From Unwanted Teen to Savior: Brendan Sullivan’s Tale

The story of Brendan Sullivan and his rocky five year on and off relationship with the Boston University Men's Basketball Program.

The free-throw shooter bounced the ball once, twice, and released it. Boston University’s starters sat laughing and chatting, watching the bench play out the final 19 seconds of a blowout. The Marist fans, unable to endure their team’s play, trickled out as the ball bounced off the rim and into Brendan Sullivan’s hands. As his feet hit the floor he held the ball high above his head and put the ball off the glass and through the cylinder. Two points, one basket.

BU’s bench jumped up and screamed wildly, awakening from a daze to cheer on the teammate they called Sully with calls of “Four years, finally!” His father, uncle and brother stood behind the bench clapping and beaming, cheering on the fifth-year player. Sullivan quietly turned around and hustled down the court to play defense. After three years, eight months and 26 days, two dismissals from the team and a whirlwind of turmoil, Brendan Sullivan had finally made a basket again in a Terriers uniform.

Brendan Sullivan wasn’t supposed to be playing in that game; it was 2010, year five. He had never been seriously injured, never redshirted and yet he found himself playing in just his third collegiate season and eighteenth game. A freshman who had come in with great talent but struggled in adjusting to the college life had been replaced with a young man who focused on his team rather than himself. Four years after being removed from the only program and sport he wanted to be a part of, Sullivan scrapped his way back onto the team and in the process matured and became an unlikely savior.

Darien High School’s all-time leading scorer wasn’t even sure if he was going to follow in his father’s footsteps, who played at Villanova, and play in college. As a two-sport star, he preferred lacrosse where he was an All-American. But as it became time to make a decision, the gangly, 6-7, teenager decided that he wanted to play basketball. With no scholarships available Sullivan planned to spend a post-graduate year at Northfield Mount Hermon in the fall of 2005 to improve his game and ease his transition away from home. At the last minute though a spot opened at BU and Sullivan jumped on it, “When this opened up it was just: right time, right place,” Sullivan said.

As a freshman everything didn’t work out quite right. Sullivan came in wanting instant playing time and a role as a contributor off the bench. He played significant minutes in the team’s first four games and then was left out of the rotation. After scoring 15 points against Rider University in the third game of the season, Sullivan scored just once more the rest of the season. “I wasn’t physically ready for the college game,” Sullivan said. “I was pretty skinny at that point and just kinda lost my confidence after the first few games and things just started to fall apart a little.” Off the court life was an ever larger issue.

Living away from home for the first time, Sullivan struggled with the freedom that college provided. He drank frequently and couldn’t balance the rigors of schoolwork and team obligations. “A lot of things were accelerated due to the fact that he had to be responsible,” assistant coach Orlando Vandross said. “I think that’s where he struggled a little; he embraced other things other than what he came here to do.” But while many college students face similar problems, a losing season led to a locker room full of malcontents and much larger issues.

Tensions boiled over after the teams’ second to last game of the regular season and Sullivan was dismissed from the team after an incident in the locker room that he refused to comment on. “There was a lot of stuff going on in the locker room,” Sullivan said. “Obviously with all those kids leaving [three players transferred after the 2005-06 season], there was some issues there. It was frustrating and pretty stupid. It was just some bad luck, a couple bad decisions.”

With BU and basketball turning their backs on him it least temporarily, Sullivan found himself at a crossroads: a 20-year old left with few options and a burning desire to play basketball.

After being told he wasn’t welcome back by the coaching staff, Sullivan headed home to Connecticut for a semester. He debated transferring to another school but after a poor freshman year, schools expressed little interest. He thought about going back to his lacrosse roots but quickly ruled that out. Sullivan returned to Boston for an internship with few aspirations to play basketball again or rejoin the team. “At that point I wasn’t really into basketball,” Sullivan said.

But when fall began Brendan went back to BU and started playing regularly at the gym. He faced an intense internal struggle; he wanted to play at BU but after such a rough freshman year was it worth it? After talking to friends and family, he was finally convinced by his mother. She told him, “When you’re 40-years old, you don’t want to regret anything,” Sullivan said. “I realized I did miss it, playing basketball is great and if I had the opportunity to play Division 1-I knew that I had to take advantage of it.”

Slowly he began playing with some of his former teammates and was offered a chance to walk on to the team. The opportunity, he thought, was exactly what he wanted, but once again things turned sour. Sullivan saw just four minutes of action all season and struggled with the lack of chances. “I wish, I should have gotten a chance to play a little more,” Sullivan said breaking his usually quiet, reserved nature with a defiant glare. “Maybe [BU head] coach [Dennis] Wolff didn’t think I was ready to play in games.”

After Wolff was fired in the offseason, Sullivan found himself in the coaches’ office once again. This time as a senior being asked to leave the team by head coach Patrick Chambers. But it was because of his poor grades and not his game or attitude this time around and a temporary dismissal (till December). For three months he worked solely on his grades and putting his life in order, waiting for his turn to help a team he so desperately felt a need to be a part of. “It was a tough life lesson to teach to him at this point in life,” Chambers said. “But he learned it and came back with a totally different commitment to the program.”

December arrived and Sullivan rejoined a team that was struggling and close to losing the balance and diving into the atmosphere of his freshman year. The Terriers were 2-5, had already seen BJ Bailey transfer, lost Scott Brittain for the year and would soon lose Tyler Morris, the team’s heart and soul for a month due to injury.

In a locker room that easily could have become rocky, Sullivan served as “a breath of fresh air,” Coach Chambers said. “He’s contagious, he’s coming in being funny and being supportive and guys know what he’s been through and I think it’s pretty special …he was extremely important to us in the locker room.”

With injuries and tough losses piling up over the next few months, the team excelled instead of falling apart as they had done his freshman year. Sullivan played significant minutes for the first time in his career. He also proved to be a huge asset to the team off the court- becoming the go-to-guy for teammates to discuss their problems.

“I think being a little bit older, Brendan really had a lot to do with the chemistry within our locker room,” Vandross said. “How to be a good teammate, how to do it right every day. He can share those things verbally about what not to do and what it takes to be successful not just at basketball but in life and here at BU.”

Following three years of poor finishes, BU made it to the America East Championship Game and won two games in the College Basketball Invitational, far surpassing their expectations. After the team’s last game, Sullivan admitted being emotional for one of the few times in his career, “The last time wearing that jersey it was really sad,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan has one more year of eligibility left but he’s decided to graduate and try to find a job within the hotel industry. “There’s no point in paying for another year, and I’m getting pretty old. I’m going to be 24 in January and I’m ready to move on to the next part of my life.”

Even though his numbers seem dull, 41 games, 321 minutes, 35 points, Sullivan had a wild career at BU and became a radically different person.

“I think he’s a man now,” Vandross said. “When I look at him-he’s responsible for his actions, we don’t have to worry about him anymore… He’s one of the most well respected players to come through the program.”