Bryant is better than season of tough luck might indicate

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Bryant’s season may be best symbolized by a play in the last minute of Thursday night’s 66-63 loss to Fairleigh Dickinson. Down 62-58, Frankie Dobbs made a great hesitation move and drove uncontested to the basket for a layup that rolled out. Despite that, Bryant still had a chance late, but came out on the losing end.

The Bulldogs’ 2-19 record is a little deceptive. While they have been blown out a few times, with four losses by 25 points or more, they have had their share of close games like Thursday night. The Bulldogs are 2-6 in games decided by single digits and 1-4 in games decided by five points or less. Those are stats that can sometimes determine the course of a season for a team.

… Continue Reading

Bryant Turning a Corner With Recent Winning Streak

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Exactly when this was going to happen was an unknown. But there wasn’t really any question it was going to happen. Bryant’s turn for the better in the win-loss column has come in the new year, as the Bulldogs’ often bumpy transition into Division I is getting smoother in 2011. It continued with another win on Thursday night, a 74-71 decision over Fairleigh Dickinson thanks to a clutch three-pointer in the final seconds.

Late last month, it seemed like wins were not far away for this team, even though they were hard to come by. They were clearly improving, especially at the offensive end and with their backcourt. The offensive improvement is important because there have been plenty of occasions during the first two seasons where the defense was fine, but the Bulldogs’ struggles to score kept them from winning games. But now, the Bulldogs have shot 50 percent or better from the floor in three of the last four games. … Continue Reading

Bryant Ready to Pick Up Wins

One team that appears to have better days ahead as Christmas approaches is Bryant. Wins have been elusive for the Bulldogs, but that’s not entirely surprising considering who they have played and their inexperience. There is no denying the progress that has been made, not only since last season when they struggled mightily, but just in the last month.

“If you look a the production we’re getting out of our freshmen and sophomores, we’re a lot better,” head coach Tim O’Shea said.

In particular, the perimeter is driving this improvement. It was a given that Frankie Dobbs, who followed O’Shea over from Ohio and sat out last season as a transfer, would make an impact right away. He would give them some quickness at the point guard spot and be a difference-maker against a press. One could also figure that senior Cecil Gresham would provide an experienced scorer now that he’s healthy again. The pleasant developments have come from a couple of freshmen, and that’s not all. … Continue Reading

A Tempo Free Look: FDU Stops Bryant in NEC Opener

TEANECK, N.J. – On Thursday, Fairleigh Dickinson defeated Bryant 78-68 in the Northeast Conference opener for both clubs at the Rothman Center. We take a look at a tempo free breakdown of the game.

The efficiency:

Possessions, Offensive Efficiency
Bryant 67, 102
FDU 68, 115

The Four Factors:

Observations:

• About the only negative in FDU’s Four Factors was the 22 percent turnover rate. The inside game was so dominant, though, it didn’t matter as much. The Knight owned the lane with an incredible 46-18 points in the paint edge. The Knights were 25 of 42, good for 61 percent on two-point shooting. Granted not every two point field goal attempt is in the paint. But tonight virtually everyone for the Knights was.
• FDU’s inside prowess was reflected in offensive rebound percentage and free throw rate as well, as the Knights shot 31 free throws to Bryant’s 12. As the Knights pounded it inside, Bryant settled for threes. They did shoot 12 of 27 (44%) from beyond the arc and were able to trim two double digit-deficits to a two possession game.
• Bryant’s turnover rate was a step in the right direction. Under 20% is the target and the Bulldogs met it. Nice improvement for a club that entered with a (too high) 23 percent rate.
• FDU coach Greg Vetrone was very pleased with the play of Kamil Svrdlik. The 6-8 junior was dominant on the blocks with a career-high 24 points to go along with rebounds. A native of the Czech Republic, Svrdlik is providing a much needed low post game with Alvin Mofunanya graduated.
• Keeping a shot chart the last 12 minutes, you can see FDU’s inside prowess. The Knights had eight field goals, all in the paint (four in transition). Bryant had seven field goals. Among them five were three-pointers, one on the three-point line and one in the paint.
• Cecil Gresham, Bryant’s senior forward, had a “breakout game” per coach Tim O’Shea, leading all scorers with 28 points. O’shea would like more contributions from sophomore center Vlad Kondratyev, who played very well last year but has not been contributing as well to date.
• FDU improves to 2-3, Bryant falls to 1-6.

Quick Hitters – November 25, 2010

Some quick hitters as we reach the holiday and head into the long weekend:

• Steve Donahue is throwing his freshmen right into the mix at Boston College, and it’s helping in the immediate. In particular, Danny Rubin started against Holy Cross and had 14 points and six rebounds, going 4-9 from long range and making a couple of key shots during a run where the Eagles first broke the game open. … Continue Reading

We’re No. 346!

Two more chances, that’s all Alcorn State has to get this season’s bragging rights.

Bryant? All it can hope for is that the Braves (1-28) keep tumbling so it doesn’t have to go alone with the worst Division-I team title.

Heading into the last week of the regular season, Alcorn State will have two shots to move past the Bulldogs (1-29) in the 2009-10 season win column. Not being the team with the least wins wasn’t exactly what the Braves were looking to brag about this year, but at this point, they’ll take it.

It’s not like they have much else to hang on to. Just like Bryant, the Braves won’t have post-season play.

The Braves knew from the very beginning it was going to be bad. Their season opener was a 40-point defeat at the hands of Ohio State, followed by a 62-point humiliation to Arkansas. Check, please?

Alcorn State kept on playing. Ten games later, it was 10 more double-digit losses, including a couple more 60-point losses. By the time the Braves won their first game — in their 25th try, 55-54, against Mississippi Valley State Feb. 13 — only 750 fans showed up to see it.

Bryant‘s path was a bit less embarrassing. The Bulldogs started off with 43- and 24-point losses before dropping a close one, 59-56, to Bucknell. Five of their next 23 losses were by six points or less before finally becoming the last Division-I team to win a game. Bryant defeated Wagner, 53-51, on the road Feb. 18.

The Bulldogs closed the season with three more losses, including an overtime one, 69-60, to St. Francis, N.Y., Thursday.

The résumés are alarming for both squads, although Bryant seems to have a slim edge just because Alcorn State was blown out in all but three games this season. And even in that one, the Braves tried to give it away. They led 54-47 with 32 seconds to go, but Mississippi Valley State was within one point 26 seconds later.

Alcorn State clanked two free throws to give Mississippi Valley State a last chance at the winner, but it didn’t go.

A few more close games, a road win and being a team in transition from Division II are the sad edges Bryant has over Alcorn State even though the Braves still have two games to go and could potentially end up with three times as many wins as the Bulldogs. But it isn’t happening.And even though the Braves score nine points more per game than Bryant did this season (51.9), defense matters more when you’re trying to find an identity. The Bulldogs held opponents to 69.5 points per game while Alcorn State has allowed them to score 82.5.

One can compare attempting to give an edge to either of these awful teams through the previous statistics to trying to find light in two black holes, though. The bottom line is neither one will be bragging. Bryant already left the 2009-10-season room very quietly; Alcorn State will follow soon, tip-toeing.

A Little Tougher Loss For Bryant

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – This one probably hurt a little more than many of the others.

Bryant hasn’t had an easy second season of Division I; one can probably figure that just from a look at their 0-26 record.  A big part of why it hasn’t been easy isn’t the wins and losses per se, but how they got there.  It’s not like they haven’t played hard, or can’t play.  But they came in without a huge margin for error, and what little they had just about evaporated as soon as Cecil Gresham sustained a knee injury that would ultimately end his season.  It’s one thing to be a team in a conference like the Big East or ACC and lose your best player to such an injury, but another to be a team like Bryant and have that happen.  In the Big East or ACC, that might be the difference between going 24-8 or 18-14 because there are other very talented players around your best player; in a conference like the Northeast, where Bryant is, it could make the difference between going 16-12 or 3-25.

Given the record, most probably didn’t give the Bulldogs a chance, even on their homecourt, against Northeast Conference leader Robert Morris on Saturday.  Even when the teams went into the locker room tied at 25, many probably figured the deeper Robert Morris team would probably wear them down and win going away.

Not only did that not happen, but Bryant scored the first five points of the second half and led for the majority of the latter frame.  They looked like a team that had answers, as they didn’t just hang on to a one-point lead the whole time.  Instead, they held a four-point lead on several occasions.  And as they continued to hold the lead, it looked more and more like they could pull this off.  Anytime the favorite allows the opponent to hang around or have the lead, the pressure goes up on the favorite.

And this was not against a bad team.  Bryant did this against Robert Morris, the defending NEC champion.

So when the Bulldogs went eight minutes without scoring, and never scored again after an Adam Parzych three-pointer brought them within 44-42, it wasn’t quite like every other loss this season.

“We’re really trying to play hard every game and give us an opportunity to be in every game,” said senior guard Chris Birrell.  “We did come out harder than they did, I thought.”

The Bulldogs have hit some scoring droughts this season, as putting points on the board has been a struggle.  This one struck a damaging blow.

Despite the lack of a win, the Bulldogs have shown improvement, and that includes their young players.  Vlad Kondratyev has clearly improved since the start of the season and has become the go-to guy in the frontcourt.  Raphael Jordan had a game on Saturday that he probably needed, as early on he looked good but hasn’t been the same player since then.  He was very much into Saturday’s game and played well at both ends with 11 points, four assists and three steals.

I think he knows now what it takes to play at this level, and I think he showed today,” Birrell said of Jordan.  “He came out with intensity.”

Robert Morris eventually got its act together and played like the conference leader in the latter part of the second half, which included the scoreless stretch for Bryant.  They won somewhat comfortably in the final box score, but know they got a scare put into them even after head coach Mike Rice warned his players about the Bulldogs’ record.

Most probably figured the Bulldogs’ best chance to get their first win in the final couple of weeks would be either St. Francis (Pa.) two nights ago or at Wagner next Thursday.  Few probably figured Robert Morris, even at home, would be such a close call.  And because it was a close call, where they led for a significant portion of the second half and against the conference leader, the loss to the Colonials probably hurts a little more than the others.

Quick Hitters – January 29, 2010

Quick hitters as we head into another weekend, the first full weekend of Ivy League play:

• Boston College is suddenly relevant again after knocking off Clemson 75-69 on Tuesday night.  The Eagles looked dead after a 1-3 start in ACC play, with all three losses being by double digits, and a tough loss at Virginia Tech on Saturday didn’t help.  But the Eagles took over Tuesday’s game with the press – something that has more often killed the Eagles when other teams have done it – and played their best game in a while.  Reggie Jackson sparked the Eagles as soon as he came off the bench, and led the way with 18 points and seven assists.
  While he’s the second-youngest player on the team (Brady Heslip has displaced him as the youngest), Jackson clearly has a keen sense of where his team stands in the grand scheme of things.

  “We figured, we want to win to be a contender in this league and make the NCAA Tourney,” Jackson said.  “Also, I preached to the team when we came out at halftime that if we want (the fans) to keep showing up, we’re going to have to get W’s, because this is basically a professional city.  With the Red Sox, the Patriots and Celtics, if we want people to show up, we’re going to have to put up more W’s and stop letting people down.”

  The Eagles still have a lot of work to do to reach the NCAA Tournament, but knocking off Clemson makes the case that a run by them can’t be counted out just yet.

• Clemson was without junior point guard Demontez Stitt due to a sprained foot, but that wasn’t why the Tigers lost.  In the first half, after running out to an 8-3 lead they simply didn’t look like they were in the game.  The offense didn’t have much life to it, and Oliver Purnell hasn’t had quite the depth he’s had in the past as his freshmen don’t appear to be as good right now as those he’s had in past years were as freshmen to help spell the starters for a few minutes.
  “For whatever reason, I thought we were a bit flat in the first half – flat-footed, we weren’t tough with the basketball, missed layups, and just weren’t sharp and tough,” Purnell said after the game.

• Purnell added that while Stitt still played over 30 minutes in games since the injury, he turned it over again in each game and got to the point where it would be more prudent to hold him out given the time in between games.  The Tigers don’t play again until they host Maryland on Sunday.

• One had to wonder how Providence would bounce back from the meltdown against South Florida.  In their first game after it, the Friars showed no ill effects in beating Connecticut 81-66.
  “I couldn’t have dreamed that we’d bounce back like this,” said head coach Keno Davis, after what he called “our best game of the year.”

• Bryant stayed with Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday for a while, but the Knights had too much in the backcourt with Terence Grier and Sean Baptiste, who combined to go 7-9 from long range.  The Bulldogs, who remain short-handed due to injuries as Cecil Gresham is done for the season, aren’t far away but that first win is still proving elusive.
  “I can’t fault our effort in any way,” said head coach Tim O’Shea.  “I said in the locker room, they really are a much better team than they were a few months ago, it’s just a matter of trying to get over the hump here.”

• Santa Clara made a pretty good bid to knock off Gonzaga, but the Bulldogs played like a conference leader in coming back to basically win the game going away on the road.  There might not be a player more valuable to his team than Matt Bouldin is to Gonzaga, and Thursday night marked the eighth straight game in which he played at least 37 minutes.  With Demetri Goodson having some growing pains at the point, Bouldin has had to handle a lot of responsibility, but he just keeps winning games.

Resilient Bryant Gets Third Division I Win

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – There are times when a lot of hard work that seems unrewarded finally does pay off. When it does, the feeling is pretty good, and sometimes it drives home a lesson learned.

Such was the case with Bryant’s third Division I win, a 56-43 decision over visiting Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs have had some bumps in the road in their first transition season to Division I, being on the short end of a string of blowouts in December. They entered Saturday being outscored by an average of 15 per game, losing four times by 25 or more points.

All along, head coach Tim O’Shea has raved about his team and how they have gone about everything. So it’s not a stretch to say that this win brought out some happy feelings.

“They’re just quality kids, and they’re being rewarded for their perseverance and their resiliency,” said O’Shea. “It’s really nice to see, because most people look at a half-empty gym on a Saturday afternoon, with two teams with losing records, but for the situation we’re in this year in going to Division I, this means a lot to these kids, and I thought they played with a lot of pride. This game meant a lot to these guys.”

In fact, when a few players seemed a bit down at the half after the Knights rallied late, O’Shea tried to nip that in the bud. The Bulldogs were up 25-13 at one point, only to see the Knights get within one at the half by scoring the last 11 points.

“At halftime, Coach kind of jumped the bench because we weren’t really into it, and saw some down faces,” said forward Nick Pontes, who paced the Bulldogs with 18 points to match his season high. “When we came back out, we had so much more energy out there.”

That energy helped lead to a run of 17 unanswered points that broke a 30-30 tie and gave the Bulldogs the lead for good. They had to stave off a late rally by the Knights, who got as close as eight before Bryant scored the final five points of the game. The 43 points is the lowest point total for a Bryant opponent this season.

For his part, Pontes has really come along, scoring in double figures in seven straight games. There’s no question the potential to be a consistent double-digit scorer inside is there, and he can be a better rebounder as well. The difference in recent games came with an important lesson regarding practice.

“It really started with practice,” said the junior forward. “(O’Shea) got on me for not playing hard in practice, and once I started to really play hard in practice, I started to play a lot better in the games.”

Pontes is just one example of what has made this season enjoyable for O’Shea despite the team’s 3-15 record. O’Shea said he hasn’t had to coach attitude or effort, and that’s a big reason the team has improved all along. Pontes sat out last season to concentrate on academics, at a time when he wasn’t doing well at all. Now Pontes has just about done a complete 180 in the classroom, and it’s no accident that he’s more productive on the court as well since a person’s life off the playing field is reflected in their on-field performance as well.

Getting the wins is a bonus for this team, as O’Shea is already enjoying the job immensely. The players all understand what the jump means in terms of difficulty, and that’s made O’Shea’s life easier than anyone might imagine.

“People call me up and think I’m on a suicide watch,” said O’Shea. “I have as good a group of kids as I’ve ever dealt with in my life on a daily basis. If you have that, you can enjoy coaching even if you’re not winning a lot. I actually really enjoy this group.”

With the lessons learned and the perseverance that was rewarded again on Saturday, it’s easy to see why O’Shea is a happy camper. His team was full of happy people on Saturday as well.

Other Notable Games

• Wake Forest 78, Clemson 68: The Demon Deacons continue to roll, picking up a great win at Clemson to remain undefeated. They should be the new No. 1 team in the polls.
• Louisville 69, Pittsburgh 63: Another undefeated team falls for the first time thanks to a strong second half by the Cardinals.
• Syracuse 93, Notre Dame 74: Luke Harangody did all he could (25 points, 16 rebounds, 6 assists), as did Kyle McAlarney (24), but they didn’t have enough support to overcome six Orange players in double figures.
• Oklahoma 69, Texas A&M 63: The Aggies have been flying under the radar, and a win over the Sooners would have changed that a bit.
• Arizona State 61, UCLA 58 (OT): A nice win for the Sun Devils, who had to fight back late in the second half to send it to overtime.
• Stanford 75, California 69: After losing two tough ones last weekend, Stanford picks up a good win in the first of three straight at home.
• USC 65, Arizona 64: A weekend sweep of the Arizona schools puts the Trojans right back in the mix at 3-2 in the Pac-10.
• Marquette 91, Providence 82: The Friars let a great opportunity for a signature win slip away in this one.
• Florida 80, Arkansas 65: The Razorbacks fall to 0-3 in SEC play, which makes one wonder if they might be better off in the Big 12 given their wins over Oklahoma and Texas.
• Duke 76, Georgetown 67: Eight straight wins for the Blue Devils with this one, which extends their non-conference home winning streak to 68 games.
• Washington State 74, Oregon 62: While the Cougars move back above .500 in Pac-10 play, the Ducks fall further into the abyss at 0-6.
• North Carolina State 76, Georgia Tech 71 (OT): The Yellow Jackets fall to 0-4 in ACC play, while the Wolfpack get their first ACC win.
• George Mason 71, James Madison 57: The Patriots will cruise into Boston on Wednesday with a 7-0 CAA mark.
• Hofstra 57, Northeastern 52: The Pride hand the Huskies their first CAA loss, avenging an earlier defeat in Boston.
• VCU 61, Old Dominion 44: A convincing win by the Rams in this big rivalry puts them at 6-1, tied for second in the CAA. They look to be hitting their stride now.
• Wichita State 74, Creighton 61: The Shockers get their first Valley win at home over the Bluejays.
• Butler 59, Illinois-Chicago 52: The Bulldogs continue to roll in the Horizon League, as this road win puts them at 7-0.
• Siena 78, Fairfield 62: The Saints sweep one of their top challengers with this win on the road.
• Cornell 71, Columbia 59: The Big Red begin defense of their Ivy League title. With this win, road teams are 3-0 early on in Ivy League play.
• Holy Cross 68, Bucknell 56: After some non-league struggles, the Crusaders improve to 3-0 in Patriot League play with a nice road win over their arch-rival.
• Boston University 81, Binghamton 64: A solid road win for the Terriers, while the Bearcats have lost three straight.
• Liberty 91, VMI 80: The Flames hand the Keydets their first Big South loss behind a career-high 35 points from Seth Curry.
• Radford 65, High Point 52: The Highlanders pull into a tie for first atop the Big South, improving to 6-1.
• Oral Roberts 64, Western Illinois 54: In the “some things never change” category are the Golden Eagles, who had non-conference struggles but are 6-1 in Summit League play and a half game back in the standings.

O’Shea Enjoying Bryant’s Journey Into Division I

There’s an old saying about how what is most interesting isn’t the destination, but rather, the journey. That’s an idea Tim O’Shea appears to be taking to heart.

The first-year head coach at Bryant knew what he was getting into when he took this job back in June. He’s too experienced not to; he had spent seven years as a head coach and many more as an assistant prior to leaving Ohio to come back to an area he considers home. So it’s not a surprise that he’s both taking the long view and changing the measuring stick for his team as they make the jump into Division I this season.

“My biggest job right now is to keep guys mentally up, keep confidence where it needs to be, and keep looking for that gradual improvement,” said O’Shea. “As we get into this month and January and February, we can look back and say, hey, we’re a much better team today than we were when we started this process.”

O’Shea knows it’s not easy on the kids in a few ways. For one, this is a team whose seniors were in the Division II NCAA Tournament in each of the first three years; they’ve gone from that to being 1-7 as they head into a break for final exams. Losing is tough enough, but suddenly losing after winning often is sometimes harder. But like their coach, they know what kind of a jump they’re making, and they wouldn’t go back to Division II now if they had the chance.

Likewise, for O’Shea it’s certainly a change in evaluating his team. Usually, wins and losses are what matters; the cold, hard reality is that this is a bottom line business, and maybe too much so at times. But with a seven-year contract in hand and having a feel for the college basketball landscape, he’s looking at this team in terms of their effort, attitude and improvement as time goes along. He liked that his team scored 41 points in a half against an ACC opponent.

He’s also looking at things from a program standpoint.

“I know the scoreboard is another loss, but this year is about establishing a Division I identity,” O’Shea said after the Bulldogs lost at Boston College. “We get credibility when we play these schools, we’re going to play them again next year. I think as we go through this process of growing as a Division I program, we can measure ourselves and our progress from year-to-year when we play BC and Providence and Connecticut. Those are important games for Bryant right now.”

While this season’s schedule has a number of tough games against high-major opponents, O’Shea sees that as a positive. He is already finished with next year’s schedule, one he calls “far more reasonable”, and his idea was to continue the theme of this being a Division I program and having a long view.

“Some schools put one foot in the water when they make this move – in other words, they still play 12 Division II games,” said O’Shea. “They don’t go out and play a real Division I schedule. We’re not going to do that. During this process, we’re going to play 29-30 Division I games every year, so we’re firmly established in everybody’s mind as a Division I program.

“It helps us in recruiting,” he continued. “When we recruit kids, we say, look, we’re never going to play Division II, you’re always playing against Division I, and in fact you’re going to play some of the best teams in the country.”

Indeed, a number of schools that are transitioning to Division I still play a schedule loaded with teams outside of Division I. Sometimes that’s the only way they get home games, especially programs that are independent. But Bryant doesn’t have a single opponent on its schedule outside of Division I, and that includes 13 against Northeast Conference opponents. (Those games will not count in the standings as it is not a full slate.)

Bryant will play 11 home games by the end of the season, and in the first two they have had sizeable student section crowds. They have played against big crowds in road games, which is one more step toward being a full-fledged Division I program as they typically would not see crowds as big while in Division II.

Despite the big losses in a few of the road games thus far, O’Shea is keeping things positive and his team is getting better. He’s remaining upbeat as well, clearly enjoying the group he has and feeling like he’s in a good situation. That’s not entirely surprising since it’s been clear all along that he wants to be here, but losing isn’t fun in this bottom-line business. Still, this is part of the growing process.

“I said to them before the game, I told them there’s not a kid at Bentley, or name some of the schools in the NE-10, that wouldn’t rather be in their shoes, having a chance to play some of these schools and games that mean something,” O’Shea said.

It’s another reflection that right now, what means the most of anything to O’Shea and his players isn’t the destination, but the journey.

Bryant’s First Division I Opponent Has Been There

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – It’s ironic that Bryant would open its Division I tenure against Albany, which it did in Wednesday night’s 76-67 loss to the Great Danes. After all, it wasn’t all that long ago that Albany was a program new to Division I and having to adjust the way Bryant has to now. And in the immediate, that experience certainly helped Albany head coach Will Brown, because he had an idea what to expect.

“We knew this was going to be a big night for Bryant,” said Brown, who was an assistant when the program first made the leap. “We knew they were going to play with great energy, we were going to get a great effort.”

There were some difficult times early for the Great Danes, who struggled to even put seven players on the floor at times. An already thin roster was further depleted by injuries, leaving them with perhaps the thinnest margin of error imaginable. It was basically a trial-by-fire for Brown, who spent the first year with the “interim” tag before having it removed. Though he may have been coveted for some jobs the last couple of years with the success the program has now had, it didn’t happen right away.

“I was one of those naïve 28-year-olds who thought he had it all figured out and thought we were going to win that year,” Brown reflected on his debut season. “Boy, did I have something coming to me.”

That wasn’t all, as his first call to a prospective recruit was a wake-up call to another key part of what the job would entail.

“The first kid I called, he said, ‘Hey coach, is Albany a state school in Georgia?’” Brown recalls. “And I’m like, no, it’s Albany in New York. That’s when I started recruiting nationally.”

The newcomers acquitted themselves well. While the game wasn’t quite as close as the nine-point margin suggests, the Bulldogs never quit and rallied late to make it a respectable game. With 16:05 left, Albany was fully in control with a 21-point lead helped by a strong start to the second half as they made four of their first five shots and Bryant made just one of eight. The Great Danes scored 12 of their first 15 second-half points in the paint, where the Bulldogs are quite undersized with no player taller than 6’7″.

But guards Chris Birrell and Barry Latham led a rally that got the Bulldogs within twelve a couple of times, and later into single digits before the Great Danes closed it out. Birrell was 4-6 from long range for his 12 points and added seven assists, while Latham posted his second career double-double with 20 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Both coaches had positive things to say about the effort of the newcomers.

“I was impressed with everything that went on tonight from Bryant’s standpoint,” said Brown, whose team already had two road games with virtually no break in between before this one. “I thought their kids played hard, I thought they were well-coached and they competed to the buzzer.”

“You want to win every game you play, but there are times you have to be realistic and appreciate the improvement when you see it,” said Bryant head coach Tim O’Shea. “I’ve seen a lot of improvement in these guys and I like the way they competed, I really did.”

O’Shea, who is taking a measured approach to evaluating his team, certainly saw the irony in playing the Great Danes. While Brown thinks Bryant has an added advantage in having a veteran coach to start off, his opposite number didn’t have to look far for an example.

“It’s interesting that we played Albany tonight because they’re a team that went through this process ten years ago,” O’Shea reflected. “You see what can happen ten years later, they’ve got a strong program.”

The Bulldogs got a nice crowd of students, as the student section was packed and lively all night long. The attendance was 2,167 for the opener, and players and coaches alike noticed it. The Bulldogs are certainly happy with the turnout and hope it continues.

O’Shea also noticed how appreciative his players are of little things that come with the move up. They like playing at the Division I level, which every kid wants coming out of high school, but even O’Shea was reminded of some of what comes with it earlier in the day.

“For them, this move to Division I is a whole new feel,” said O’Shea. “I’ve never been to a place that didn’t have a pre-game meal, but this is the first time they ever had a pre-game meal, and they thought that was the greatest thing going. It’s nice to be around a group of kids that are so appreciative of everything. At the Division II level, these kids used to pay a portion to get their sneakers, their practice gear and all that – they paid for that. Now that we’re Division I, they didn’t pay for that. It’s so nice to be around kids that say ‘thank you’ and appreciate that.”

There are a lot of new things that will happen for Bryant this season. In time, that will wear off, but they now have the first game under their belt, and they had a good example to look at on the other side in that game.