It's before lunch hour on a Wednesday and a procession of athletic staff, students, and this reporter wait to speak with Brian Meehan, the newly minted head of the Brandeis University men's basketball program.
Meehan, who in early September took the reigns as the eleventh coach in the history of Brandeis men's hoops, isn't used to all this attention. When you're one of nine kids growing up in Worcester, your parents don't have the time to spoil you like they could an only child.
The new coach, whose office door was strewn with pro-Yankee clippings posted by women's basketball coach Carol Simon, wants to stress his credentials as a local guy in more than one respect.
Unlike Chris Ford, who came to Brandeis during a stretch of great uncertainty as a favor to Athletic Director Jeff Cohen, Meehan is a Division III veteran, having spent ten seasons (seven as head man) at Salem State College. Meehan's heavy accent, along with his undying commitment to the Red Sox, gives away his New England roots.
Meehan, who attended St. Mary's High School in Worcester and played soccer at Clark University, is keenly aware of the plight of seniors who have had to endure three coaching changes in just four years.
"I will tell you that I agree that the kids were looking for a lot more involvement," he said, "they wanted to see a commitment. I think they were excited when I got hired based upon my history. They look at me and say, 'Hey, this is a guy who has won at our level, he's a Division III guy.'"
"I'm the third coach for the seniors in four years," he continued, "and I think they're really looking forward to some stability and for a starting point, and I'm going to provide that starting point."
Meehan, who won over 150 games at Salem (a job he got ironically when then coach Jim Todd joined Chris Ford's staff with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks), admits that leaving the school he led to the Final Four in 2000 was tough.
"It was a very, very difficult decision," he said. "I was leaving behind what was probably talent-wise my best team. We'd had quite a bit of success, so when I think that might have been my best team that we were loading up with, that's a pretty strong statement. I had a group of guys that I had developed more than just a coach-player relationship with."
"There are lots of things that occur off the court that you become involved with," Meehan added, "their families, different crises, good times and bad times."
Meehan, who says he's "not one to really move around a lot," must find a way to bring Brandeis back to prominence in an ever more competitive UAA. While some would cower from such an arduous task, Meehan can't wait to see what lies ahead.
"As difficult as it was to leave Salem and as difficult as it is to come into a situation where I'm not taking over what is perceived to be the best team in the league," he said, that's the exciting part of it for me. There was a certain allure to being able to come into the UAA as a coach, which I look forward to, and bringing my experience here, which I think is going to be important and I think it's going to help develop the program."
"I just think the overall atmosphere - being a part of the UAA, being at Brandeis, which is a top academic school with great facilities, I've already developed a very good relationship with the team - all of that is what has made this move in my mind the right move to make at this time."
Meehan, whose office is still relatively barren, has a shelf of sports-related books, two of which bear the name of legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight. But before anyone runs to Gosman to watch him yell at scream at players and athletic staffers, it is merely Knight's no-nonsense attitude Meehan emulates.
"I'd like to think I'm more of a Bobby Knight guy," Meehan remarked, "in that, take away the chair throwing and stuff like that, I just think we're going to play the game with a lot of respect.
We will not bump chests and point to the crowd, we will not hot-dog, we will play hard, fundamental basketball. If you want to call that old-school, then that's okay with me, that's not an insult. We're going to play hard, we're going to play smart and we'll be unselfish."
Meehan, who readily acknowledges the fact that he can't reload with top-flight recruits like his Division I counterparts, knows what type of individual he'll be looking for when it comes time to search for talent. "We want a guy whose natural instinct is to play hard," he said. "And then I think we'd like to become a little bit more athletic than what we are right now."
Meehan, who says he's been impressed with the practices he's orchestrated thus far, doesn't want to put a timetable on this team's journey to prominence.
"I'm not real patient," he said. "I fully expect this group to perform well this year. I don't see why a team that's well-coached, disciplined and attentive can't perform well. So I fully expect to be much better and more successful this year than they have been.
I can't put my finger on a number. I don't know anything about the league, I don't know where we fit in. But I can base us where we are in New England and I look at the schedule and quite frankly, I don't see anybody on that schedule I don't believe we can beat. But that's the way I think. I just can't accept the fact that we can't be good enough to win."
While Meehan discusses how his job is to help the team adapt to their strengths, whether he has to mold a perimeter-oriented group or one with dominant post players, he knows the type of team he wants this to become. His Salem teams were renowned for sharing the rock, as last year's squad featured an astounding six players who averaged double figures in scoring.
"I think what my teams will show is number one, they're going to always play hard," he remarked. "we're going to try to take care of the ball as best as possible, we're going to be aggressive and unselfish. Those will be the traits that will become obvious. My teams at Salem were all successful and all different.
We need to be versatile, we're going to focus on what we do well and we want to be in control of all our games. We don't want to have to play somebody else's style."
Even though he's been on campus for just over a month, Meehan sees a school seeking an elite status both on the court and in the classroom.
"I think Brandeis is a school that strives for excellence," he said. "They want excellence from their students in whatever they do. I think athletics is no different. I don't know of a lot of professors who go out and congratulate you or tell you it's okay after you flunk a test. Professors expect you to perform well and coaching is no different than being a teacher."
"I teach," Meehan added. "My subject is basketball and therefore, I think I'm graded as a teacher. I have to be able to go out and communicate in a way that allows basketball players to become successful. That's my goal."
Meehan, who began his coaching career with the Junior Varsity squad at his alma mater, St. Mary's, wants to fill Gosman with crowds as frenzied as Duke's famed "Cameron Crazies." The players, he says, will feed off the energy of the student body.
"Once the students come down and watch games," he said, "they'll start to realize how much fun they can have. At Salem, once the kids got to the gym, all of a sudden as the season wore on, bigger and bigger crowds came and then they realized it was just a really fun thing to be a part of. And I think they're going to realize that the guys that play are just regular students like they are. And it's an opportunity for them to come out and support them."
"We will play better with bigger crowds," he continued. "There's not an athlete in the world that wouldn't tell you that they don't perform better in front of a large, friendly crowd. I know that other UAA schools draw very good crowds and I want Brandeis to be the Duke of D-III. I want the kids to yell and scream for two hours and really have a blast.