13 hours Ago By By SPENCER BATES Olean Times Herald
ST. BONAVENTURE — ESPN’s former Senior NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski has a new boss. No, it’s not another media conglomerate, but someone he referred to as “the best coach in college basketball,” in St.
Bonaventure’s Mark Schmidt. On Wednesday, Wojnarowski held his first press conference as the new general manager of the men’s basketball team at his alma mater and through an opening statement and panel questions that followed there was some obvious emotion. But the presser was not without obvious excitement between the two long-time friends turned co-workers, Schmidt and Wojnarowski.
Answering the first question tossed his way, Schmidt sang the praises of his team’s new GM, saying that “the relationships that Woj has, we couldn’t develop in the next 50 years. What he’s going to bring to the program is, I can’t put into words.” What Schmidt articulated is that it’s the relationships that Wojnarowski has been able to develop in his many years at the top of his field, reporting on professional basketball, that will open doors, once never thought possible.
While Wojnarowski’s presence won’t necessarily change the process in which Schmidt recruits his players, he noted it will certainly make a much wider array of players available. “Because of Woj’s relationships, we’re going to be able to get involved with some guys we couldn’t in the past, but we’re still going to evaluate them just like we always do.” Schmidt said.
“With Woj’s relationships with these guys overseas, we’ll be able to get involved with kids, and now we’ve got to decide if they fit our program, if they’re good enough or if that’s a position we’re looking for. But ..
. those relationships that Woj has, we couldn’t develop, and in this business it’s about relationships. If there’s a guy overseas that has four or five (teams recruiting him) and he has a good relationship with you, then you have a better chance of getting involved, and that’s gonna open up a lot of doors for us.
” The need for a general manager is something that, according to Schmidt, has been discussed ever since other high-level teams across the nation began creating those positions. However, he and his program have had a sort of pseudo-GM in Wojnarowski over the past few years as he played a big role while at ESPN with the raising of NIL funds. “In some ways, this has been a role and a conversation that’s been going on with Coach and I .
.. for years,” Wojnarowski said.
“That’s been starting with the raising of funds and money and resources in NIL. So, Coach and I and the coaching staff and Bob (Beretta) and our great athletic department here, this has been an ongoing conversation, even when I was at ESPN, trying to rally and help keep the program competitive.” So, as the discussion progressed and the prospect of adding a GM to the program became more concrete, Schmidt said he “didn’t even think of Woj.
” “Why would Woj want to be the general manager of Bonaventure basketball,” Schmidt recalled himself thinking. “But when Bob (Beretta) called me and told me what Woj was thinking, I did flips. I was like ‘God, Woj is going to be a part of our program, our university’ and he’s just going to help it immensely.
I can’t put it into words what he is going to do for us.” As for Wojnarowski’s official title, that didn’t seem to matter much to Schmidt. It makes no difference what they called Woj’s role, he was just happy to have someone coming in that cares about the program and can provide new opportunities.
“We can name it anything you want, we could call it ‘Woj,’” Schmidt laughed. “It didn’t really matter what the title was, but what he can bring to the program are things we didn’t have in the past and NIL is why this position has been created.” Schmidt even said that Wojnarowksi’s initial announcement that he was leaving ESPN to take on this new role provided the program and the university publicity that it could have only dreamed of.
And while his duties may align with the men’s basketball program specifically, he doesn’t think that just the sheer presence of Woj on and around campus will hurt areas like admission. “When Woj made that announcement, it was on ESPN for 24 hours,” Schmidt said. “Our school couldn’t get that publicity in the next 15 years, 20 years.
It was all Bonaventure for 24 hours. When you have Stephen A. (Smith) talking about Bonaventure, it says something.
I’m not an admissions counselor, but I would think this can’t hurt, having Woj a part of our university.” As Wojnarowski put it, he is committed to helping Schmidt at the rest of the program and athletic department continue to grow. Through NIL dealings and recruiting, or whatever he can make available to his new employers.
But he also said that he is well aware that this is Schmidt’s team to run and gave credit to Bona’s all-time winningest men’s basketball coach in his ability to continue to compile rosters that pose a challenge for the Atlantic 10 title each year, even as the landscape of collegiate athletics continues to change around them. “Certainly, we’ve been talking about potential recruits. What’s remarkable about our program is coach Schmidt and his staff, they did it again this year, the climate has changed, how recruiting unfolds has changed, but the kind of young men that coach Schmidt and his staff identify, recruit and sell on St.
Bonaventure and then bring in here and develop and win with and graduate, that has stayed very consistent through all of the disruption that has gone on in college sports. My role is going to be to try and use my relationships to open up more doors and maybe bring some more options to Coach and his staff.”.
