CJ Fleming

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Someday, a group of Bellarmine players will gather after the NCAA Tournament championship game, settle in for the "One Shining Moment" video, and wait to see themselves.

That won't happen this year. The Knights' aren't eligible for NCAA Tournament play because of reclassification rules, even if the second-year NCAA Division I program does beat Jacksonville in Tuesday's ASUN Tournament championship in Freedom Hall.

But that doesn't mean this team hasn't experienced some shining moments. And more than one of them. This group of players has done the heaviest kind of lifting, maintaining a prideful program's championship profile despite stepping up from Division II.

Bellarmine played for championships in Division II, and won them. It is playing for championships now. It did a year ago, when it met Liberty in Freedom Hall, with a chance to win the ASUN regular-season title. It will again on Tuesday.

"Our expectations never changed," Davenport said. "Nobody ever sat down and told these guys, all right we're Division I now, we're going to be satisfied with less. We step on the court to win. That's what they work and prepare for every day."

Bellarmine faced five Top 25 teams to start the season – Purdue, Saint Mary's, Gonzaga, Murray State and UCLA. Shining moment. It lost by 9 at Saint Mary's. Gonzaga lost there by 10. Before returning home from a western road swing, it beat Central Michigan in Las Vegas.

With a dazzling display of ambidexterity, Dylan Penn made 8 shots with his left hand and 9 with his right – or was it 9 with his left and 8 with his right? – either way, he scored 38 points in a win over Central Arkansas in January in Freedom Hall. Shining moment.

The Knights handed Liberty its first-ever loss in an ASUN Tournament game, at Liberty, on Saturday night. Shining moment. Then they huddled on the bus, refusing even to change seats, as they watched the second ASUN semifinal wind down, the destination of their bus hanging in the balance.

Scott Davenport

Bellarmine's Scott Davenport shouts to an official in the team's game against Florida Gulf Coast in an ASUN quarterfinal game in Freedom Hall.

Davenport has already told that story a lot of times. What you may not know is that, after taking Penn with him to do postgame interviews, the two walked up the long hallway at Liberty to the locker room, with Davenport lagging behind, watching him.

"I think it was the happiest I've ever seen him," Davenport said.

Penn got into the locker room and, unlike most of his teammates, took a quick shower. Davenport got there and found all the team still there. "Is something wrong with the bus?" he asked them. No. Nothing wrong. They were just waiting for their teammate.

By this point in the season, a lot of teams can't wait to get away from each other – especially if there's no NCAA Tournament around the corner. This team doesn’t want to leave.

Shining moment.

Davenport has a whole bunch of them.

Thursday's game promises to be a close one. The teams played to a 3-point overtime decision in Freedom Hall earlier this year. Jacksonville will not beat itself, and will not give up anything cheap on defense. It's playing for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Davenport expects a battle.

But his team is playing for its own shining moment. Another one. He thought about that scene in the locker room Saturday night and smiled.

"When they're 40, that's what they're going to remember," Davenport said. "Not whether they made a shot or missed a shot. It's going to be that locker room and time on that bus."

And maybe it'll be whatever happens Tuesday. Bellarmine is hoping for a large crowd. Parking is free. Admission is $15. In a video asking fans to come, the Knights had everybody from Jay Bilas to Mayor Greg Fischer to Louisville women's coach Jeff Walz put out the call. And there was a video from the players, after getting off the bus in the hotel lobby in Lynchburg, Va., on Saturday night, thanking fans for their support, and asking them to come out to see them play.

The city is watching. Churchill Downs even lit up its iconic Twin Spires in maroon to celebrate the team. Davenport grew up a mile away from there, in Louisville's south end. He probably never thought those spires would light up to honor something he was a part of. Shining moment.

The ringtone on Davenport's phone is "One Shining Moment." But he doesn't have to get a phone call to know that this group of players has already given him many of them.

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