PISCATAWAY, N.J. - It’s played only two games, but already the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball is generating the kind of buzz not heard in these parts since J.R. Bremer was scoring 25 a game.

It’s not just that the Bonnies are 2-0 for the first time in five years, it’s how they’ve accomplished it that has fans thinking Atlantic City. They’ve built up 20-point leads in both games, they’ve scored early and often and they’ve defended the opposition. Without question, St. Bonaventure has looked the part of a decent Division I team in its first two contests.

But while optimism abounds in the Southern Tier, coach Mark Schmidt prefers to keep things in perspective as his team prepares to take on the University of Delaware (0-2) in Game 3 of the Garden State Challenge (6 o’clock, WHDL-AM, WPIG-FM) tonight in the Louis Brown Athletic Center on the Rutgers campus.

“It doesn’t mean anything if we don’t play well tonight,” Schmidt said of his team’s fast start. “We have to take things game-by-game. As I told them, if we want to be 2-28 then we can stop working ... 2-0 is a good start, but we have to continue to work.”

The second-year coach has a point. The Bonnies have gotten off to quick starts before in recent years, only to have their seasons end up on life support by the start of Atlantic 10 play.

Anthony Solomon won the first two games of his coaching career and triumphed in only five more the rest of the season. In 2005-’06, the Bonnies jumped out to a 5-2 start before finishing 8-19. Two seasons ago, Bona started out 3-2 before floundering to a 7-22 finish.

It’s why Schmidt has reminded his team to be humble and take the 2-0 start for what it really is.

“It’s a good start, it gives our guys confidence that if they can continue to work, they can have some success,” Schmidt admitted, “but they have to understand that if they don’t work, and they become complacent, we won’t be successful.

“As I told them, we beat Robert Morris and Marist. And nothing against those two teams, but it’s not like we beat (North) Carolina. We have just begun the process, and we’re not nearly where we need to be to be successful.”

That’s not to take away from what his Bonnies have done early on. In two games, they’ve allowed their opponents to shoot just 34 percent while forcing over 20 turnovers in each.

“The positive thing about how we’re playing is we’re defending,” Schmidt said. “We’re keeping teams to below 40 percent (shooting) and we’re getting 10 guys who are playing defense. Forget about the offense. Forget about we won by 20 or we won by 10. The kids are realizing that if we’re going to win, we’re going to win on defense.”

Bona’s has shot 45 and 48 percent from the field in its two victories. Junior guard Chris Matthews has been the definition of unconscious. But Schmidt knows he won’t be able to depend on that kind of offensive output every night out, especially against the more athletic A-10 teams.

“We’re not going to have shooting nights like that all the time,” he said. “So when we don’t have the shooting nights, it’s the defense that’s going to help us win games. If we can defend, we can win some games.”

The Blue Hens play a very similar offensive style to Marist.

Like the Red Foxes, they start four guards with only one starter taller than 6-6. Delaware also uses the dribble-drive attack and possesses a handful of above average jump shooters. Leading scorer Marc Egerson (a Georgetown transfer) has flourished in that system, going off for 44 points in their first two games.

“They play small and they try to spread you out,” Schmidt said. “Their game plan is very similar to Marist where we have to have great on-ball pressure without them blowing by us and everybody else has to be in the pack line, everybody guarding the ball.

“If we give them penetration and we have to help in, then they’re going to get those open jump shots and they have really good shooters.”

Schmidt said tonight is all about maintaining focus for his Bonnies.

“They have to understand that what got us to 2-0, we have to continue,” he said. “We can’t be happy with a 2-0 start. We have 27 more games.

“With a young team, one of the concerns is that most of the guys haven’t been there before, so they might think this is easy. But winning isn’t easy, it’s hard, and they have to continue to work.”

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