The Bonnies, Point Guard vs. Center Centric

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Over the past 25 years the Bonnies have had key play from one of two positions: point guard or center.

In the early 90’s to 2000s they had solid point to spectacular guards including Shandue McNeil, Tim Winn, and Marques Green.

More recently, big men such as Andrew Nicholson and Youssou Ndoye (Less recently PVP, Bob Lanier, etc.) have led the charge for the Brown and White. With the loss of big man Jordan Tyson (there are still talented forwards on the roster, none more so than Senior Dion Wright), could we be seeing the beginning of the next wave of great Bona point guards - starting with Jaylen Adams?

With no true big on the team, could Adams be poised to have a stellar sophomore season running the offense of what will probably will be a smaller quicker lineup?

Had he not broken his finger last season against UMass there’s every chance Adams would have been named to the league’s All-Rookie team. His 26 points vs. Ohio and his 15 points and 14 assist game against Duquesne gave fans a glimpse into his potential. His 4.5 assists per game would have ranked second in the league had he qualified and his A/TO ratio third.

He is one of the few Bona players in recent memory to have such an impactful freshman season, especially while playing the point guard position (excluding Patricio Prato’s Freshman season which may be one of the best Bona Freshman years ever).

Once winning the role of starting Point Guard, Adams played big minutes and came up with big buckets or assists time and time again. His injury down the stretch hurt the Bonnies in a number of ways, most importantly, it pushed Marcus Posley off the wing and to the point. The team lost their primary ball handler, best play maker and one of their top shooters.

While the graduation of Youssou and injury to Tyson obviously hurts Bonas’ rebounding and defense on both ends of the floor, all you have to do is look at the recent successes in March Madness to see that guards win basketball games in the NCAA tournament. Last year’s Dayton Flyers suited up no player taller than 6-8 (Dion Wright for perspective) and had a fantastic season ending in an NCAA berth.

The loss of Adams late last year was certainly detrimental to the Bonnies’ chances of playing into March. If healthy this year could he be the reason the Bonnies play into late March in 2016?

Now, this isn’t a prediction that Adams will set any career records the way McNeil, Winn, and Green did. But, it does provide some excitement going into the 2015 campaign. While Adams (10 ppg vs. 6 ppg) did have statistically a better freshman season than Marques Green, he wasn’t on a team with J.R. Bremer, Kevin Houston, and (I cant help myself) Bob Dziengeleski. However, in his Sophomore year Green jumped to almost 15.5 PPG.

If Adams can make even half of that improvement we should be in for a real treat over the next three years.