Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

Fundraising has been completed to build a new women’s basketball locker room at St. Bonaventure University. Spurred by a $75,000 gift from John H. Meisch, class of 1958, and his wife, Kay, donors contributed a total of $300,000 for the project. Work will begin shortly after Commencement in May and is expected to be completed before the end of summer, in time for the 2013-14 season. The locker room will be located across the hall from the men’s basketball locker room, inside the tunnel that faces the team benches. The facility includes a 15-stall locker room; smart board and large-screen TV for film study and game planning; team meeting room, including computer stations; and a modern shower and bathroom facility. In total, it will encompass 1,740 square feet. The gifts were a tribute to head coach Jim Crowley and last season’s nationally ranked Bonnies (31-4), who went unbeaten in the Atlantic 10 and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. “I can’t say...

For the first time in program history, the St. Bonaventure women's basketball team is receiving votes in the preseason ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. The Bonnies begin the season with the 37th most points of any team in the land with six. The Bonnies ran through 2011-12 schedule to a 31-4 record and a berth into the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. SBU finished last season at No. 21 in the Associated Press Poll, No. 23 in the Coaches Poll and were positioned as high as No. 16 in the nation during the week of March 5. The Bonnies won the Atlantic 10 regular season title by running the table to a perfect 14-0 mark. They would advance to the championship game of the Atlantic 10 Tournament before being selected as a 5-seed in the Raleigh Region of the NCAA Tournament. SBU would go on to defeat Florida Gulf Coast and Marist to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. By season's end, the Brown and White had amassed a 4-2 record against teams that were ranked or receiving votes in the fin...

St. Bonaventure head men's basketball coach Mark Schmidt and head women's basketball coach Jim Crowley were named the Basketball Coaches Association of New York Men's and Women's Division I Coaches of the Year by the BCANY selection committee on Friday. Schmidt, who was named the Sports News' Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year, guided the Bonnies this past season to their first A-10 Championship and first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000. Crowley, who was named ESPN.com's National Coach of the Year and A-10 Coach of the Year, led Bonaventure to the best season in program history as SBU became the smallest active Division I school to ever advance to the Sweet 16. It marks just the third time in the award's history that both the men's and women's winners have come from the same institution, and the first time since Niagara swept the awards in 1993. The BCANY is comprised of basketball coaches of all scholastic and collegiate levels throughout New Yo...

Coming off the most successful season in St. Bonaventure women's basketball history, Athletic Director Steve Watson announced on Monday that head coach Jim Crowley has signed a long-term extension to remain at St. Bonaventure. Specifics of the deal will not be disclosed, but the latest extension secures Crowley through the end of the 2018-19 season. Last June, Crowley signed an extension through the end of the 2016-17 campaign. Crowley guided the Bonnies to the program's first NCAA Tournament berth this past year, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen before losing to eventual national runner-up Notre Dame. "We are pleased to have Jim remain at St. Bonaventure," Watson said. "This extension represents our commitment to him and likewise him to us. Jim has built a program which represents our University well on the court, on campus, in the classroom and in the community. We anticipate continued success under his guidance and leadership." A Binghamton-area native, Cro...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Keep pinching yourself if you must, but all you'll get out of it is a nasty bruise. This isn't a dream. St. Bonaventure (31-3) is in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. The Bonnies survived a last-gasp 3-pointer and defeated 13th-seeded Marist, 66-63, Tuesday night in the Second Round of the tournament. They will face top-seeded Notre Dame (32-3) Sunday in Raleigh, N.C at 2:30 p.m. Senior Jessica Jenkins drilled six 3-pointers and scored 22 points, and sophomore Doris Ortega (13 points) grabbed 10 rebounds to lead a dominant performance on the boards by the fifth-seeded Bonnies, who outrebounded Marist, 40-26. "Coach told me before the game I'd be able to crash the boards because they ball watch sometimes, and I knew how important those (extra) possessions could be," said Ortega, who had five of SBU's 15 offensive rebounds. Coach Jim Crowley glanced at the box score and conceded the game was basically even -- except ...

The St. Bonaventure women's basketball team will travel to Tallahassee, FL as the fifth seed in the Raleigh Region in the NCAA Tournment. They will take on Florida Gulf Coast Sunday at 2:30 p.m. "It's a pretty good time to be a Bonnie right now. There's no doubt about that," said Atlantic 10 and ESPN.com Coach of the Year Jim Crowley during a selection show viewing party at the Reilly Center. "A pretty good time to be a Bonnie right now."

ESPN.com has named St. Bonaventure women's basketball coach Jim Crowley as its National Coach of the Year. Crowley has led the No. 16 Bonnies to a program-record 29 wins, first Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season crown and first visit to the A-10 Championship title game. Bonaventure is all but assured a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. The brackets will be unveiled Monday evening at 7, and a viewing party will be held in the Reilly Center. ~~~~ Take St. Bonaventure to the NCAA tournament? Lead that school into the top 25 and to an undefeated regular-season championship in the Atlantic 10? Make the Bonnies -- the Bonnies -- nationally relevant? Nobody was supposed to be able to do that. But Jim Crowley did. Rewind the tape six years, and if St. Bonaventure wasn't the worst women's program in Division I, you could see the bottom of the ladder from where it sat -- making that basement, frankly, about the only thing close to Olean, N.Y. Seemi...

The following is a letter from head coach Jim Crowley and the entire St. Bonaventure women's basketball program on the support it has received this season. From all of us associated with the St. Bonaventure women's basketball program, we want to send out our sincerest thanks to everyone who has supported us throughout this magical season. The amazing response we have been given on campus, in the community and everywhere we go means so much to all of us. This past weekend at the Atlantic 10 Championship in Philadelphia, you helped create an atmosphere which more resembled a home game at the Reilly Center than a neutral-site contest. Thank you for everyone who made the trip, and also to those who passed along congratulatory notes. We want to extend a special thank you to all of the women's basketball alumni who have wished us well, been to games and supported us from afar. Our success comes from all of your hard work, dedication and passion for this University and our program...

St. Bonaventure's Jim Crowley has been named to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Women's National Coach of the Year award watch list by members of the USBWA on Thursday. Crowley, who was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year on Wednesday, has guided a team picked to finish sixth the league by his peers to a 27-2 record and perfect 14-0 mark in the A-10 for the first time in program history. The award was Crowley's second Coach of the Year award in the last four years. The Windsor, N.Y. native won the award in 2008-09, and has led SBU to 20 or more wins in each of the last four seasons. Crowley – one of just 10 head coaches in the nation named to the list – led Bona to the school's first regular-season title in any sport this year. The No. 19/22 Bonnies have set records for wins, road victories (13) and conference triumphs, and are currently riding a program-best 16-game winning streak. Joining Crowley on the watch list are a pair of coaches he opposed this year – D...

On the coattails of a record-breaking regular season, a trio of St. Bonaventure women's basketball players were named to Atlantic 10 All-Conference teams on Wednesday, and Jim Crowley was named the league's Coach of the Year. Seniors Jessica Jenkins and Megan Van Tatenhove were chosen to the A-10 First Team and All-Academic Team, while junior Alaina Walker earned a spot on the All-Defensive Team. Jenkins and Van Tatenhove become just the third and fourth players in program history to land on the First Team, joining Hilary Waltman and Dana Mitchell, who rank No.1 and No. 2, respectively, on the program's all-time scoring list. Walker becomes the first player in program history to be named to the All-Defensive Team – an honor incepted by the A-10 for the 2001-02 season. It is the first time that St. Bonaventure has had more than one player on the First Team list, and also the first time that more than one player has earned a spot on the All-Academic Team. For Van Tatenhove, i...