SMITHFIELD, R.I. – It wasn’t supposed to end this way. The storybook season was supposed to include a magical run in March, completing the amazing turnaround from last year with an NCAA Tournament bid. Perhaps a couple of things would fall right and they would even get to do it at home.
Instead, Bryant’s season came to an end on Wednesday night, the latest victims of the hottest team in the Northeast Conference after a 75-69 loss to Mount St. Mary’s. And while there can be a look ahead to a brighter future, that’s for a later time.
What makes it tough to take, but also easier, is that it’s not like Bryant did things to give this game away. While they led at the half, they were simply out-played by Mount St. Mary’s. The Bulldogs emptied their tank.
“There’s not a whole lot you can say,” said Dyami Starks. “They really came in here and took care of business.”
Added head coach Tim O’Shea: “Tonight is disappointing, but I have to tip my hat off to The Mount. Sometimes you feel like you lost a game, but I thought they came in here and won the game.”
The Mountaineers had a big second half with just one turnover and shooting 44 percent, although they were near 50 for a lot of the half as they missed their last two shots. They slowed Bryant down and went 26-27 from the foul line to seal the game.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed about because teams literally have to play out of their minds and have the best game and give us the best effort just to have a shot to win the game,” Starks added.
That wasn’t always the case at Bryant. Remember, this is a team fresh off a two-win season, although they weren’t far off from having a few more wins last year. Still, no one expected this team to be in first place in the conference for a while. No one outside of Smithfield thought this team would do what they did.
O’Shea had a few goals for this year. He wanted a winning non-conference record, aided by a lighter schedule after going on the road to many BCS schools often during the first four years; he got that out of this team, including wins at Boston College and Lehigh before C.J. McCollum went down. He wanted them in the conference tournament, and in the best case scenario, with a home game there, and got both. They played last Thursday with a regular season title on the line.
Less than a week later, NCAA Tournament hopes are gone. Now they hope for a CBI or CIT bid. For the seniors, who have been through a lot of on-court adversity during this transition period, one hopes that will come.
“Right now, my pain isn’t centered towards how I feel, or how the other underclassmen feel. It’s centered to our seniors,” said Starks, who scored 19 points on Wednesday night. “You feel like there was something there, climbing uphill constantly the past few years, and even this year was an uphill battle. For it to end on our homecourt is tough.”
Starks is genuine when he talks about the seniors. This is a young man from whom little was expected as a transfer from Columbia, yet he’s become one of the better players in the Northeast Conference and a big reason Bryant is where it is. He has consistently spoken highly of everyone on the team and the coaching staff, and he’s battled through illness and nagging injuries on occasion. He also knows he’ll have another shot at this. His comments are as real as they get.
“Those guys put in so much time and so much work into this program, and I have no idea what they’re going through,” he added. “It hasn’t sunk in for me yet, but I definitely feel for our seniors.”
Surely, the storybook ending would have had Frankie Dobbs and father Happy, an assistant coach on the team, having a father-son embrace on the bench in victory mode instead of the one they had in the waning moments of last night’s game. Frankie followed O’Shea from Ohio University and his father came to the school two years ago after Kevin Kurbec left. The younger Dobbs has been the steady hand at the point all season. And if anyone felt some pressure among the players, it was Dobbs – and the players felt it from him because they wanted to win for him as much as anyone.
“I think it’s been special for Happy and Frankie to be together,” said O’Shea. “I always joke with Happy that he’s the best parent I’ve ever been around.”
Dobbs wasn’t alone, as there were four other seniors, three of whom played earlier in their careers but barely got off the bench this year. They were never problem children, instead part of the culture that’s been established full of quality young men. It’s made O’Shea’s job easier, especially as he admitted to feeling some pressure this year now that they were eligible for the NEC Tournament and by extension the NCAA Tournament. He was able to take a long view early on, but the whole idea was to be competitive this year so that they can show recruits they can win at the school.
“I knew going into the season it had to turn this year, we had to get something going in the right direction, and we did,” said O’Shea. “We’ve got a bright future.”
They certainly do, with several key holdovers returning next year and some good newcomers on the way. But that’s a story for another time. Right now, the team is hurting, especially the seniors – the ones who came to the school during the tough transition period to Division I. They’ll be remembered for that, as well as for how this season looked like it could be a magical season. It won’t have the storybook ending once envisioned. Now, one hopes the ending didn’t come on Wednesday night, if only because it wasn’t supposed to end that night.
