Bryant coach Tim O’Shea announces retirement

Bryant Bulldogs head coach Tim O’Shea will retire at the end of the season, he announced on Monday.

O’Shea led the Bulldogs for 10 seasons, spanning the program’s entire Division I history.

Two years after winning just one game in the team’s first season in the Northeast Conference, O’Shea led the Bulldogs to their first NEC Tournament appearance. Two years after that, Bryant went to the CBI — the first Division I postseason invitation in the team’s history.

“The truth is, that after 34 years of essentially doing the same thing, I am ready for a change,” O’Shea said in a press conference Monday. “While in my mind I am relatively young. Obviously this has been a challenging season on many levels. Never so much in my 17 years has a team dealt with so much in the way of injuries and illness. Yet they have consistently demonstrated grit and fight as they did Saturday with a win.”

O’Shea spent almost his entire career in New England, working as an assistant at Rhode Island, Boston College, and Yale, before a seven-year stint as the Ohio head coach. He took the Bryant job prior to the 2008-09 season.

Bryant has struggled this year with just two wins in NEC play and a KenPom ranking of 340 out of 351 Division I teams. O’Shea’s last game will be Sat., Feb 24 at Fairleigh Dickinson unless the Bulldogs go on a late run and qualify for the NEC Tournament.