JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After 12 years, Matt Driscoll is steering his own ship.

All he needs now is a winning crew.

The former Seneca Valley High and Butler County Community College assistant basketball coach is taking on his first NCAA Division I head coaching job at the University of North Florida.

Driscoll, 44, has spent the past 12 years as a Division I assistant coach at Wyoming, Clemson, Valparaiso and Baylor.

"When I was at Seneca Valley (1991-93), we were just starting out and weren't very good," Driscoll recalled. "We won a state championship at BC3 (1990-91) because Dick Hartung was a great coach. I learned a lot from him."

Since then, Driscoll, a Pittsburgh native and a Slippery Rock University graduate, has been turning losing programs around.

He was head coach at La Roche College from 1993-97 and helped the Redhawks tie a school record with 15 wins during his final season there.

Wyoming University athletic director Lee Moon — who's now at North Florida — hired Driscoll as an assistant coach after that season.

"They had 10 straight losing seasons at Wyoming," Driscoll said. "A new staff comes in and we go 19-9, getting a bid to the NIT."

Driscoll left Wyoming for Clemson, where he spent five years as an assistant.

A similar turnaround happened with Driscoll when he was hired as an assistant coach under Scott Drew at Baylor. That program had hit rock-bottom after one player murdered another, a coach lied about tuition payments and the school was forced to play an entire season with no nonconference games.

During Driscoll's six seasons at Baylor, the Bears realized back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in school history, reached the NCAA Tournament and won four NIT games last season.

After that, Driscoll's opportunity to become a Division I head coach finally arrived.

"Once you build strong relationships with people, it's hard to leave somewhere," he said. "What we did down at Baylor was special."

But after being a finalist for head coaching vacancies at Robert Morris and St. Francis (Pa.), only to be denied, Driscoll couldn't pass up the North Florida opportunity — even though it is a challenging one.

The Ospreys completed their first official season as a Division I program last winter with an 8-22 overall record, finishing 10th in the 11-team Atlantic Sun Conference.

The champion of that conference, Jacksonville University, is in the same town as North Florida.

"Our basketball program is only in its 17th year overall. The school itself is just in its 37th year," Driscoll said. "We're still an infant, still a baby."

It's a baby still learning how to walk. North Florida was 3-26 — 1-15 in league play — during its Division I transitional season of 2007-08. The basketball program's overall record in 17 years is 172 wins and 303 losses.

"We want to build a program of significance," Driscoll said. "We want to matter to the school, to little kids, older adults, the community and the basketball world.

"We need to change the attitude here and you do that with an influx of talented kids eager to work. (Coaches) are hired and fired by wins and losses. That's the reality and I accept that."

Hired in April, Driscoll has already gotten seven players to sign letters of intent with the school sight unseen.

"We do have a lot to offer," he said. "Our 5,800 seat arena is as good as any in the league. We're a 16,000-student school with only 4,000 living on campus, so it's a relaxed atmosphere.

"We're eight miles from one of the biggest cities in America and eight miles from the Atlantic Ocean in the other direction. That's an incredible recruiting tool."