Breaking down Saturday's loss

Let’s hope it was the turkey.
That might be an explanation for today’s 63-60 loss to Eastern Michigan at the Reilly Center. The Bonnies came out lackadaisical and got worse from there. Let’s break it down.


•Offense. The offense was actually halfway decent in the first half, and the Bonnies came into the locker room with a 26-22 lead at halftime. However, the Bonnies turned timid for some reason with about 10 minutes to play. Players quit moving without the ball (although they didn’t do much of that to begin with), and 25 seconds of dilly-dallying were followed by 10 seconds of frantic play as our Bonnies realized that the clock was winding down. As I’ll mention in a minute, this smacks of play from an era we would much rather forget.
Michael Lee continued his string of excellent basketball with 22 points, while Tyler Relph continued his solid play, contributing 14 points and 4 assists. Both were perfect from the line (Lee 4-4, Relph 6-6). However, Zerryon Ferreti went cold again with only 7 points and 2-7 from the field, and the other Bonnies contributed as much to the stat sheet as Rachael Ray has to the culinary arts.
Relph’s assist number would have been helped along a little bit had the other Bonnies actually moved without the ball. The point guard is the quarterback of the offense, but a quarterback can’t operate if his receivers won’t move. All in all, an extremely lackadaisical performance.

•Defense. Thoroughly putrid, especially in the second half. The only reason the game was so close was because Eastern Michigan did not shoot very well in the first half, especially from three. Players are getting in the defensive stance, but they are not rotating well. When they do rotate, they either reach their man too late or they don’t put their hands up to effectively contest the shot.

Our Bonnies also did not rotate inside. Whenever an Eastern Michigan player would penetrate in the paint, no one would step into the lane! Unfortunately, this left poor D’Lancy Carter in the low post to defend all by his lonesome, and as a freshman, he is still not equipped to defend and rebound there.

There is one more notable thing. At one point in the second half, I noticed Ferreti run to a player to contest a shot. However, he ducked just as his opponent got ready to shoot and ran to another Eastern Michigan player, rather than contesting the shot. This faux paus resulted in an easy three points for Eastern Michigan. That incident basically symbolizes the woes the Bonnies had on defense today. Coach Mark Schmidt may have had the worst defense in the Northeast Conference at Robert Morris, but that must change at this level, or else such performances will continue.

•Coaching. I realize that this may be a no-go area because of Mr. Schmidt’s popularity on campus, but he did make one mistake that should be mentioned. For example, as we began to give up a seven point lead with six minutes to go, Schmidt did not substitute. As a result, our players began making mental, then physical mistakes, including giving up the lead with two minutes to go. Even as we began to fall apart, Schmidt still failed to substitute. I don’t care if we have a shallow bench or not. You cannot keep players who are making mistakes on the floor and expect to win. Even if it’s to give your starters a brief rest, substitutions should still be made.

•Solomon’s teaching. Keep in mind that this is a young team that has been conditioned under Schmidt’s predecessor, Anthony Solomon, to play basketball like idiots. It will take time for Schmidt to completely sell these players, especially the veterans, on his message. This game was a classic case of Solomon-style basketball, as lackadaisical offense, poor defense, and mental mistakes down the stretch combined to form a close St. Bonaventure loss. Keep in mind that this is only Schmidt’s sixth game as coach. It will take time for the message to get through.

And that’s basically what this loss was today: growing pains. At least that’s what I hope it was. The Bonnies cannot afford many more losses of this caliber, especially when the Atlantic 10 begins rolling into town. While we may put in a Binghamton-style performance every night, we need to cut down on the major mistakes, and fast. If anything else, this game proved that while the Bonnies may be “bringing it back,” success certainly won’t happen overnight.

-Benjamin Yeager