LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The old saying went like this: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. The Bellarmine men's basketball team took off for the basketball equivalent on Thursday, on its way to its first game as an NCAA Division I member against Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
How do you get there? That was on coach Scott Davenport's mind as the bus pulled out.
"It was a very emotional, reflective ride," Davenport said. "A lot of time to think."
In his leather "Louisville basketball" satchel were the usual documents -- Duke's statistics, his scouting report, notes he wanted to cover with his team. But there was another folder. In it was the scouting report from the last time Bellarmine went to Duke, invited to open the Blue Devils' exhibition season in October of 2011 after winning the NCAA Division II championship the previous spring.
How do you get to Cameron Indoor Stadium? You win a Division II championship. Or, you log countless miles in busses. You ride across the Midwest during snowstorms. You make hundreds of trips to the grocery the night before road trips to pick up snacks. You sweep the floor of your gymnasium a thousand times, clean off the backboards yourself.
You sustain excellence, year after year, until your university administration believes it can ride your credibility and the growth of the school to the NCAA Division I level.
When Bellarmine went to Duke in 2011, I tagged along. It was the only plane ride of the season for the players. It was an experience for them. We flew Southwest. Stayed in the La Quinta Inn in Durham. Ate at TGI Friday's in the Tampa Airport. Watched film of Duke at an empty airport gate when the flight to Raleigh was delayed.
While waiting at the gate, I noticed Davenport was reading Duke coach Mike Krzyzeweski's book. Having just watched the movie, "Patton" for maybe the 50th time, I tried to sell Davenport on the notion of, at some point if Bellarmine got the lead, shouting over at the Duke coach: "Krzyzewski you magnificent bastard, I read your book!" He never did.
Bellarmine was down 5 at half and battled away for much of the second before Duke pulled away. But the Knights got the full Cameron Crazies treatment. After the game Del Curry stopped in the Bellarmine locker room. Nolan Smith hopped onto the bus to talk with the team. North Carolina's Tyler Zeller came over to the hotel later to talk with some of Bellarmine's Indiana natives. On the way home, we saw Brian Brohm in an airport. When we deplaned in Louisville, Muhammad Ali was at the gate waiting for a flight out.
Things will be different for this Bellarmine team. They won't get to experience the Crazies at full force. But they will make their own memories. Some things change for the better. They aren't staying at the La Quinta. Last night, they were at the 21C in Downtown Durham. On Saturday morning, they'll bus to Washington D.C. for their game at Howard on Sunday, but before that they will practice in Cameron.
Bellarmine was supposed to open against UCLA in Pauley Pavilion. It was supposed to face No. 1 Gonzaga on the road. Then, of course, COVID changed everything. It'll still face those teams in upcoming years. It'll take its lumps, no doubt.
But this time when it walks into Cameron Indoor, it'll be part of the club. It may still be a world away, but things have changed. The games count.
Only Davenport knows how many miles it has come. On the plane ride in, he thought of Jim Spalding and Joe Reibel and Charlie Just. Bob Valvano, who coached the team for four years, interviewed Davenport not long before the trip.
In another interview, with Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated (and again, who ever imagined that Sports Illustrated would take interest in a Bellarmine season opener), Davenport said the same four words he's been saying for months. They are the four words he wants people in Louisville to remember.
It's the message of a kid who grew up in Louisville's South End, who got a job helping to deliver ice in Freedom Hall when he was 9 years old, who worked his way to all-district honors as a high school guard, who went to open gyms at Crawford Gym and wound up playing against the faculty. All those years. All those miles on the bus.
"All the years in that gym," he said. "And now look where we're going."
On the bus, the words came to mind, and a million memories, and has happened more than once in the past few days, a few tears.
"It can be done," Davenport said.
And tonight, COVID and the good Lord willing, it will be done. And a new chapter will begin.
(The 7 p.m. game will be broadcast by RSN/ACCN Extra.)
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