{"id":712018,"date":"2026-04-16T21:51:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712018\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:51:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:51:46","slug":"adrian-wojnarowski-responds-to-criticism-of-st-bonaventure-mcbb-tenure-comes-with-the-territory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712018\/","title":{"rendered":"Adrian Wojnarowski Responds to Criticism of St. Bonaventure MCBB Tenure, ‘Comes With The Territory’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retired NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski embraced the continued scrutiny connected to his role as general manager for St. Bonaventure men’s basketball.<\/p>\n

“It just comes with the territory,” he told The Athletic’s Austin Meek<\/a>. “I’m OK with it. I really am. I had a public job before at ESPN. Sometimes in that position, things become … if you don’t like it, then go sit on a beach chair somewhere and no one will bother you. I might do that here at some point.”<\/p>\n

Wojnarowski resigned from his role at ESPN in September 2024 and returned to his alma mater. The idea was that his experience and connections could help the Bonnies within the NIL sphere. He could also convince major boosters to invest in the program.<\/p>\n

The early returns are a bit mixed so far.<\/p>\n

St. Bonaventure went 22-12 in 2024-25 but fell to 17-17 this year, which included a paltry 4-14 record in the Atlantic 10.<\/p>\n

Coach Mark Schmidt retired after the season ended, and the circumstances surrounding his exit generated further intrigue.<\/p>\n

The Olean Star’s Eric M. Firkel<\/a> reported Wojnarowski and athletic director Robert Beretta “told Schmidt he would be relieved of his duties at the end of the season.” Beretta called that “misinformation” in an interview with Meek, though he acknowledged the relationship between Schmidt and Wojnarowski had “frayed.”<\/p>\n

In addition, Meek wrote that “Schmidt’s departure exposed a fissure in the tight-knit St. Bonaventure community.” There’s a push and pull between those who want to grow Bonnies athletics and the locals who appreciate the smaller scale of the school and its home, Olean, New York,<\/p>\n

To that end, Meek explained how Wojnarowski, despite being widely known within sports media, “hasn’t been able to win over a segment of the local fan base to his side of the story.”<\/p>\n

Mike MacDonald, who was hired to replace Schmidt, also felt it important to better outline Woj’s role at the outset.<\/p>\n

“From the outside looking in, I thought Woj was doing too much recruiting,” he told Meek. “That shouldn’t be his job. We have assistant coaches for that.”<\/p>\n

Wojnarowski asserted that MacDonald is running the show in terms of the roster.<\/p>\n

“It has to be the head coach’s vision,” he said. “It was before, and it is now.”<\/p>\n

Woj has covered enough NBA teams to know that nothing erases criticism faster than winning games. If the Bonnies turn things around in 2026-27, then the outside perception of his tenure is bound to improve as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retired NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski embraced the continued scrutiny connected to his role as general manager for St.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-712018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116416604358360661","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}