Part of the fun of watching the NCAA tournament, whether as a participant, a reporter or a spectator, is getting to know players who aren’t ordinarily in the spotlight. Certainly, Bucknell is not accustom to the spotlight. But Matt O’Reilly might look familiar. That’s him at the top in a commercial you may have seen before.

“I ended up having an opportunity to be in a Dick’s Sporting Goods commercial that aired during the NCAA tournament and aired during all the college tournaments and the NBA finals, which was pretty cool,” O’Reilly said.

Today, the day the Bison, seeded No. 13 in the West region, play as significant underdogs against West Virginia, the No. 4 seed, O’Reilly is a sophomore reserve who averages 3.3 points in 10.9 minutes per game. He is, according to the online guide, “perhaps the team’s best pure outside shooter,” and he’s certainly taken that seriously this season. He’s 34-for-111 from 3-point range and 2-for-5 from 2-point range.

The Bison know their roles, and O’Reilly was fit for one when he was a junior at California’s Campolindo High.

Dick’s was working on an ad campaign — “Sports matter.” — and hopping around to high schools to find players suited for certain ideas.

One day, those folks were at a Campolindo practice.

“It was really random,” O’Reilly said.

But the unexpected was nothing new. In Campolindo’s prior game, O’Reilly’s side missed a buzzer-beater and lost to rival Miramonte.

“The other team and their fans stormed the court, and as a result, all these people were jumping all over everyone, and I guess some people started fighting in the middle of it,” O’Reilly said. “I ended up in the middle of two fans when I was on the court. Someone jumped on my back. It was an intense environment.”

O’Reilly came out of it with a black eye, and that ended up working out for him when Dick’s visited his school. The Dick’s reps interviewed some players, and O’Reilly looked like who they had in mind.

“They thought I had a little bit of an edge to me and my personality would fit well,” O’Reilly said. “They really didn’t know who I was, but once they figured out I was getting a full scholarship and they didn’t have to pay me, they thought it was a good idea.”

Some time later and after his black eye had gone away, O’Reilly was filming a commercial.

“It was complete acting, just not me,” he said. “They had me acting as a kid with a bad attitude who had issues on and off the court, but they were trying to present a message that it was more than just playing a game. It was about the game developing kids and helping kids.”