With four starters returning from last year's 15-15 squad, a little sunshine is finally beaming down on St. Bonaventure.

Mark Schmidt, the third-year head coach has restored belief in the tradition-rich program. Six players return from the 2008-09 squad that recorded the Bonnies' first .500 season in six years and a berth in the Atlantic 10 Championship for the first time since the league expanded to 14 teams in 2005.

"We took a good step forward last year, going 15-15 and winning six in A-10 play," Schmidt said. "Our goals from the year before were to improve and to earn our way to Atlantic City for the conference tournament, and we did that.

"The next step is to improve… and that might not necessarily be wins and losses, but we need to keep this program...]]> Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:06:00 PDT ncaab urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,sportsxchange:20080101:ncaab,article,teamreports-2009-ncaab-sbl:1 Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:06:00 PDT