In the shadow of the men’s program for it’s entire existence, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team has rarely garnered much attention. Even while the program had made three straight WNIT appearances, most of the chatter around Olean and Western New York was the return of Andrew Nicholson for his senior season.

Granted, Olean is St. Bonaventure men’s hoops. And while many were hoping for that breakthrough season, the men’s team has gone through an up-and-down season that many probably see as a disappointment. Remember, the Bonnies theme for the 2011-12 was “Defining Our Legacy.”

The St. Bonaventure women's basketball team is 18-2 and on the cusp of cracking the AP Top 25. (St. Bonaventure Sports Information photo)

Well, a lasting legacy is certainly being left on Bob Lanier Court.

It’s the St. Bonaventure women, who after beating Charlotte Saturday while overcoming a 13-point second half deficit moved to 18-2 and 5-0 in the Atlantic 10.

Their lone losses are to nationally ranked Delaware, who boasts the nation’s top scorer and arguably best player, and Villanova, where the Bonnies shot a season-low 28 percent.

They own wins over St. John’s and West Virginia, two of the better teams in the Big East, and traditional MAAC powerhouse Marist.

Of course, the Bonnies stay underappreciated, nationally at least.

A team that was shunned in the preseason with a sixth place prediction by A-10 coaches has still yet to garner the national attention they deserve.

They still haven’t cracked the Top 25 in either the Associated Press or USA Today polls. And until this week, the Bonnies were continuously given one or two votes in the AP and completely left out of the USA Today poll.

Meanwhile, the Bonnies have an RPI of 26 (as of Jan. 23) and are considered the No. 19 team in the country according to wbbstate.com (statistical analysis of college basketball). They own four RPI-Top 50 wins and their two losses are both in the RPI-Top 15.

For a team not considered in the upper echelon of their own conference, the Bonnies have emerged as the clear-cut top team in the Atlantic 10 and practically a lock to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

Credit head coach Jim Crowley first and foremost. Crowley took over in 2000-01 for a team that had only finished above .500 four times since joining Division I in 1986-87 and had never won more than 16 games.

Now, the Bonnies have won 20 or more three seasons in a row and will clearly get there again this year. Now, the only question is how many wins will the Bonnies get and whether or not they’ll get crack the NCAA Tournament and the Top 25 for the first time in school history.

Part of Crowley’s success of course relies on his players. Plenty of solid players have come through the program over the past decade under Crowley, but arguably two of the best, seniors Jessica Jenkins and Megan Van Tatenhove, are preparing to leave a legacy that assuredly won’t ever be forgotten in Olean.

Jenkins just became the Atlantic 10’s all-time leader in three-pointers made in a career. She hit six three’s against Charlotte to give her 293, passing former Bonnie Suzie Dailer and George Washington’s Cathy Jones who each had 291.

Jenkins leads the team at 14.7 points per game and shoots 40.1 percent from outside. She also shoots a ridiculous 95.5 percent from the free throw line, good for 12th in the nation behind 11 players who haven’t missed and haven’t shot a whole lot of them either.

Van Tatenhove, who shoots a team-high 49.7 percent from the field is the only other player averaging double-figures in points. She is already in the top 10 for career scoring leaders at St. Bonaventure and is the all-around perfect complement to Jenkins. She also missed four games this season including one of their two losses.

Of course, when the two started their careers in Olean, the Bonnies had never won 20 games in a season. By the time they leave, they’ll have accomplished that feat each of the four seasons on campus.

But, Crowley’s defense has also paved the way for success, especially with this year’s team. The Bonnies tallest player is little-used reserve Jennie Ashton, a 6-foot-2 senior who is averaging a career-high 12 minutes per game this year.

Instead the Bonnies basically put out a lineup that ensures each player can do a little bit of everything. Six different Bonnies average at least one assist per game, while the team as a whole averages exactly 10 a game.

The Bonnies have just nine regular season games left and have still yet to hit the easier part of the schedule. They still have to play UMass, Xavier, Fordham and Rhode Island, the bottom four teams in the Atlantic 10 right now. Temple and Charlotte each only have one A-10 loss, which each came at the hands of the Bonnies on their own home court.

Safe to say this team has the capability of reaching 25 wins even before the conference tournament, and after that, who knows. This team is ticketed for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.

Defining legacy? Yeah, I think they’ll be able to do that.