Bryant’s road to March Madness rooted in dedication to perseverance and relentless pursuit of progress

Jared Grasso climbs ladder to cut down net after winning NEC championship at Bryant. (Photo by Jared Grasso)

Upon his introduction as head coach at Bryant four years ago, Jared Grasso made the bold prediction that the Bulldogs would win a Northeast Conference championship and cut down a net under his watch.

What could then have been dismissed as brash bombast to win a press conference has since become a reality, with Grasso guiding Bryant to its first-ever NEC title this past Tuesday and first NCAA Tournament appearance at the Division I level. But at the start of the year, when Bryant was still licking its wounds from a loss to Mount St. Mary’s in last year’s championship game, the path may not have been so smooth.

“As the season went on, this team really evolved,” Grasso recalled. “These last three weeks, our guys have been really locked in. We grew a lot. We were not very good early on and I knew we were going to have some bumps in the road. We kind of evolved as the season went on and went through a lot of adversity with injuries, suspensions, sicknesses, COVID, the flu, so we went through a lot as a group and grew from it, and our team needed that.”

“Early in the season, we were a little disjointed. I think a little bit of that was because of the success we had last year and they thought success was just going to come, but we get a couple of suspensions and some sicknesses — we didn’t have our full team for a long stretch — and we just weren’t as connected as we needed to be a good team early on. I told my staff, I said, ‘we’re not going to be good early, I could just feel it,’ but we have veteran guys with ability and with character. I said, ‘we’re going to have to fight through some things here,’ but before it’s all said and done, I thought we could be pretty good. That’s the thing about having veteran guys. They’ve been through it, they’ve been through adversity, and they were able to fight and keep working to come out the other side.”

The marriage between Grasso, the son of a coach whose perfectionist nature motivates him at every moment of every day, and his veteran core of Peter Kiss, Hall Elisias and Luis Hurtado, proved to be a perfect one as both sides shared a common goal. With Charles Pride leading a younger group of future stars in Smithfield, the stage was set for a march through league play that embodied Grasso’s relentless pursuit of progress.

“Having Peter Kiss and Hall Elisias back for sixth years, and Luis Hurtado and Charles Pride — who, basketball-wise, is only a sophomore but I feel like he’s been with us forever — then you bring in Greg Calixte and Adham Eleeda, who were in other programs and transferred here for the opportunity to win a championship, we had an older, veteran group and guys who had been through it,” Grasso shared. “And I think because of that, the maturity level and dealing with some of the things we dealt with during the season, and then preparing for a conference tournament the way we did, I think it’s the reason we’re able to have the success we’ve had.”

“We just have chippy, edgy, competitive guys. When the lights go on, they’re going to compete. Does that mean we’re going to win? No, but I know the way we work every day, and because of that, they have a confidence to them and a swagger that they’ve built and earned. We have guys who are older, who have played a lot of college basketball games on big stages before, and they’re going to go in confidently against whoever we’re playing.”

As it stands presently, Bryant has been widely speculated to be a 16 seed in the First Four, the annual play-in round before the two full days of first-round action. And while some critics have panned the First Four and its accompanying trip to Dayton as a way to slight teams, Grasso was adamant in highlighting the positives of getting to play on the national stage, similar to how Greg Herenda did when he called a trip to Dayton “a night in the lights of America” when he and Fairleigh Dickinson went there six years ago.

“Here’s the reality: There is no negative you can put on playing in the NCAA Tournament,” Grasso reiterated. “We just won a conference championship, we’re going to the big dance. Bryant’s never done that before. If we’re in the First Four, we’ll prepare for whoever it is. If we’re going to play a 1 seed, then we’ll prepare for that. Our guys just want to play, and I’m glad I have the opportunity to coach them again. Wherever they tell us to go, we’ll be getting on the plane and going there.”

“I want my guys to enjoy this, because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When I took the job here, I talked about cutting down nets and winning championships, and how special that is. I’m glad these guys had the opportunity to feel it, and now we can go prepare to beat somebody when we get there.”

Always a man of his word, Grasso vowed on his first day at the helm that he would not let his new fan base down. Four years later, having made good on the first part of his vision, more work remains, but the sight of its first harvest might be Grasso’s most satisfying payoff.

“Not letting anybody down was the full package,” he said. “Our guys are great in the community, they’re great on campus, they do really well academically. We have high-character guys who I would go compete with on the floor, I’d go to dinner with, and I’d let them watch my children. That’s how I feel about the group of players we have. I think I’ve hopefully lived up to my end of the bargain of what they signed up for by hiring me, and the second piece was competing to win championships. They want to win at Bryant. There’s an expectation to win, and they wanted our basketball program to be the premier sport and help add to all the great things at Bryant, but the biggest thing for me is our players and our staff have worked really hard.”

“This hasn’t been an overnight thing. This has been a lot of 15-18-hour days and a lot of late nights, early mornings, losses and long bus rides, and we’ve been through all of it. Kobe Bryant talks about the dream is the journey, and it really is. I’ve enjoyed the journey of it and working with these guys, then seeing these players be able to just enjoy the success from all the work they’ve put in is the most gratifying piece for me. Seeing their happiness because of this brings me joy.”