LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The day Mike Krzyzewski sent Scott Davenport a promotional video to go with his schedule announcement that his Bellarmine basketball team would be playing at Duke in its inaugural NCAA Division I season, Davenport sat in his office in Knights Hall, all alone, and cried. I talked to him later that afternoon.
Emotions can run high during all this COVID-19 mess. Bellarmine made the NCAA Division II Tournament last season but didn’t get to play. It is beginning its first season in Division I this November, and nobody has any idea whether the games will happen as scheduled.
But Davenport will tell you, “Any excuse you have right now to be happy, to have good news, you need to take it.”
That’s why he announced Bellarmine’s first-ever Division I men’s basketball schedule Tuesday, including a Nov. 10 regular-season opener at UCLA, the first of two visits to some of the most-storied venues in college basketball. The other is a week later, on Nov. 17 at Duke.
The UCLA game already is a postponement, at best, with the Pac-12 halting all athletics until at least Jan. 1. And nobody knows what will happen with college basketball.
But seeing the original schedule is important, because it shows that Davenport is thinking big. The slate also includes games at Mississippi State (Nov. 20) and at Gonzaga (Dec. 21).
Relationships don’t hurt. Davenport and UCLA coach Mick Cronin, who worked with Davenport at Louisville, are longtime friends. Cronin, in a video sent to the school, said, “Hopefully we get (Bellarmine) to Pauly Pavilion sooner rather than later, and we’re excited to have the Bellarmine Knights on our schedule, here in Los Angeles. What an exciting time in Louisville for what is happening with Bellarmine. I know about your history and your tradition and what a great university that you have and your connection to my hometown of Cincinnati and the many great players coach Davenport has brought from that area to Bellarmine. I'm always rooting for the Knights and want to say congratulations ... and I appreciate Coach Davenport for including me in this day.”
Former Blue Devil Nolan Smith, the son of Derek Smith, and a friend of Davenport and his son, Russ, helped with the Duke game.
“When you think about college basketball, you think about tradition,” Krzyzewski said in a video he recorded for the announcement. “You think about programs that not only have done it one year but have done it many years. And that's why it's a program. And the Bellarmine program has been one of the very, very best. ... What an exciting brand of basketball. Championship level. We have had the honor of playing against Bellarmine before they went to Division I. It was a heck of a game, well-coached, Scott, unbelievable, the job you're doing with them. To bring that level of basketball now to Division I will make Division I better. I want to congratulate you on an amazing job that you've done, and on taking that step, because you want to show what you can do at the highest level of college basketball.”
Davenport remembers well when that video came on a Friday afternoon.
“There couldn’t have been four people on this campus,” Davenport said. “One facilities worker, one security gentleman out making rounds and one person answering the phones. And I got that video, sitting in that office, and you coached your whole life, and that’s Mike Krzyzewski, and I cried for 30 minutes. When I sent the players the video at 9 that night, they went crazy. Their response makes it all worthwhile.”
It’s not hard to hear in Davenport’s voice how much he’s hoping that these games can be played but how uncertain he is about them. On Monday, he took his players to Louisville Slugger Field for an hour of batting practice.
Sitting by a dugout watching them hit, he wondered if some of the big-time Louisville teams he was a part of would’ve had the same level of appreciation. They’d have had fun with it, but they probably wouldn’t file it away as something they’d always remember.
“For these guys, everything means a lot,” Davenport said. “They really appreciate this. They appreciate the new locker room that Dr. Mark Lynn has done for us. They take care of it. We went out and got them some drinks at Kroger and just a few little snacks, peanut butter, whatever, and you’d have thought we brought in Ruth’s Chris. That makes it fun.”
Davenport said Gonzaga’s presence on the schedule also has significance, beyond the Zags being a Top-10 team.
“They’re one of the great programs in the country, along with UCLA, along with Duke,” Davenport said. “But in basketball circles, you go back 20, 25 years ago, who was Gonzaga? They were Bellarmine. So now you’re playing one of the preseason Top-10 teams in the country. And they have built their program and their brand through basketball.”
Bellarmine’s Atlantic Sun debut comes on Jan. 4 when the Liberty Flames visit Knights Hall. Liberty is the two-time defending ASUN champion and went 30-4 in 2019-20.
The Knights only exhibition game — against Kentucky State — also is under review. Bellarmine was the first college basketball program in the state to integrate, in the 1950-51 season, and Davenport is hoping to honor alumni from both programs before the game.
Of course, the schedule also is notable for who is not on it. The University of Louisville would not schedule Bellarmine this season, while the University of Kentucky was open to scheduling a game, but the schools couldn’t work out a date.
“We’ve tried,” Davenport said. “Obviously, we would (play). It’s the greatest college basketball community in the world right here. You know, DeWayne Peevy – and I wish him the best (as new athletic director at DePaul) was incredible. Jimmy Dan Connor, one of the all-time UK greats, helped us immensely. We were very far along, and then their game with Michigan got moved from London to Ann Arbor, and the dates fluctuated. The Louisville game speaks for itself on three levels. One, it means the world to our players. Why? It’s a chance to play in arguably the best college basketball arena in the country against a top program. That would mean a lot to any player. It means a lot to our school, to our alumni, our fans. And to the community? Absolutely. This community — nothing unites communities like sports. Everybody in this room has been to some athletic event, and at some point, you have high-fived a total stranger. That’s what sports does. So I’m all for those games, and we will exhaust ourselves trying to make those things happen.”
Davenport, a native of Louisville, graduated from U of L and later was an assistant to both Denny Crum and Rick Pitino.
“My relationship with U of L has been well-documented,” he said. “I have two degrees from there. Some of my greatest friends in the world have and currently still work at the University of Louisville. I spent 11 of the greatest years of my life as an assistant coach years. But it will always be about our players and our school, and (playing Louisville) would be great for both.”
Regardless, there are enough highlights on the Game 1 schedule to keep things exciting for the players. And the schedule, of course, is subject to change. The schedule released Tuesday still has one spot Davenport is hoping to fill with a Power 5 opponent.
“I know Dan Gavitt released a statement yesterday where they’re going to update everyone mid-September,” Davenport said. “... We’ll keep going, but we have worked it relentlessly.”
Getting games isn’t easy when you took Louisville to the final minutes a year ago. But Davenport found enough.
Copyright 2020 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
