Former ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski made a shocking move to become the general manager of the St. Bonaventure men's basketball program, and in his press conference addressing the move, his passion and vision for the program was abundantly clear. He highlighted some of the major wins the program has had over the past few years.
“We have an incredible story to tell, this is an elite Atlantic 10 program,” Adrian Wojnarowsk said, via Bonnies Men's Basketball on X. “This is a program that since 2017 has gone 11-8 against power five and Big East programs, and out of those 19 games, exactly zero of them were in the Reilly Center. And we know the road wins at Syracuse, UCLA in the NCAA Tournament, Maryland on a neutral court, and then Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, and running the gauntlet in the NIT at Colorado, at Oklahoma, at Virginia, that's elite.”
Wojnarowski is right that the St. Bonaventure basketball program has been able to contend with major programs across the country in recent memory.
Adrian Wojnarowski's unique ability to sell the St. Bonaventure basketball program
Wojnarowski will try to make the program more attractive to players in his role, and he expanded on how he will sell his vision to recruits. He emphasized the quality of the basketball program while also having the unique ability to benefit from being on a tight-knit campus.
And this is an elite program, and so we want to be telling that story, and we want young men to know, we want players to know that when you come to St. Bonaventure, you are a giant killer. And you do that with also having the benefit of a small, intimate, caring campus. There's nobody quite like us in a major conference, and that's an advantage for us. So those are among the things that I'm gonna try to bring. Again relationships with people and being able to sell this program and sell our history, it's appealing to a lot of players and a lot of coaches. And so we're gonna go out and spread that message and try to find coach the very best players, best student-athletes that fit his program and fit our university.”
It is a clear that Wojnarowski has a vision for the program, and he made it crystal clear in his press conference to address the move. It will be interesting to see how he carries out that vision in the upcoming years.