour of the New York schools with games at Niagara and against Canisius. As well as a home game against the Siena Saints. The games against potential conference winners in Vermont and Northeastern are going to be great early season basketball games.

The Atlantic 10 conference schedule is not a balanced schedule in which each team plays each other both at home and on the road. St Bonaventure plays George Mason, Fordham, St. Joseph’s, Davidson and Duquesne twice, one each in Olean and away from home. The key single plays for the Bonnies are games on the road against UMass and Rhode Island. Rhode Island was another team from their conference who is slightly rebuilding and made the NCAA tournament last year. UMass is going to drastically improved. The final game of the season is against the Saint Louis Billikens who many have pegged as the early conference favorite.

Next. Predicting all 32 conference champs for 2018-19. dark

The schedule is tough for the Bonnies especially the conference schedule. St. Bonaventure has a lot of experience in their starting lineup but the depth pieces for the Bonnies have no experience at the division 1 level. The Bonnies reasonably will finish in the middle of the pack of the Atlantic 10. They have a ceiling anywhere from 5th to 8th in the league. The lack of experience with the depth pieces is going to be the deciding factor in most of their games especially if they are close down the stretch.

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