Losing 99 basketball games in 119 tries will take a lot out of you, even if you have the legitimate excuse of overseeing your program transition from Division II to Division I athletics. Such was the case for Bryant head coach Tim O’Shea, who after succumbing to four seasons of recruiting purgatory, was fighting to stay optimistic. When he signed on the dotted line to become Bryant’s leader in 2008, O’Shea had pegged the program’s transformation as a five-year plan. Year five was supposed to be the pivotal season when Bryant made their move toward competitive basketball inside the Northeast Conference.

To say Bryant made a move would be an understatement. After procuring shocking road wins over Boston College and Lehigh, Bryant sprinted out to a 6-0 start in the NEC. When the smoke finally cleared, the Bulldogs had engineered one of the greatest turnarounds in Division I history. Their 19 wins was a 17 win improvement over a dismal 2011-12 season that found them ranked 333rd out of 345 teams in KenPom’s ratings. Despite the historic turnaround, O’Shea wanted just a little more when he reflects back on the season.

“I’m proud (of Bryant’s season), but honestly I’m also a little disappointed in the sense that we got into position to win the league and we came up a little bit short,” said a candid O’Shea. “I don’t think it was a lack of effort, but whenever you get in position like that – it’s hard to do – you want to finish it off and take it to completion and we didn’t do that.”

O’Shea then added, “In hindsight, after what we’ve been through in this transition, how could I not be proud? Especially for a guy like a Frankie Dobbs who hung in there the whole way and had great leadership. Vlad Kondratyev had a great year for us.”

Even in the lean seasons, Bryant boasted three above average talents in Dobbs, Alex Francis, and Corey Maynard, yet it was their depth, or lack thereof, that made winning such a chore. It’s tough to win when a majority of the roster is comprised of Division II talent, but that was the case for the first four years under O’Shea. For year five, however, the insertion of transfers Dyami Starks and Joe O’Shea – Tim O’Shea’s nephew – did wonders for giving Bryant a complete Division I lineup ready to compete with the likes of Robert Morris, LIU Brooklyn, and Wagner.

Due to insertion of Starks – an All-NEC second team selection at season’s end who made 40.8% of his three-point attempts – Bryant’s offense posted a league best 1.14 points per possession (PPP) in NEC play, a stark improvement over their 0.90 PPP mark for the 2011-12 season. The Bulldogs shot 47.9% from the floor, aided by Francis’ excellent 56.9% mark on 371 shot attempts. After several seasons of serving as the NEC’s doormat, Bryant was lighting up opponents on the offensive end.

Near the end though, Bryant’s short bench and average defense struggled to close out games late, but it was a masterful season nonetheless. Bryant finished in a three-way tie for second place in the conference, and hosted a game in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) tournament, falling to Atlantic-10 foe Richmond after a hard-fought battle.

With the arduous transition to Division I now in the rear view, O’Shea can rest easier knowing that he has guided the Bulldogs into the thick of the NEC elite. He may be a little disappointed Bryant couldn’t finish their otherwise spectacular season off, but it was surely an unforgettable year in O’Shea’s eyes. “Other than making the NCAA tournament or the NIT, I don’t know if it could have gone much better.”

Best Moment – Take your pick. I select their 80-79 victory over the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, the same Mountain Hawks who had upended Duke in the second round of the 2012 NCAA tournament the previous season. Shortly thereafter, Bryant surprised a hot Robert Morris club with a terrific offense display at Moon Township. The normally stout Colonials defense gave up 1.15 points per possession in the contest, thanks to the outside shooting capabilities of Starks and Dobbs. The Bulldogs were now officially relevant in the eyes of everyone.

Worst Moment – When recapping a drastically improved team, it’s difficult to pinpoint a truly awful moment. But if I had to choose a setback, it would be their home loss to Robert Morris in the last week of the regular season. A victory would have inevitably secured a #1 seed in the NEC tournament, not to mention drew a much weaker opponent in the first round (as opposed to a scorching Mount St. Mary’s club). Unfortunately for Bryant, Robert Morris’ execution down the stretch sent the vociferous sellout crowd in Smithfield home disappointed.

Saying Goodbye

Frankie Dobbs – Words can’t truly capture the sincere gratitude O’Shea has towards Dobbs, who patiently spent three long seasons – one as a redshirt – on an undermanned Bryant team waiting for relevancy. Dobbs’ decision to transfer to Bryant surely was pushed by the presence of D.J. Cooper on Ohio, yet the point guard could have chosen a different program nonetheless. In Dobbs’ fifth and final season, he was selected to the All-NEC third team selection for his excellent efforts. Bryant’s remarkable turnaround wouldn’t have occurred without the leadership of Dobbs, who O’Shea says is the definition of a program cornerstone. (13.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 5.3 apg, 1.2 spg, 2.2 A/TO)

Vlad Kondratyev – The overlooked big man made his presence felt throughout the season with terrific rebounding rates of 8.8% (offensive) and 18.3% (defensive). He was practically the only cog in the paint when freshman Andrew Scocca went down. Kondratyev may have been foul prone, committing nearly six fouls per 40 minutes, but his overall steadiness made things easier for O’Shea in dealing with a short bench. Along with his team, the 6’8” center exceeded expectations as a Bulldog his senior year. (5.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 58.5% FG%)

Looking Ahead to the 2013-14 Season
In spite of the late heartbreak, Bryant will come back in year six of O’Shea’s master plan with much higher expectations. Maynard, Starks and Francis are all returning, so the talent is there to continue a run of excellence. Of course, Dobbs’ departure raises a deserving question regarding their point guard position, but O’Shea is confident that someone from the three-man competition of sophomore Shane McLaughlin, freshman Justin Brickman (you may know his brother, Jason Brickman of LIU Brooklyn) and redshirt freshman and fellow Australian Declan Sukoup will emerge. If one of those three does just that, and O’Shea’s freshmen and sophomore class helps solidify their depth, Bryant has as good a chance as any to capture their first NEC crown. A difficult, yet compelling non-conference schedule including road matchups versus Gonzaga, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Delaware and home tilts with Lehigh, North Dakota State, and Vermont should harden the Bulldogs’ resolve heading into NEC play for January of 2014.