Bryant head coach Tim O’Shea faces an uphill climb.

AP / Mark Humphrey

SMITHFIELD — Chris Birrell is going to be more than a basketball player this winter. He and his Bryant University teammates are going to be trailblazers.

“We’ve got an opportunity to be on the first team ever at Bryant to do something like this. It’s a great opportunity for us to make a name for Bryant,” said Birrell, the Bulldogs’ starting point guard. “We’re the pioneers.”

For each of the last five seasons, Bryant has played well enough to qualify for the NCAA Division II tournament. The team reached the title game in 2005. It proved it could more than handle itself against Northeast-10 and national Division II competition. The basketball team was part of a program that won 78 percent of its contests in 22 intercollegiate sports.

Now, everything changes.

The Bulldogs become the 342nd school to play Division I men’s basketball. They go from being a big fish in a medium-sized pond, to being a little fish in a very big ocean. Everyone from new head coach Tim O’Shea on down enters with eyes wide open. There will be bumps, if not huge holes, in the road, at least at the start.

The task team the team faces, for this winter, is monstrous.

“There’s no way you’re going to go through this process and have it be easy. No way,” O’Shea said. “Nobody makes an easy transition, especially not an academic school like we are. We’re not doing this at a school that has low academic standards. Just the opposite. This school fits the profile of a very competitive academic school.”

After winning 108 games in the last five years, and losing only one starter from last season’s 18-13 club, the Bulldogs would have been one of the Northeast-10 favorites this season. But not only are they stepping up, they are doing it with a schedule that is overly ambitious, one that will have the team play 10 of its first 12 games on the road, including trips to Connecticut, Iowa, Boston College, Rutgers, Providence and Maryland.

It means every win, any win, will be treasured. O’Shea feels his team is going in with the right attitude.

“We haven’t set a number of how many wins we want to get,” Birrell said.

“Coming out of high school [from Rhode Island], you don’t get looked at by Division I teams,” said Cumberland’s Peter Lambert, one of the team’s best shooters. “Now, it’s nice to play a schedule against those schools. It’s nice to get to play against teams that didn’t recruit you. We know it’s going to be a challenging year, but we’d like to pull some upsets.”

By the end of the season, the Bryant players will be experts on just how different Division I and Division II are. Departing coach Max Good, who did a marvelous job building the program before heading west to join Billy Bayno’s staff at Loyola Marymount, left behind four starters.

Birrell is a key. The former Scituate High and CCRI star went to Bryant as a walk on and turned himself into a player through hard work. He averaged 11.2 points and had 130 assists last season. He quickly has won O’Shea’s confidence.

“He’s a phenomenal kid,” O’Shea said.

Two wing players will be keys, 6-5 lefty Barry Latham of Taunton, a sophomore who averaged seven points in his first season, and 6-5 junior Cecil Gresham, who averaged 12 points.

Rugged Nick Pontes, who red-shirted last year, forwards Jerann Wright, Ryan McLean and Andrew Lyell of Portsmouth and guards Lambert, Sam LeClerc, Adam Parzych and Ray Witkos all are contending for playing time.

If there is any good news, it is that after the impossible first six weeks, the second-half of the schedule becomes more realistic. That is when the team will begin playing many of the teams from the Northeast Conference, which is Bryant’s home. The Bulldogs have been accepted into the league, although they are only provisional members this winter, not eligible for any type of post-season play.

O’Shea, who was given a long-term contract in recognition of the time it will take to build the program another level, is thrilled that his team has a league home even before beginning Division I play. The Northeast Conference is made up of schools such as Monmouth, FDU and Quinnipiac.

It is in January, when the Bulldogs begin playing the schools from their new conference, where the best indications will be provided on where Bryant stands.

“We’re expecting to go into the NEC games and be ready to win right away,” Birrell said.

As a senior, the final half of the season will be Birrell’s best chance to enjoy Division I play. But the underclassmen will get to enjoy more. O’Shea has already signed four players for next season, all of whom he feels will be contributors. He already is almost finished putting together a schedule for 2009-10.

“It’s much more realistic, much more what we should be playing,” O’Shea said.

pkenyon@projo.com