JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Spurned by St. Francis University a number of years ago, then Baylor University assistant basketball coach Matthew Driscoll was despondent.

“That definitely crushed me,” he said. “I really thought I was going to become a head coach then. I had lost out to Mike Rice for the Robert Morris job earlier.

“When I returned to Texas, my wife simply said: ‘God doesn’t think you’re ready yet.’”

He’s been more than ready since.

Now in his sixth year as head men’s basketball coach at the University of North Florida, Driscoll has the Ospreys in the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

The 1992 Slippery Rock University graduate, former Seneca Valley coach, Butler County Community College player and coach guided North Florida to a 23-11 record this season, including the program’s first Atlantic Sun Conference championship.

Before this season, North Florida’s school record for wins was 16 — 16-16 records in 2011-12 and 2013-14 under Driscoll.

“There was no tradition here when I took the job six years ago,” Driscoll said. “The program was just making the transition to Division I. It never won more than 15 games in a year in Division II.

“The school itself was built in 1972, just eight miles from the Atlantic Ocean.”

But Driscoll saw potential. He said half a billion dollars had been spent on construction in developing the campus. And he liked the location.

“We’re six hours from Miami, six hours from Atlanta, six hours from Charlotte,” he said. “Kids don’t want to go too far from home these days. Our location is perfect.

“I hired two 40-year-old guys as assistant coaches who understood the level we were at. Bruce Evans (now at Georgia Tech) had the contacts in Georgia, Bobby Kennen in Florida. So we got to work.”

This year, they got it done.

Driscoll knew he couldn’t win without quality players. Three years ago, a big one fell in his lap in 6-foot-8 junior guard/forward Beau Beech, Florida’s Class 5-A High School Player of the Year.

Expected to be primed for a conference run in 2012-13, the Ospreys lost their best player, who left the team shortly after his father died. The season ended with a 13-19 record — a regression from the previous year — as Florida Gulf Coast won the conference and took a Cinderella ride to the Sweet 16.

“I took some heat, I mean, it was rough,” Driscoll said. “People around here thought that should have been us, questioned whether I was the right person for the job, and I got a little down.

“I was reminded by a fellow coach and good friend to keep the faith, to stop feeling sorry for myself and do what I believed we could do.”

That team graduated a bunch of seniors. The following year, North Florida — its roster filled with newcomers — won 16 games.

“I knew we were ready to break through,” Driscoll said of this year. “We developed a true team. I’ll bet no other team in the country had seven guys score 20 or more points in a game this season.”

Driscoll was part of a four-guard rotation with Karns City graduate Jeff Loughery, Bobby Farrington and Butler grad Ron Lenhart on BC3’s 1986-87 team under Dick Hartung.

He was good friends with Farrington, who Pioneer coach Dick Hartung was recruiting.

“Driscoll asked if he could join the team, too,” Hartung said. “To be honest, I didn’t like him at first. He was way too confident for me, almost cocky.

“But he’s a high-energy guy. He could live on four hours of sleep. I’ve never met anybody with more energy in my life.”

Hartung held youth basketball camps and had a BC3 player stationed at each of eight hoops in the gym.

“No one ran a better basket than Driscoll,” Hartung said. “He was amazing. He knew every one of his kids’ names. He taught them, coached them, pushed them.

“I’m not surprised he has a team in the NCAA Tournament. Not at all.”

Driscoll returned to BC3 to work as an assistant coach with Hartung at BC3 in 1990-91. It was there he met Mars graduate and eventual La Roche College coach Scott Lang.

“Scott played for us and he red-shirted that year,” Hartung recalled. “The two of them just connected that year. They became best of friends.”

Driscoll later coached at La Roche. Lang was best man at his wedding and was godfather of Driscoll’s son, Chase, a freshman guard on this year’s North Florida team.

Lang died of a heart attack at age 41 in 2010.

“He was my best friend. Without Scott Lang, honestly, I don’t know where I’d be right now,” Droscoll said.

And North Florida basketball doesn’t know where it would be right now without Driscoll.