Air conditioner blasting, windows open, music blaring.

Less than a month on the job, TJ Sorrentine is learning survival skills for an assistant college basketball coach.

"I drive more than I sleep," he said with a laugh.

Sorrentine was on the road, literally, Tuesday afternoon when he spoke via cell phone. As he drove through the Maryland mountains on his way from West Virginia to Connecticut, he described the hectic life he has led since becoming Brown coach Jesse Agel's first assistant almost three weeks ago.

"I was in New Jersey Sunday. I left about 6 o'clock and got to West Virginia at 1 in the morning. I spent all day Monday and part of today in West Virginia. Now I'm driving to Quinnipiac to watch a game tonight. After Quinnipiac I'll drive home and have four or five days to try to get organized. I am so unorganized because everything happened so fast. We go to Las Vegas next week and then to Orlando, and that's the end of recruiting for the summer."

Six weeks ago, Sorrentine was playing professional basketball in Slovenia. He injured his knee in the playoffs and returned to Rhode Island. He was at the Pizzitola Center when Brown athletics director Mike Goldberger introduced Agel as his new basketball coach. Agel and Sorrentine were close when both were at the University of Vermont, Agel as associate head coach and Sorrentine as the star guard and hero of the upset of Syracuse in the first round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament. They remained close when Agel moved to Brown to work for Craig Robinson and Sorrentine went overseas to play professionally.

"I knew he wanted to coach. We had always talked about him working for me sooner or later. Unfortunately, it was sooner," Agel said.

The tweaked knee that Sorrentine suffered in the semifinals the first week of June turned out to be a torn ACL. Two years ago he had the same injury, underwent surgery and rehabilitation and returned to the court.

"But I knew what it takes to come back. It was a devastating blow to my psyche. I was mentally distraught," he said of the latest tear.

Agel asked Sorrentine if he wanted to keep playing or coach. Sorrentine wasn't sure. He had signed a contract to return to Krka, his club in Slovenia, which had offered to pay his salary and let him rehab there.

"I thought about it and realized this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. I knew I wanted to coach, and it would have taken a lot to go to another coaching job," Sorrentine said. "This is a great opportunity for us. Jesse has been around the game a long, long time. I've been around a lot of basketball people, and he's right at the top of the list. We'll be talking about a game I played, and I think I have a great basketball memory, but he takes it to another level."

Although Sorrentine is young -- he will turn 26 on July 29 -- and has no coaching experience, Agel didn't hesitate to make him his first hire.

"As a player, TJ has always been a coach on the floor. He has always been a tremendously focused player and always a leader people want to gravitate to and follow and emulate. To be able to get a kid like TJ is a home run for me and the program and everybody involved. He sent me an e-mail and said if you want me, I'll give up playing. Right there, I knew there's no way I couldn't hire someone like that," he said.

"Right out of the gate we're getting so much positive feedback from recruits to people around the country to players on the team. The only thing I can't do now is put him in a game," Agel added with a laugh.

Three seasons have passed since Sorrentine's three-pointer with 1:06 remaining in overtime gave the Cinderella Catamounts their stunning victory over Syracuse in the first round of the Big Dance. That he made the shot of his life at the DCU Center in Worcester, only 40 miles or so from his Pawtucket home and St. Raphael Academy, where he was the Rhode Island player of the year in 2001, was the exclamation point. High school players still remember that shot, a bonus on the recruiting trail.

"Kids know me. They recognize my name. They come up and say, 'I saw you against Syracuse,'" he said.

Name recognition will carry Sorrentine only so far in his coaching career, and he knows that. His skill as a teacher will determine his success, and he can't wait to get on the new floor at the Pizzitola Center with the Bears, and travel to Europe with them next month.

"That's the thing I look forward to the most. I love to work out and work people out and make people better. That's what I'm excited about. I want to teach the players what I've learned from a lot of people," he said.

Sorrentine's focus as a point guard was always on the team and making the team better, not on himself. Agel recalled one of Sorrentine's first workouts at Vermont. He was the fittest athlete on the team but noticed a senior struggling.

"TJ could run laps around everybody but slowed down and helped the guy around," Agel said. Sorrentine said, "I wanted people to see that I'm willing to work hard, but it's not about me. It's all about the team. I think that's why we had so much success in college."

UVM went to the NCAA Tournament in 2004 and 2005. Sorrentine was the America East rookie of the year and player of the year, a three-time first-team All-Conference selection and a two-time academic honor roll member. As a pro he played in Slovenia, Portugal and Italy, and with the Florida Flame of the NBA Development League. He also logged summer league minutes with the Miami Heat and the Milwaukee Bucks.

Now he is logging miles in a rental car, driving through West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut in search of the next Mark McAndrew or Damon Huffman, the two All-Ivy stars who led Brown to a 19-10 record and a postseason tournament last winter.

"People ask me if I'm tired. I'm exhausted, but it's part of the job," he said. "And I'm psyched. I'm truly excited."