Maalik Wayns Named to Wooden Award Watch List

The Bob Cousy Award
The Villanova Athletic Department and the Los Angeles Athletic Club made simultaneous announcements this afternoon that junior point guard Maalik Wayns had been named to the 2011 Preseason Wooden Award Watch List. Maalik follows in the footsteps of Corey Fisher, Scottie Reynolds and Randy Foye, Villanova guards who have been named to the Watch List in previous preseasons. A total of 10 players (two each from Connecticut and Syracuse) were named to the list released earlier this afternoon. They include...

Player	Pos	Class	School
Jeremy Lamb	F	So	Connecticut
Alex Oriakhi	F/C	Jr	Connecticut
Peyton Siva	PG	Jr	Louisville
Darius Johnson-Odom	G	Sr	Marquette
Tim Abromaitis	F	GS	Notre Dame
Ashton Gibbs	PG	Sr	Pittsburgh
Scoop Jardine	G	Sr	Syracuse
Kris Joseph	F	Jr	Syracuse
Maalik Wayns	PG	Sr	Villanova
Kevin Jones	F	Sr	West Virginia

The Big East contingent is, as usual, contains a large portion of senior & 5th year nominees. Abromaitis, along with DJO, Gibbs, Jardine, Jones, Siva and Joseph have all been named to conference teams (or honorable mentions) in 2011. Jeremy Lamb, named to the conference Rookie Team, played on the U19 team that competed for the U19 World Championship last summer in Latvia.

Other Nominees of Interest
From the Atlantic-10 Conference, Andrew Nicholson (St. Bonaventure) and Tu Holloway (Xavier) were also recognized.

Congratulations Maalik
& all of the nominees

Guest Contributor Ray Floriani: St. Bonaventure at Fordham

by Ray Floriani
BRONX, NY- St. Bonaventure bounced back from a tough home loss to UMASS on Wednesday, defeating Fordham 69-60 at Rose Hill on Saturday.

Outside Rose Hill Gym
Enough with the snow but at least its photogenic

The pace and efficiency:

		Off.
	Poss.	Eff.
St. Bona	67	103
Fordham	67	90

The Four Factors:

		FTA
	eFG%	FGA	OR%	TO%
St. Bona	46	55	24	12
Fordham	38	7	35	12

Inside Rose Hill Gym

Free Throw Rate.
The Bonnies were 26 of 41 from the line while Fordham was 5 of 9. Rams coach Tom Pecora had nothing but praise for the officials. On the disparity from the stripe he said, "they (Bonaventure) came out aggressive. When you come out like that you put yourself in a position to get calls and get to the line. Give them credit. We came out too passive."

Mark Schmidt of Bonaventure added, "we get to the line a lot in our games. Our philosophy is inside/out. We get the ball inside and as a result get opportunities to go to the free throw line."

Fordham led 17-8 in offensive rebounds. A strong second half showing on the glass was responsible for the edge in the OREB percentage category.

TO rate was a revelation for the Bonnies especially. They had been plagued with turnover problems in recent seasons. On the season both clubs have a 21% TO rate. And in this contest they showed outstanding TO rate numbers.

Forward/Center Andrew Nicholson shows his form

Crucial Four
The first four minutes of both halves are critical to setting a tone. Fordham, down 36-20 at intermission, utilized those opening minutes to their distinct advantage. On Bonaventure's opening possession Andrew Nicholson was fouled in the act of shooting. Nicholson missed both free throws. Fordham scored on their first three possessions of the half. The Bonnies missed shots on the two possessions following Nicholson's misses from the line. Instead of a potential 18 point Bonaventure margin, the Ram deficit was 10 points with about 17 minutes to play in front of an energized home crowd. Fordham closed the four minute stretch with a 9-2 scoring edge in 6 possessions. The efficiencies for that juncture were Fordham 150 and Bonaventure 33. More important, a lead that took the Bonnies about a half to build was virtually sliced in half in the span of just four minutes.

Defending the Three
Taking a cue from David Hess' Project Scoresheet on the Audacity of Hoops site, I decided to chart every field goal attempt from three point range. For uncontested attempts, a notation was made. The results:

1st Half	3 Point Shooting
	Overall	Uncontested
St. Bona	3-4 (75%)	2-2 (100%)
Fordham	3-11 (27%)	0-2 (0%)

2nd Half	3 Point Shooting
	Overall	Uncontested
St. Bona	2-7 (29%)	2-5 (40%)
Fordham	2-11 (18%)	2-6 (33%)

For the game, the numbers were:

Game	3 Point Shooting
	Overall	Uncontested
St. Bona	5-11 (46%)	4-7 (57%)
Fordham	5-22 (23%)	2-8 (25%)

Seven of the 11 three point attempts by the Bonnies were uncontested. That was largely due to the inside game and the attention afforded Nicholson by the Fordham defense. The Rams just did not close out quicker on perimeter shooters. Also, the likes of freshman Matthew Wright (9 points on 3 of 5 beyond the arc) shot some very deep threes.

On the Fordham side, the Bonnies did a good job ensuring the Rams got a minimum of open, uncontested looks. They did get 6 uncontested looks the second half. Chalk that up to a few Fordham attempts in transition and with Chris Gaston more effective in the paint the final twenty minutes, the perimeter opened up a bit.

Numbers
St. Bonaventure is 11-9 (3-4 A-10). The Rams drop to 6-13 (0-7). Andrew Nicholson led all scorers with 25 points. The Bonaventure junior added 11 boards. Brenton Butler paced Fordham with 15 points while Chris Gaston led the Rams with 11 rebounds. Game was a sellout at Rose Hill. Gaston finished with 11 points and was well defended especially the second half. Fordham did own a 30-24 points in the paint edge. That was largely due to the second half and not just on posting up. The Rams were successful those final 20 minutes in hitting the offensive boards and getting dribble penetration. Demetrius Conger, a sophomore forward, finished with 11 points 5 rebounds and made a few big plays to allow the Bonnies to maintain the lead when Fordham made its second half run. Attendance was a sold out 3,200.

Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt meets the media

Guest Contributor Ray Floriani: St. Bonaventure at Fordham

by Ray Floriani

BRONX, NY- In a game that saw 13 ties and a dozen lead changes, St.Bonaventure edged Fordham 73-68 at Rose Hill.

In a 71possession (St. Bona 73 Fordham 69) game, the Efficiency and Factors:

			FTM
	ORtg	eFG%	FGA	OR%	TO%
St. Bona	100	48	27	33	16
Fordham	99	43	33	28	16

Bonaventure has cut down on the turnover nemesis which has been a problem the past few seasons. Bonnies are under 20% in A-10 play in turnover rate and took care of the ball well.

Rebounding and defense, per coach Mark Schmidt, were the keys to the Bona victory. In raw numbers Bonaventure enjoyed a 41-35 edge on the glass and Fordham shot 37% for the contest.

Bonnies had a 44-26 edge on scoring in the paint and a 17-6 margin in second chance points.

Significant. Andrew Nicholson, the Bonnies sophomore center and inside threat, scored five points and fouled out after logging 22 minutes. Nicholson was not feeling well but gave it a go. As Schmidt also noted it’s significant to get a road win when a player of Nicholson’s stature is not a big factor.

Jon Hall led all scorers with a 24 point night. The Bonaventure guard also added 8 boards.

Chris Gaston of Fordham posted 18 points and 13 rebounds. Gaston did commit 5 turnovers which can be somewhat excused to having defenders double down on him on the blocks and the fact he had to log the full 40 minutes.

Brenton Butler led Fordham with 20 points but was 5 of 15 ( 2 of 7 from three) from the floor.

Lance Brown was out for Fordham but Herb Tanner filled in at guard scoring nine points. His trey at the first half Buzzer gave the Rams a 35-34 lead.

Bonnies limited Fordham to 14 of 36 shooting (39%) from two point range. On the offensive end Bonaventure shot 52% from two point range (27 of 52) and wisely attempted only seven treys while hitting one. Bonnies struggled at the line going 16 of 30.

Always impressed with the hustle of freshman forward Fahro Alihodzic of Fordham. There are nights, as tonight, though he is not a big factor. Alihodzic scored 4 points with 3 rebounds in 22 minutes.

Living with prosperity. Something Bonaventure had had trouble with especially away from home, having dropped heartbreakers at Duquesne and St.Louis earlier. Bonaventure led by seven with 90 seconds to play and proceeded to shoot 2 of 7 from the line. On the other end the Rams could get no closer than a four point deficit.

Elerby. The ‘Bonaventure Bandwagon’ - the fan’s chat room has been extremely critical of junior guard Malcolm Elerby. Granted he hasn’t had a consistently solid year but at Rose Hill his play was good. He scored 10 points (4 of 8 from the line was not great), added 5 assists and made some nice defensive plays. Watching him, I saw a lot of good things as noted. All of a sudden he passes on the wing and sends the ball almost onto Arthur Avenue. You can hear the Bandwagon group let out a collective groan. Elerby must have a friend on the stat crew as he was listed for zero turnovers.

Records. Bonnies are 12-14 (5-8 in A-10). Fordham is 2-24 (0-14).

“I didn’t expect us to pull away . Fordham plays very hard and will never quit. I thought (Jon) Hall was they key for us tonight.“ - St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt

“We got hammered at URI but responded with two great practices. Tonight we didn’t get the loose balls, block out at times and make the plays we needed in the stretch.“ - Fordham interim coach Jared Grasso

St. Bonaventure Coach Mark Schmidt