Bryant men's basketball isn't a welcome matchup for many Division I teams

SMITHFIELD — Let’s give Brown and Dartmouth some credit.

The Bears and Big Green are the only two Division I opponents in New England who put Bryant on their men’s basketball nonconference schedules this season. It will be largely a tale of planes, trains and buses for the Bulldogs otherwise.

This is the price of winning outside the sport’s traditional power structure. Bryant stormed its way to a sweep of Northeast Conference regular-season and tournament titles in 2021-22. The Bulldogs made a first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history and reloaded through the transfer portal.

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Jared Grasso was the subject of multiple overtures from other schools seeking a new head coach. He wound up signing a contract extension to remain with Bryant for at least a fifth season, and this isn’t the type of person who plans on taking a step back. His players — key holdovers such as Charles Pride and Tyler Brelsford, heralded newcomers such as Doug Edert, Earl Timberlake and Antwan Walker — share that sentiment.

“We’re going to be a tough team to play against,” Edert said Wednesday. “We’ve very unique in our playing style and we’re all really excited and ready to compete together.”

Agreeing to face the Bulldogs generally would elicit one word from college basketball’s media cadre — dangerous. That’s despite a 3-6 start last season and a 111-44 road loss to Houston. It has more to do with a 19-4 finish, an edgy manner of attacking 40 minutes and standout talent like national scoring leader Peter Kiss.

“If it’s a home-and-home, if it’s a 50-50 — nobody is getting fired for losing to Bryant,” Grasso said. “If it’s a higher-level team — you're in the ACC, Big East — you should have good-enough players with [name, image and likeness] money and collectives and everything that everybody is able to do now. If you can’t get good-enough players to beat us in your gym, go get better players.

“There’s no reason not to play a regional game.”

Anyone who watched Bryant’s demolition of Wagner in the NEC title game last season might have suspected its bravado comes from the head coach. Grasso condemned the fighting in the Chace Center stands that marred the victory over the Seahawks, but he certainly enjoyed the charged atmosphere prior to the evening spiraling out of control. It’s riding that fine line between the conventional and something with a little more buzz — in the case of some likely overserved students on that fateful night, a lot more buzz — that often lands such programs on the map.

It’s also what prompts the sport’s glamour tier to pull up the drawbridge and protect itself. There are plenty of other opponents willing to accept your check for five figures to come in and lose. Strong conference schedules make it unnecessary for the likes of Providence and Connecticut to play the Bulldogs in the name of building a postseason resumé.

“When we got an at-large at Iona [in 2011-12, with Grasso serving as associate head coach], we had a good nonconference schedule and we ended up winning road games,” Grasso said. “It wasn’t crazy, but they were good teams — good mid-majors.

“We beat [Maryland] and then had a couple of good mid-major road wins [Richmond, Vermont]. If you think you have a chance to do that, try to put together a schedule like that. If not, why not just play regional teams?

“Save money. Save flights. At the end of the day, you’re trying to win your league and go to the NCAA Tournament.”

Bryant has finished among the nation’s top six teams in adjusted tempo in each of the last two seasons. Its 72.6 possessions per game in 2021-22 were nearly five above the national average of 67.9. Slowing that kind of pace requires some discipline on both sides of the ball.

Home venue also plays a considerable factor. The Bulldogs might have better luck drawing to a gleaming new Convocation Center — they’re scheduled to break ground on campus at some point in 2023. But the current building isn’t any kind of historical destination, and it can certainly be a snake pit.

What does all that mean in general? Opposing coaches have less control. The game moves too quickly for some to remain comfortable. And for all the buzzwords about facing adversity and testing toughness and whatever else, make no mistake – it’s all fine and good so long as you win.

“It’s brutal when you’re going through it and you’re trying to get a schedule done,” Grasso said. “But obviously it’s a compliment that people don’t want to play, I guess.”

Thomas College, Maine-Fort Kent and Framingham State will all have the pleasure this season. Most others declined to pick up the phone when reached over the summer. There could be many more similar answers in the future should Bryant remain on its current upward trajectory.

bkoch@providencejournal.com     

On Twitter: @BillKoch25 

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bryant men's basketball isn't a welcome matchup for many D-I teams