Four years. 119 games. 99 losses. That’s all it took for head coach Tim O’Shea to finally feel that his Bryant Bulldogs were prepared to legitimately compete at the Division I level.
It’s been a long, agonizing road for Bryant, as they made their transition into Division I basketball. There were lots of lopsided defeats, lots of rejection from recruits too scared to play for a team ineligible for the postseason, and lots of empty seats at the Chace Athletic Center. After much heartache, however, Bryant’s transition phrase has mercifully ended with O’Shea and his Bulldogs ready to move forward with a roster full of talented players. It’s the moment O’Shea has been patiently waiting for, since he signed his eight year contract with Bryant back in 2008.
“When I saw year five as the year we’d become a [full] Division I program, I wanted to put an exclamation point on the fact that we really were Division I now, and I wanted to start at a place that was one of the great programs in the country,” said O’Shea.
So to celebrate the momentous occasion of joining the Division I ranks, Bryant will travel to Bloomington, Indiana this Friday to square off against the Indiana Hoosiers.
Yes, those Indiana Hoosiers, the AP preseason No. 1 team in all of the land. The team with preseason All-American Cody Zeller and McDonald’s All-American point guard Yogi Ferrell. Talk about easing into the schedule.
“At the time I scheduled the game, it looked like Indiana was going to be good, improved, but in a million years I don’t think anyone thought they’d be one year away from being the number one team in the country,” said O’Shea with a chuckle. “I think it’s tremendously exciting for my guys to have a chance to play a game like this. It’s really unusual to have an opportunity like this at any level.”
Sure, it sounds like a grand idea, but facing the number one team in the country at a sold out Assembly Hall in your first game as an eligible Division I problem could be construed as … well crazy. It’s something O’Shea admits will be a difficult test, yet he’s very interested to see how his players respond to the challenge.
“I’m curious to see how well we can compete in that environment in front of a sold-out crowd. It’s going to be nuts. [I’m curious to see] how well can we hold up to that type of environment.”
Added O’Shea, “Let’s put it this way – if you took a poll and tried to take the [eight or nine] best players in the NEC and made a team out of them, and they went down to Indiana, they’d still be a significant underdog.”
Good point, coach.
After Bryant’s first two games against Indiana and in-state foe Providence, Bryant’s non-conference schedule gets considerably easier. Minus Boston College and mid-major power Lehigh, the schedule is filled with several winnable games – New Hampshire, Brown, Army, Yale, Binghamton, Navy, and Dartmouth – that could boost the confidence of O’Shea’s club heading into the NEC season. For a team that won only three non-conference games in as many years, please forgive O’Shea if he’s excited at the thought of generating a little momentum before Bryant’s first NEC battle at Robert Morris on January 3rd.
“I’d say of the 11 games, there are seven in there that you look at and say, ‘Bryant should have a chance in all seven,’” said O’Shea. “Which is a huge change from what we dealt with in the early years of this transition, when we played – to be honest – too many of these guarantee games. But it’s just part of the transition; you see a lot of teams going through that.”
There is no doubt season five of the O’Shea era will be one to watch in Smithfield. The team, as mentioned before, has two cornerstone players in upperclassmen Alex Francis and Frankie Dobbs to build around. Sophomore transfers Dyami Starks and Joe O’Shea – the coach’s nephew – should have an immediate impact. Freshmen Shane McLaughin and Andrew Scocca will come off the bench and add some much-needed depth. It’s a Bryant team that could absolutely surprise some teams come conference time.
But until then, there’s this little matchup on Friday night with the Indiana Hoosiers. It will be a nice litmus test for a program thrilled to finally call Division I basketball, and the Northeast Conference, its home.
Ryan Peters covers Northeast Conference men’s basketball for Big Apple Buckets and Pioneer Pride. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @pioneer_pride
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