Bulldogs making strides in massive overhaul

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Mike Parente, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

The road Bryant University is attempting to travel is one fraught with many speed bumps and obstacles along the way.

Several notable schools have succeeded in their attempt to transition from Division II to Division I athletics, but the path is far less glamorous than it appears on the surface.

Since Bryant began its metamorphosis three years ago, the men’s basketball team has won only nine games, including a treacherous run last year in which it lost its first 26 before securing its first and only win in the final month of the season.

And while this year’s team has already gotten its first win out of the way, the Bulldogs are still just 1-6 overall heading into tonight’s game against Yale, but to anyone who’s watched closely – specifically head coach Tim O’Shea – the difference between now and a year ago is like night and day.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have as many wins to show for it,” said O’Shea, who’s been at the helm throughout Bryant’s entire D-I reclassification process, “but we’ve taken giant steps forward in terms of being competitive.”

The proof is in the scores. The Bulldogs are no longer a pushover for affluent D-I programs looking to pad their record. Aside from a blowout at Lehigh, three of Bryant’s last four losses have been by 10 points or less, including a three-point loss against Harvard – a 5-2 team that beat Colorado earlier this season and came within three points of an upset against Michigan.

“We’ve been competitive and we’ll be competitive all year,” O’Shea said. “While it’s really tough to win when you’ve only got freshmen and sophomores, I’m honestly pleased with where we are when I take a step back and look at things.

“The teams we’re playing now know they’re going to be in a real game, and that wasn’t the case a year ago.”

The toughest challenge in this transition, aside from establishing tradition and a commitment to success, is recruiting. Bryant is still relatively unknown outside of the northeast, though that has changed in recent years. The smallest details, such as having their scores flashed on the ESPN and CNN tickers, have made the biggest impact in terms of nationwide recognition.

“I remember when I first got the job [in 2008] after coaching at Ohio and some of the writers who I spoke with hadn’t even heard of the school,” O’Shea said. “One of the reasons Bryant went to Division I is so more people would know who they are.”

Slowly, but surely, it’s worked. O’Shea has had more success on the recruiting trail in recent years. Six-foot-6 freshman forward Alex Francis is second on the team in scoring with 13.0 points per game and Australian sophomore Claybrin McMath is averaging 8.0 minutes off the bench while providing a significant low-post presence with his 6-8 frame.

The key to the Bulldogs’ success this year has been the emergence of sophomore point guard Frankie Dobbs – the son of former Brown University coach Happy Dobbs – who followed O’Shea from Ohio and sat out last year as a transfer student, but is now leading the team in scoring (15.1 points per game) and assists (5.1).

“He’s done a great job leading the team,” O’Shea said of Dobbs. “I really believe the success and failure of any basketball team starts with the point guard, and Frankie has been a real difference-maker. I’m excited that I have him for two more years.”

Considering this is only O’Shea’s second full recruiting class since taking over the program three years ago, the Bulldogs have a solid foundation in place as they close in on becoming a full-time member of the Northeast Conference in 2012. Thirteen of the 16 players on this year’s roster are either freshmen or sophomores while the only seniors at O’Shea’s disposal are Barry Latham and Cecil Gresham (the latter is the only holdover from the Max Good era).

The Bulldogs hope to follow in the footsteps of schools such as Binghamton, Albany and Belmont, who have all made successful transitions from D-II to D-I. Belmont began its journey in 1996 and endured several long years while adjusting to the competition at the D-I level, but eventually flourished with three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2006 to 2008. Albany made the leap in ’99 as an independent team and posted its first winning season seven years later followed by back-to-back trips to the NCAAs in 2006 and ’07. Binghamton earned a trip to last year’s tournament in just its eighth season as a D-I school.

“When you look at schools that have made this transition, most of them are more liberal with their academic standards than Bryant,” O’Shea said. “Over time, the biggest thing is recruiting. You have to have the players to win, and Bryant is a very tough school academically.”

While making the leap doesn’t always guarantee success – in fact, most schools end up spending a lot of money while losing an alarming amount of games in the process – O’Shea has built a strong core of underclassmen and has worked with the athletic department to schedule road games that will not only give his players a taste of life at the D-I level, but also produce a significant paycheck from the host schools. Following tonight’s game against Yale, Bryant will play at Colombia, Boston College and Michigan before taking a five-day break during Christmas. Among next year’s games is a trip to South Bend, Ind., to take on Big East powerhouse Notre Dame.

“The biggest inequity in college sports is the scheduling. Look at Providence College. They’re 9-1 and haven’t played a road game yet [two of their wins were on a neutral court in Mexico],” O’Shea said. “These schools want games on their home court. They want to pad their record while we get a big paycheck to go and play the game.

“That’s the reality of scheduling. I know the odds are awful walking into that gym, but we get a significant paycheck, national exposure, and our kids get a chance to test themselves against schools they probably followed while they were growing up, so there are benefits.”

Until the day Bryant has more creative control over its scheduling, it’ll continue to endure the various pitfalls of being a D-I program in the infant stages of its transition. What most people don’t know, however, is that the Bulldogs have taken significant steps in the right direction. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s a lot closer than it was a year ago.

“The first step is being competitive. Then the next step is to go out and win some of those games,” O’Shea said. “We’re halfway there. Our long-term goal is to get to the point where we can compete for a championship in the Northeast Conference.”