August 17, 2008

MetroWest Daily News

The Beat: O'Shea ready for his new challenge

 By Andy Vogt/Daily News staff  LINK TO FULL ARTICLE

Tim O'Shea learned the challenge of getting Bryant University on the map even before he returned to New England.

As he prepared to leave his post as men's basketball coach at Ohio University to take over at Bryant, a writer from the Columbus Dispatch joked with O'Shea that he had never even heard of Bryant.

"That's the point," replied O'Shea, a Wayland native, saying that one day the writer would know about the West Smithfield, R.I. college.

Such are the challenges of taking over a program making its debut at the Division I level this winter. But after seven years in Athens, Ohio and bringing the Bobcats into the nationwide consciousness as a solid mid-major, O'Shea's ready for something new.

"It had gotten to the point where after seven years, it was a great run, but I always felt the desire to get back to New England," said O'Shea, who played his college ball at Boston College and was an assistant at Yale, URI and BC. "The best place I ever lived was Rhode Island. ... And I felt like I had accomplished as much as you can do in a program like Ohio."

Those accomplishments were plentiful over seven years in which he won 120 games. In his first season, he led the Bobcats to a victory over North Carolina in Chapel Hill. And during his tenure, Ohio beat other non-conference opponents like Cincinnati, Butler, St. Joseph's and Rhode Island. But probably his proudest - and favorite - moment came in 2005, when Ohio beat Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference final to advance to the NCAA tournament.

In front of a sellout crowd in Nashville, O'Shea's team rallied from a 20-point deficit against SEC champ Florida to tie the score at 60-60 before ultimately falling 67-62.

"To have the champion of the SEC tied with under a minute to go is pretty remarkable," he said.

Duplicating memories like that won't be possible for a while - as a new Div. I team, Bryant isn't eligible for the NCAA postseason for four years, and will be only a provisional member of the Northeast Conference this year before completing the transition in 2009-10.

That doesn't mean that the team won't play a schedule fit for a big-time program. On the docket this winter are Boston College, Providence, UConn, Maryland amd Rhode Island.

"They're what are referred to as bye games," O'Shea said. "It's a challenge. What it does is it will help brand us as a Division I program. We'll be on the ticker, and people will come to quickly identify us."

The other teams at Bryant are in the same boat as O'Shea's, so many of his conversations with fellow coaches have pertained to scheduling. In fact, O'Shea said he's fielded as many scheduling calls at Bryant as he ever did at Ohio, and with a plethora of Div. I schools in New England, finding teams to play likely won't ever be a problem.

The harder part, he says, is recruiting. Not only is he looking to attract talent that can compete at the Div. I level, but also be able to find students who will fit in with the rigorous workload Bryant provides.

Of course, finding those players means O'Shea has had to live out of a suitcase for at least part of the summer. He's been to Las Vegas and Florida, and several stops in between to find talent at showcases. And that came just weeks after taking the Bryant job and moving his family back to New England. The transition, he said, would have been much worse had he not already had a home in Rhode Island.

As for his current group of Bulldogs, O'Shea said they should expect much of the same from him as they did from departed coach Max Good.

"Max played great defense, and we want to keep that consistent," O'Shea said. "He ran a lot of sets, which I like to do. The real difference is going to be the level of play. It's going to be exciting for the team, and exciting for the university."

Fortunately, Bryant has recently been winning with the same consistency that O'Shea was used to in Athens. The Bulldogs reached the Div. II national championship in 2005, and won 18 games in their final season at that level.

O'Shea's move back to New England now puts him in close proximity to most of his family. His parents still live in the same Wayland home where he grew up. He has a sister in Northborough, another in Mansfield, and his brother Tom is the head coach at St. Michael's in Vermont.

Being able to coach in the area he loves is enough. And if he's able to accomplish anything near what he did at Ohio? Even better.

"It's a blank canvas - I don't know what to expect," O'Shea said. "I never had a plan when I went to Ohio. I never expected to beat (the teams we did). But over time, you may be fortunate to win games like that."