photo courtesty of gobonnies.sbu.edu
By Matt Stasiw
Alpha Okoli set out this summer to improve himself.
The sophomore guard enters his second season with the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team with several improved skills from a year ago.
“I worked a lot on my ball-handling and shooting to stand out this year”, Okoli said.
Last season, Okoli played in 27 games for the Bonnies, starting in four of them. This year, he hopes to have a bigger impact on the team.
Okoli said motivation is a large part of what keeps him driving to improve his game. SBU’s loss in the Atlantic 10 championship game that kept them out of last year’s NCAA tournament, he said, is one of his biggest sources of inspiration.
“It gives us a lot of motivation,” Okoli said. “When things get slow in practice, coach (Schmidt) reminds us of that game, and that’s when we push harder.”
Okoli said he is faithful in the potential of this year’s Bonnies team.
In a season packed with noteworthy games on the schedule, one game stands out to the Los Angeles native.
“I’m most excited to play Rutgers in Toronto,” Okoli said.
The Bonnies will begin regular season play on Nov. 4 when they host Ohio University.
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