Cautiously Optimistic – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/5/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
February 5, 1999
By Andy Fledderjohann
OSU Athletic Communications
It’s hard to believe what a difference a year makes.
A year ago at this time, the Ohio State men’s basketball team was mired in a seemingly never-ending losing streak. Seventeen games passed. There were close calls, near-misses and even some blowouts, yet no wins.
Remember? Ohio State head coach Jim O’Brien sure does. In his 17th year as a head coach and second at the Buckeyes’ helm, O’Brien is spearheading the Buckeyes’ resurgence to the top of the basketball world. “We are obviously very happy with the progress we are making,” O’Brien said of the team’s success. “I think, more than anything, last year was a very difficult season. We wanted to be able to put ourselves in a position this year where we could show some progress and build toward getting better. We have to be very, very happy with how our guys have played this year and how they’ve responded to everything. And yet I say that and continue to be very cautious in my enthusiasm and my optimism because we still have some very hard games remaining.”
While O’Brien is still pensive about his team’s success, he realizes the Buckeye program has made tremendous strides. Yet he doesn’t want the Buckeyes to get overly confident over their newly-discovered success.
“At this point we’ve already doubled our win total from last year,” O’Brien said. “And the key for us is to keep everything in the right perspective. Everybody says ‘well you’re going to this’ and ‘you’re going to that.’ We know how quickly things can turn around. I am a little bit surprised that we’ve played as well as we have this year. But when you think in terms of how hard our guys have worked and how hard they have practiced, then maybe you can understand it a little bit more.
We are significantly improved over a year ago, and there’s a lot of reasons for that.” One reason is the new Jerome Schottenstein Center, which will usher in the next millennium of Buckeye basketball. Not only does it give the Buckeyes a luxurious new home to practice and improve, but it also serves as an enticing factor in the heated recruiting wars and as a benchmark for the university.
“The facility in itself does a couple things,” O’Brien said. “Number one, it speaks volumes toward the commitment the university has made to the basketball program. If anybody had any question whatsoever about if basketball was important here at Ohio State, all you have to do is look at this building. They’re not going to build a building like this if it didn’t matter.
Second of all, it puts the perception of our program as one of first class and one of being able to play and participate at a high level.
“The third thing is in the recruiting,” O’Brien said. “We have not totally experienced what I think we will in recruiting, but it [JSC] has to be as nice as, if not better, that any on-campus facility in America. So I still am thinking in terms of the fall when you can bring a kid to a football game and see the excitement and atmosphere that surrounds a football game and then walk him across the street here to this building. I think you have to be a little bit oblivious to stuff if it doesn’t tell you that this is very important and that there is a lot of support and a lot of passion.”
The crowds that have packed the Jerome Schottenstein Center have shown this support and passion and have given the Buckeyes some added motivation. O’Brien has been extremely pleased with the fans, not just this year, but last year as well. “The crowds have been terrific,” O’Brien said. “But I’m not surprised about the crowds this year. I was very surprised with the crowds a year ago when we were losing games. We were 1-15 in the conference and people kept coming out. We were getting 10 to 12,000 people for our home games. I think that when the people really came out and supported us a year ago, we just built on that. But now we’re leading the Big Ten in attendance and the crowds have played no small part in the success we’ve enjoyed at home because they’ve really gotten into it and they have really helped us.”
Another key component that O’Brien has credited for his squad’s success is his assistant coaches. All three of O’Brien’s assistants – Rick Boyages, Paul Biancardi and Dave Spiller – as well as Director of Basketball Operations Randy Shrout followed O’Brien to Columbus after working under him at Boston College. “It’s an enormous advantage,” O’Brien said. “When I had first gotten here, there was so much to do that I didn’t have time to break in a new staff and worry about who could do what, what their capabilities were, if I could trust guys and how well they were going to be. There was none of that. When we got here, we all just kind of hit the ground running, so to speak. Everybody knew what their niche was and we all went in the direction that we needed to go. That to me was very important because these guys have become not only very good co-workers, but they’re my friends and they’re very, very loyal guys. That was a tremendous, tremendous help in bringing them with me.”
While O’Brien is very appreciative of his assistants, they feel much the same about him. “We have a terrific relationship,” associate head coach Rick Boyages said of O’Brien. “From an assistant coach’s standpoint, he is open to our ideas and viewpoints, which is enjoyable for us. He allows us to be hands-on, and he takes our ideas and thoughts and gives credence to them.”
The coaches aren’t the only ones to enjoy working with O’Brien. His players also have developed a bond with him and enjoy playing for him. “Coach O’Brien’s a great coach,” Ohio State sophomore guard Michael Redd said. “He knows the strengths and weaknesses of our team and he tries to execute accordingly. We get along really well. We have the kind of relationship that a coach and a player should have. He is a lot of fun to be with.”
O’Brien has frequently tasted success in the past during his coaching career at St. Bonaventure and Boston College. At BC, he led the Eagles to five postseason berths, including three trips to the NCAA Tournament. O’Brien’s 1993-94 squad advanced to the Elite Eight before falling to Florida.
He hopes to bring the same kind of success to the Ohio State program. “I just want to try to get this program back to where I think it can get to,” O’Brien said. “I want our program to be a very respectable program and I want to get us into a situation where, on a yearly basis, we can be battling it our for the upper division, if not the Big Ten title. I also think we should be trying to get into the NCAA Tournament every year. Those things right now are very realistic for us. That’s something that we should always be striving for.”
The Buckeyes’ future under O’Brien is looking brighter and brighter as the squad continues to blossom. Throw in the fact the Bucks lose just two seniors and have a nationally-ranked recruiting class coming in and it makes the future look even brighter.
“I think our future looks very bright,” O’Brien said. “I think we are optimistic about where we’re going. We have a chance to improve next season as well, so that’s basically all we’re going to do — just keep getting better and better and make progress and try to avoid the situations where you take steps backward. There’s a lot of potential here and we’re just trying to get to the point where we’re as close as possible to reaching our potential.”
