Great Opening Night Win

[Friar]

The Bonnies looked pretty good last night. Bonas controlled a good portion of the game. This is what I liked about the game:

---The Bonnies played as a team. Everyone is there to play a role and they played it well.
---I liked Coach Schmidt's substituting plan. Took players out when they needed to come out; gave his players some needed rest.
---Reilly Center excitement!!!!!!! The RC was a rockin!!! This leads me to once again ask this question, why play our home games on neutral sites like this Tuesdays game against St. John's. The RC was loud, crazy and the fans were into it. The fans in the red seats appeared to be louder than those in the bleachers.
---Former Bonnie guard ( and a damn good one) Glen Hagen was in attendance last night. It is good to see former players watching their alma mater.

Now, the not so good:

---The team looked tired down the stretch. I guess this is to expected since it is early in the season. As the season progresses I think the Bonnies will be in good shape.
---The turnover/assist ratio. The Bonnies had more turnovers than assists. This is something that must be corrected.

All in all, I was very pleased with the Bonnies victory last night. I have not heard so many positive comments from fans. Everyone I talked to couldn't believe how good the Bonnies looked. This victory has definitely generated good vibes in the community.

I realize this is one game and its a long season. At this point I am cautiously optimistic. This start is different than in past years when our hopes and dreams were inflated and only to deflate as the season wore on. LETS GO BONAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sneakers]

Friar

Do you think that the team prefers to play St. John's in Rochester rather than the RC? I can assure you that is not the case. Since St. John's wouldn't come to Olean, would you rather the team schedule another LeMoyne-type game at home instead of taking on the Johnnies in Rochester?

Unfortunately, in order to play some high competition currently we need to step out and play on some neutral courts (in areas with lots of alumni though). Hopefully as we improve we will have more options to bring top teams to the RC.

[presstowin]

Room to improve! 14 for 25 We are still struggling on our free throws.

[Chuck]

Most profitable option is essential and have to believe Watson is choosing this direction. This increases Bonnies chances of being able to keep Schmidt, who I hear really likes Olean.

[Sipowicz]

I know for a fact that just a few years ago SJU was not even returning our phone calls for scheduling. So Rochester is probably better than just playing them down at their home.

[wgt]

That was a remarkable first half hitting on 77% and limiting CSU to just 25 points. Our aggressive D caused 9 TOs & created lots of scoring opportunities. Cleveland made excellent adjustments the second half, showing various zones & turning it over only 3 times. In spite of their greatly improved play they never got closer than 12 & each time they did we answered back to break their momentum.

Our trey D was solid, as it was last season, allowing Cleveland to hit only 6-22. That will be important throughout the year since teams will hoist up far more treys than us. Last night it accounted for 1/3rd of CSU’s attempts. They took 22 treys to our 8. Holding Cole to 13 pts on 5-15 shooting is quite an accomplishment as is causing sharpshooter Harmon to misfire on all his 7 shots including 5 treys.

Hall & especially Davenport played extremely well. But there were contributions from almost everyone. What impressed me was Andrew’s 4 blocks while taking just 3 fouls against three real big guys. Overall our D stayed away from stupid fouls (hand checks etc) while still playing aggressively. We had only 13 personal fouls to their 22.

Hopefully our energized student body will be heading up to Rochester Tuesday to see us challenge a very talented Red Storm team.

[room109]

What stood out was their spirit. Early in the first half, Hall fell hard on a good hustle play, all four of his team mates came to help him up. Last year they would have let him lay there.

They put the rock in the hole. And lastly good D.

Ogo was not impressive. Schmitty yanked him a couple of times after throw cross court passes.

This years bench play, and how well Schmitty uses his offense off of the bench, will be a fun to watch.