Photo courtesy of gobonnies.com
BY: WILL NUNN; CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, SPORTS EDITOR
As Mike MacDonald begins to build his first roster as head coach of the St. Bonaventure University men’s basketball team, he embarks on a challenge that he has never faced before.
The transfer portal and name, image and likeness regulations have created a never-before-seen level of roster turnover in college athletics, specifically at the Division I ranks.
At Daemen University, MacDonald prided himself on roster retention. After a 28-1 season in 2024-25, 13 of the 14 eligible players returned to Daemen, despite interest from higher-caliber programs.
As the transfer portal opened on April 7, seven players from St. Bonaventure’s roster a season ago entered their names. The backcourt duo of redshirt junior Dasonte Bowen and junior Darryl Simmons II–the team’s leading scorer–jumped in the portal after the close of the season. Simmons has committed to play next season at Villanova. The nation’s leading offensive rebounder Frank Mitchell joined starting forward Daniel Egbuniwe in the portal while seeking an extra year of eligibility.
MacDonald was able to bring a number of players back for another year in Brown and White. Freshman guard duo Ilia Ermakov and Achille Lonati as well as a pair of forwards–freshman John Ikpotokin and sophomore Joe Grahovac–have committed to playing for Bonaventure next year.
Lonati averaged 2.5 points per game across 29 appearances in his freshman season, while Ermakov scored 2.9 points per game in nine games before his campaign was cut short due to injury. Grahovac played in all 34 games for the Bonnies–including 14 starts–in which he averaged 4.5 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. Ikpotokin redshirted and did not appear in a contest this season.
The roster quickly began to take shape, with a pair of players following MacDonald from Daemen to the Enchanted Mountains.
Zach Philipkoski, a junior guard, led the Wildcats with 17.8 points per game last season while shooting 41.9% from beyond the arc, good for 17th in all of Division II hoops. He also averaged 7.8 rebounds per game en route to being named East Coast Conference Player of the Year and a Division II All-American.
Redshirt junior forward Benjamin Bill joins the Bonnies as a two-time member of the All-ECC first team and the 2025 ECC Player of the Year. He averaged 17.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks a season ago.
MacDonald was also able to bring in players from outside of the Division II ranks. Akbar Waheed III, the son of Bonaventure’s newly-hired Assistant Coach Akbar Waheed, committed to Bonaventure after spending one season at Boston College. A former four-star recruit out of high school, Waheed redshirted his freshman year before entering the portal.
Forward Ryan Kalambay committed to Bonaventure on April 18, providing rebounding and rim-protecting prowess to a depleted frontcourt. A native of Brampton, Ontario, Kalambay spent two seasons at Detroit Mercy, averaging 4.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game in his sophomore season while making 13 starts for the Titans.
Western New York native Mason Blackwood joins the Bonnies after one season with Penn State where he averaged 2.6 points and 1.8 rebounds per game as a freshman. Blackwood hails from Rochester, NY, where he developed into a four-star recruit before choosing the Nittany Lions out of high school.
Reaching into the junior college ranks, MacDonald secured a commitment from JUCO All-American guard Taj Au-Duke. The sophomore averaged 12.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists for Indian Hills Community College in Iowa this season, and was the second-ranked junior college point guard transfer, per JUCO Recruiting.
With 10 scholarship players now committed to St. Bonaventure for next season, the roster has begun to take shape, and Mike MacDonald’s opening recruiting class at his alma mater will seek to make an immediate impact in the Atlantic 10.
