Ohio State basketball Coach Jim O'Brien stamped his right foot repeatedly. He clapped his hands, cupped them around his mouth and even tried whistling.
During one fleeting moment in a game Tuesday against Eastern Illinois, none of these efforts enabled O'Brien to draw a player's attention. In any other season, he would have simply screamed.
But complications from surgery on a herniated disk in his neck in October have left O'Brien with a voice no louder than a whisper. In a profession predicated on oral communication, the coach and his team are enduring a season of innovation and frustration.
"The hardest part is when the game is going up and down and I can't project," O'Brien said in an interview at Ohio State's Value City Arena. "At times, it's frustrating."
O'Brien is hesitant to talk about his health, and it is not just because extended conversations leave him fatigued and with a sore neck. He refuses to use his voice as an excuse for Ohio State's 6-4 start, which includes double-digit losses to Georgia Tech, San Diego State, San Francisco and Seton Hall.
O'Brien, his players and his coaching staff have adapted. He wears a wireless microphone in practice, with speakers flanking the ends of the court to magnify his voice. During timeouts in games, he wears a headset that amplifies his voice so the players can hear him. The only work in progress for O'Brien is how to handle spontaneous game situations, like getting the attention of a player or referee.
In the loss at San Francisco, O'Brien was thrown out of the game, partly because he wrote, "This is sad," on a clipboard and showed it to the officials.
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