Stephan Teodosescu
steodosescu@mustangdaily.net
Chris O’Brien knows what it’s like to be a leader, and even a grandpa — in a sense of the word. After all, his experience is unmatched — he’s been playing hoops longer than anyone on the Cal Poly men’s basketball team.
It’s true, the 23-year old swingman has been playing since he could walk, but it’s his experience off the court that garners him that leadership title. He’s seen everything NCAA basketball has to offer, considering he’s suffered through injuries, transfers, redshirts and grayshirts and even an almost-stint in the Ivy League.
“Now the world is in perspective (for O’Brien),” head coach Joe Callero said. “You’re not just watching it from a basketball perspective … you get another perspective in his situation. What he means to the team is that he’s older, more patient, more sure and more focused.”
And now, in 2013, O’Brien is healthy and has found a home as a versatile player for Callero’s Mustangs. He can defend, pass, screen, shoot and play all five positions on the floor.
But that wasn’t the case just a year ago.
Playing in a 2-on-2 game last preseason in his first day back from a shoulder injury, O’Brien went up for a dunk, but instead of slamming the ball home he clanked the shot triggering an awkward fall to the hardwood. He landed wrong on his left leg and after hearing several pops to his knee O’Brien’s season was finished before it had even started.
“I looked down when it happened and I saw my leg buckle inward like a snapped twig,” he said. “I can tell you I heard four or five pops, at least. I still remember that sound in my head.”
After an MRI, the diagnosis was a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), torn medial collateral ligament (MCL) and partial meniscus damage for the then-junior. He had surgery a month later sidelining him for the rest of the season — something he knew full well how to deal with because the hiatus from basketball was nothing new.
Since graduating high school, O’Brien has been in the rare position of playing basketball every other year of his collegiate career. It all started with the days he spent drawing pictures and writing journal entries just to pass the time while he waited for a phone call from Princeton.
While the rest of his friends had gone off to start their freshman year of college, the then-18-year-old O’Brien hadn’t. Instead, he stayed home in Irvine, Calif. waiting by the phone. He spent those days mostly by himself going to his local-area bookstore, going to the gym and even playing video games before going to bed just to wake up and do it all over again the next day.
That was his routine for an entire year.
After already committing to play basketball for the Tigers, a coaching change forced O’Brien to postpone his NCAA eligibility by grayshirting the year immediately after high school. He wasn’t officially part of the team at the time and passed the days back at home waiting to hear if he’d be playing in the Ivy League. When the call eventually came, new head coach Sydney Johnson regrettably told O’Brien he couldn’t get him in.
“He said, ‘Chris you’re going to have to go somewhere else,’” O’Brien said. “They said that admissions were just a different level (at Princeton).”
The year prior, the 6-foot-4 sharpshooter was knocking down buckets, dishing out assists and earning steals to the tune of Northwood High School basketball’s all-time leader in each of those categories as a senior guard. He even earned the Sea View League Most Valuable Player award and was named Northwood’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2007.
But after battling with Princeton’s admissions and conversations with the university’s president, O’Brien accepted the fact that he wouldn’t be attending the school and looked for another option to play basketball at the Division I level.
He quickly found a home at the University of San Francisco, where he started 20 games in his freshman season in 2008-09, yet he admits the program just wasn’t the right fit for him, so he explored other options following the season.
While O’Brien eventually landed at Cal Poly in Callero’s first year on the job, NCAA rules forced him to redshirt the following season because of his transfer from San Francisco.
Stir in another year off because of his knee injury and one gets a recipe for a sixth-year senior who’s been through it all. It’s no wonder teammates see O’Brien as a grandfatherly figure.
“We kind of joke with him a lot,” junior forward and roommate Chris Eversley said. “He’s like the grandfather. Anybody on the team, no matter what year you are, he’s been there already so he can offer some help … It’s like he reaches into a book and pulls out a file and always has an answer for you.”
O’Brien’s experience has translated well to his efforts on the court so far this season. And it all came together in a Jan. 5 game against UC Irvine by pouring in 16 points and four rebounds in the Mustangs’ 72-67 win over the Anteaters — but his numbers aren’t always flashy.
According to Callero, O’Brien isn’t usually the leader in the glamorous columns on the score sheet, but he does the “little things” right. He was an integral part to the team’s 3-0 start in Big West play earlier this season.
“When we started off winning our first three conferences games, Chris was the glue down the stretch making defensive plays, rebounds and shots,” Callero said.
O’Brien is also the son of a high school basketball coach — something Callero attributes his natural leadership to on the court.
“That in the coaching world immediately means that you’ve got much better basketball IQ and insight,” Callero said. “And he’s been around the game so much more from a coach’s perspective that he sees the game at a more digestible speed.”
While O’Brien’s experience may be unmatched, his career hasn’t always gone according to plan. Mentally, it’s been downright tough.
“Since 2007, I’ve played every other year,” he said. “And thinking about it, it’s not easy. There were times when I didn’t know if I could keep playing and keep going through all of the transfers, injuries and basically someone telling me I had to disappear.”
But as conference play continues for the Mustangs, O’Brien is once again, ready to lead by example.