Sports

Friday, Jun. 05, 2009

College Basketball: Mustangs add San Francisco transfer O’Brien to basketball team

Guard averaged 4.1 points per game in 29 games as a freshman with the Dons

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In the same week it got a commitment from a highly touted junior college prospect, the Cal Poly basketball team has picked up another transfer, this one from the Division I level.

University of San Francisco freshman guard Chris O’Brien said he has left the Dons and is transferring to Cal Poly to play for first-year coach Joe Callero, bringing Callero’s tally of recruits to five since being hired to replace Kevin Bromley in April.

The news came just days after Callero got a non-binding verbal commitment from Maryland junior college star Amaurys Fermin, a former New York City prep standout who’s visiting campus this weekend and would transfer in for the fall.

Callero said he was not allowed to comment on O’Brien, but O’Brien’s dad Tim — who San Luis Obispo County basketball spectators might remember as the coach who led Northwood-Irvine High to an upset win over Mecklen Davis and Atascadero in the CIF-Southern Section basketball playoffs in 2004 — said his son is committed to Callero and Cal Poly.

Several factors contributed to the decision.

“The academics that Cal Poly offers. The direction and philosophy of the new coach. We liked everything we heard about him,” Tim O’Brien said. “He’s building the program. He’s putting together a team. He’s starting from the ground up, not a quick-fix guy but for the long haul.”

Chris O’Brien was a freshman on the Northwood team that beat Atascadero in 2004.

Recovering from a late-season collarbone injury, he was holding the video camera in the stands for that game.

But locals are likely to remember him a little more for his most recent basketball trip to San Luis Obispo, when the Mustangs defeated O’Brien’s Dons 61-40 this past December.

O’Brien, a 6-foot-4 combo guard, did not have an especially memorable night. He scored two points on 1-for-6 shooting from the field and grabbed four rebounds.

In 29 games for San Francisco, O’Brien averaged 4.1 points and 2.9 rebounds. He shot 37.5 percent from the floor.

“I like to do a lot of the things that don’t show up on the stat sheet,” O’Brien said. “I find ways to make my team win. I don’t feel like I need to score this many points or do this or that. I’m the guy that’s going to get on the floor and do the dirty work.”

Tim O’Brien, who’s been coaching high school and college basketball since 1978 but stepped down from coaching Northwood in 2007, said his son has a good basketball IQ.

“He’s just a kid that’s low maintenance, that will go to class, get good grades, be on time, do what the coach says and add a lot of substance to the program.”

In accordance with NCAA Division I transfer rules, Chris O’Brien would have to sit out a season before being eligible to play in 2010-11. But that’s nothing new for him.

O’Brien committed to Princeton out of Northwood High in Irvine in 2007 but said he was convinced to sit out a season while the Tigers transitioned through a coaching change.

He stayed home in Irvine waiting to be admitted the following year.

“I was at the library a lot and just keeping myself busy,” O’Brien said.

The problem was, even though O’Brien was a top-notch student, he was not quite good enough to suit Princeton’s admissions staff, which is why he ended up going to San Francisco instead.

He got plenty of playing time from first-year Dons coach Rex Walters, but O’Brien said he was unhappy with the direction of the team and coaching philosophies at San Francisco.

He said he doesn’t leave the Dons on bad terms, hopes San Luis Obispo will provide him a stable environment and doesn’t bemoan the one season he already spent sitting out.

“It’s helped me mature a lot faster than expected,” O’Brien said. “And the right fit will come. I think this is definitely the place to be.”