The Boys Are Back In Town

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The wait is finally over.

Well, just about.

We are four short days away from opening night at the Reilly Center. Come Saturday, it will have been 244 sunsets without a Bonnie’s game. For some, perhaps the off-season is a time to regroup, relax and enjoy stress free nights. For myself and countless other Bona Faithful, the wait has felt like an eternity. I have been counting the days since the March 15^th loss to St. Joseph’s in Brooklyn, patiently waiting to huddle over my laptop and take-in a game via our wonderful free gobonnies.com stream.

Much has changed since that brisk Saturday afternoon; players have graduated, while others have transferred away from the rolling hills of Allegany. More importantly, ten returners and five new faces will illuminate the cold, grey, wintry campus and the hardwood of Bob Lanier Court for the next five months.

Schmidt’s teams are 7-0 in Home Openers with wins over, Binghamton, Robert Morris, Cleveland State, Arkansas-Little-Rock, Cornell, Bethune-Cookman and South Dakota. Schmidt is also a perfect 5-0 vs the Ivy League since taking the helm in 2007. I fully expect history to repeat itself on Saturday night.

A win should come with relative ease. So for those folks who have enjoyed their stress free nights, you should have until next Wednesday until you’re shouting at your computer or biting your nails as the game unfolds.

The Bonnies are back my friends. Here’s to a great 2014-2015.

Bonus: If anyone needs further prof (I have no idea who this applies to but I’m sure there’s someone out there) of the talent level increase in the program since Schmidt took over, here is the list of players who saw time in that 2007 opener vs. Binghamton….Yikes.

Starters: Mike Lee (26 points), Zarryon Fereti, D’Lancy Carter (0 points), Malcolm Eleby (7 points) and Hilliary Haley (12 points).

Subs: Tyler Relph, Tyler Benson, Delonte AKA “Nut” Taylor, Matt Morgan and Shane Hvizdak.

-Shane

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This game was by first home game as head student assistant under Mark. The most memorable thing about this game to me, was when Mike Lee missed a fast break chance because he decided to lay the ball up instead of dunk it and had it blocked. Schmidt called a timeout immediately, smashed the white board on the ground and absolutely ripped into Lee for being soft. I mean he freaking unloaded on the kid. At that moment I thought to myself, “Damm this team is going to play a hell of a lot harder than they did under Solomon or this dude is going to kill someone.”. As it turned out, Lee had a great senior year, in my opinion, because Schmidt was the first guy to really push him in his career. I can say the Bonnies have played hard ever since that possession, regardless of the outcome. Also, from that game one we also packed two whiteboards in the travel bag…something we didn’t have to worry about under coach Solomon. - Ian