RocChiTown

While I agree partially, I don’t think the A10, save maybe five teams max, is good enough to make Bonnies fans worry about being not being a top 4 team. Richmond, SLU, Dayton, VCU and maybe URI are the top teams in the A10 along with Bona and all have serious flaws themselves. Still think SBU can go 12-6 or 13-5 in A10 play. Bona won’t run into another shooter like Green in A10 play. SBU always lays a dude when students are on break, and I think they need some humbling after the Charleston Classic. While it was a good accomplishment and nice PR for the school, they were favored in every matchup, and it is still just a tournament in November.

Pretty ugly game by Bona getting torched for 90 at home. A lot of Bona fans are losing their minds, but I don’t think it’ll end up being a terrible loss!

Things have changed a lot in the past decade or so, and they're never going back to the way there were. Mid-majors are crucified for losing Q3/Q4 games, which unfortunately will happen even if you're a good team. Meanwhile, it's much harder to get quality home games if you're UB, Bona or Murray State, etc. Not too long ago Buffalo hosted UConn and Bona hosted Miss State. That ain't happening again, unless you want a low level P5 at home. The powers know they don't need to schedule a ton of quality OOC games as virtually their entire conference schedule is filled with good games, and they sure as hell aren't going on the road to a mid-major unless the team is amazing (Q1). With conferences likely going to 20 game conference slates, it'll be even harder to schedule going forward. We are living in an age where a P5 can get an at large with 15 + losses...AND STILL AVOID DAYTON! To your point, while it IS possible to get an at large out of the MAC, it is very, very difficult and is only getting harder. You have to be virtually perfect and probably win 30 games with maybe one or two bad losses. I try to tell this to Bonnies fans, but your Q3/Q4 games don't matter...unless you lose. When Bona was rolling through a crappy A10 in 2018, people thought we were a lock after being URI. Unfortunately, that was not true. If we had loss one more game the rest of the regular season, we would have been in the NIT 100%. That's the one thing the separates bubble teams on Selection Sunday. The power bubbles rarely have bad losses, the mid majors usually do have a couple. Add in the fact that mid majors usually get most of the quality games away from home and it makes things so much more difficult to compete for at larges. Sorry for the rant!

Getting an at large bid out of the MAC is extremely difficult. You could likely only afford 1-2 losses max in conference play. Add in the fact you probably have to win every OOC save maybe one or two, and it seems unlikely. Monmouth won what, 27 games a few years back and still got sent to the NIT despite a few good wins OOC. Until the MAC reduces the number of Q3/4 teams in conference, or at least adds to the number of Q1 games in conference play, at an large is extremely difficult.

SFA has won 20+ games in 10 of the last 15 years. On top of that, they've only had two losing records in the last 20. They are most certainly a very strong club, and not a bad loss.

Bona fan here. Due to the fact that our offense sucks, most people will think we aren't deserving of a ranking. Nonetheless, the D is the reason why we are ranked. It's never going to be pretty. We are like a poor man's UVA. We play a slow place on O and depend on defense to win games. Should be a fun game Dec. 4. Regardless of outcome, I think it'll be a quality loss for whoever falls. That makes it a bit more tolerable, right??

I highly doubt UB gets smoked by Bona this year. Even though Michigan lost last night and UNT is not the team they were last year, I was impressed by Buffalo's first two games and expect them to compete in all of their OOC games. I say this as a Bonaventure fan. Teams that can score in bunches will be a problem for us as we play such a slow tempo. You fall behind late, and it's hard to catch up. We have not looked pretty in our first two games, and like always, we have no depth. Get OO in foul trouble and Bona legit has no scoring options off the pine aside from Pitt transfer, Karim Coulibaly. Who knows what'll happen. Does good defense win out over good offense? We will find out soon!