LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – At least until this COVID-crazy season, home-court advantage was crucial in college basketball. But it has been tougher to attain in 2021 with fan capacity severely restricted at most venues.
The dynamic was even tougher for Bellarmine University. In its first year as an NCAA Division I program, the Knights had to get used to not only new competition, but a new home court. Freedom Hall is the future of this program. But playing in the cavernous old arena with fan capacity restricted to below 3,000 has taken some getting used to.
When Bellarmine pays host to Liberty on Saturday with the ASUN Conference regular-season championship on the line and ESPNU broadcasting, it will be the culmination of a triumphant first year in bringing Freedom Hall back to life. But it hasn't been easy.
The school announced the move just before the start of the regular season, and Kentucky Exposition Center staff went to work quickly to make it come to life for basketball after not being host to a regular basketball tenant in a decade.
Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport on the sidelines at Freedom hall.
Program supporters Tom Perrone and Will Wolford transformed Freedom Hall’s locker room into a Bellarmine locker room. Of course, back on campus, Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn had renovated the program’s home locker room, which has become a haven for players during the pandemic.
Bellarmine needed a court renovation. One day Lynn and Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport were talking about what businesses had done well during the pandemic. That resulted in Davenport wandering into the Home Depot where he shops, asking for a manager and explaining his idea. He left with the name of a regional official, and she provided the name of the person nationally he needed to talk to – Tim Hourigan, executive vice-president of Home Depot. Louisville native. Graduate of Trinity. Former basketball official who had worked Davenport’s games when he was coach at Ballard. And a graduate of (wait for it) Bellarmine.
That’s how Home Depot sponsored construction of the court the Knights play on.
“It took so many people,” Davenport said. “Inside our university, in our program, supporters of our program.”
But it took history to make Freedom Hall a home for the Knights. The Knights got off to a rocky start. They lost their Freedom Hall debut to Chattanooga. They dropped both games of their first ASUN Conference weekend series.
“It was a change, that’s for sure,” senior guard Pedro Bradshaw said. “We’re definitely getting used to it. . . . It helps with fans, definitely, we need everybody we can get.”
Freedom Hall couldn’t be more different from Knights Hall, the program’s previous home. Knights Hall seats 2,600. Freedom Hall holds 18,749. Bellarmine still holds a good many practices at Knights Hall, though they can generally get into Freedom Hall whenever they want.
A change came on the night of Saturday, Jan. 23. The Knights trailed Stetson by 20 in the second half, but stormed back to win behind 84% second-half shooting, missing only four shots after halftime.
In a building full of history, Bellarmine had started creating some of its own.
“There’s no question about it. They love it now,” Davenport said. “They do. They really embrace playing here. Crowds have gotten more into it. I wish our players could go thank them, but I can’t do it. On behalf of us, it’s appreciated. They just call it ‘the Hall’ now.”
On Saturday at noon, the Knights will get a chance to make some more history. In their first year in Division I, they’ll face Liberty, with the winner to take the outright ASUN regular-season championship.
Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport talks to his team during its first NCAA Division I game in Freedom Hall.
It really is remarkable for a first-year program to have that opportunity. But the game also will be an opportunity for Bellarmine to thank those fans who have come out to games.
Parking for the game is free. And the program will have other thank-yous for those fans who come during the course of the game.
The biggest, of course, would be a conference championship. The Knights will get up early, have a pregame meal at Audubon Country Club, walk a few holes on the course to get themselves loose, then head back to the arena where so many historic things have happened.
Davenport assigned each player a different part of the arena’s history to learn and report back to the team on before the season. Few thought then that they could do something historic themselves in the final game of their inaugural Division I season.
“It may be the biggest home game in our history,” Davenport said.
ESPNU will broadcast the game. It is in 81 million homes. Bellarmine is barred by NCAA reclassification rules from playing in the NCAA Tournament, though it may still play in the NIT or any other postseason tournament, including next week’s ASUN Tournament in Jacksonville.
Earlier this week, Davenport was running in Freedom Hall when he was told by one of the workers there that early on, Muhammad Ali did some road work in the winter by running in Freedom Hall, taking on its steps floor to ceiling before the building’s renovation.
It hasn’t taken Bellarmine long to embrace that history. On Saturday, the Knights hope to add to it.
It’s the kind of thing that makes a hall a home.
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