The Bellarmine University men’s basketball team will make its Division I debut against one of the most storied programs in one of the most venerable venues in all of college basketball.
At 7 p.m. (ET) Friday, the Knights will open their 2020-21 season by facing No. 6 Duke (1-1) in Cameron Indoor Stadium in the Mako Medical Duke Classic. Due to the pandemic forcing the postponement of fall sports, the game will represent the first for Bellarmine in any sport this season and marks the first as a Division I member for any Knights team with the exception of lacrosse, which until this year had been BU’s lone DI squad.
A contest in Cameron Indoor Stadium is actually not foreign territory for Coach Scott Davenport and the program. At the beginning of the 2011-12 season, Bellarmine, which was the defending NCAA II national champion, squared off with Duke in an exhibition game. The Knights kept things close in the first half and trailed only 38-33 at halftime before the Blue Devils commanded the second stanza in an 87-62 victory.
Other than Bellarmine rising to DI, not a lot has changed since the Knights last stepped foot in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Under Davenport, Bellarmine followed its national title with three additional runs to the Final Four. The Knights exited DII backed by 12 consecutive 20-win seasons and 12 straight NCAA II Tournament invitations.
Led by Naismith Hall of Fame Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who’s now in his 41st season at Duke, the Blue Devils have remained a national power. Just like in that exhibition nine seasons ago, Duke will carry a No. 6 ranking into its meeting with Bellarmine. The Blue Devils have been ranked in 85 consecutive polls.
Under Krzyzewski, Duke has captured five national titles, with the most recent coming in 2015. The Blue Devils have also piled up 15 ACC Tournament championships and 12 ACC regular-season titles during his reign. Also in his tenure, Duke has produced 67 NBA Draft selections, including 41 first-round picks and 28 lottery picks.
Duke is 1-1 after opening the season Saturday with an 81-71 win over Coppin State before falling 75-69 to No. 8 Michigan State in the State Farm Champions Classic on Tuesday. Bellarmine is the third of six straight home games for the Blue Devils. Matthew Hurt posted game highs of 21 points and 13 rebounds for Duke against Michigan State, while Jalen Johnson and Jaemyn Brakefield added 11 points apiece.
Johnson earned the first ACC Freshman of the Week accolade of the season for his efforts in Duke’s win over Coppin State. Johnson amassed 19 points, 19 rebounds, five assists and four blocks in 35 minutes while going 8 for 8 from the field.
BELLARMINE SEASON OUTLOOK
Davenport built Bellarmine into a DII powerhouse, and now the Knights coach will shepherd the program into a new era in which it will look to make a name for itself at the highest NCAA level. Bellarmine is embarking on its first-ever season in DI after the Knights joined the ASUN Conference.
In its final season in DII, Bellarmine went 20-8 – its 12th consecutive campaign with at least 20 wins – and earned its 12th consecutive NCAA II Tournament berth – the longest active streak in DII – before the event was canceled due to the pandemic. The Knights were ranked in the top 5 in the NABC poll for 12 weeks, including five at No. 1. In a sense, Bellarmine’s still-commendable record was nevertheless misleading: Seven of the team’s eight losses were by five points or less, with four straight of those setbacks coming when the opposing team hit a go-ahead 3-pointer in the final seconds.
Bellarmine did lose four seniors from the 2019-20 squad, including 1,000-point club members and All-GLVC honorees Alex Cook and Ben Weyer along with two-time GLVC All-Defensive Team recipient Parker Chitty. The Knights enter DI with their youngest team in quite some time. Guard CJ Fleming and forward Ethan Claycomb are the Knights’ lone seniors, its fewest amount since the 2012-13 squad carried just two.
Fleming is the team’s second-leading returning scorer after averaging 9.6 points per game last season. He’s the leading returning 3-point shooter after sinking 54 shots from long range. Claycomb was a key reserve who scored in double figures three times in five games in one late-season stretch.
Dylan Penn may be Bellarmine’s most heralded returner. The junior guard was cited by Lindy’s Sports as a preseason second-team All-ASUN member. Penn is the Knights’ leading returning scorer after averaging 11.6 points per game last season. He paced Bellarmine in assists (2.7) and was the leading shooter (55.2) among Knights with at least 100 attempts from the floor.
Bellarmine boasts three returning starters. In addition to Fleming and Penn, Pedro Bradshaw is the third. The junior guard was an impactful player after transferring from Eastern Kentucky. He averaged 9.2 points and 5.3 rebounds while being a highly efficient shooter at 54.5 percent from the floor, 42.1 percent from 3-point land and 80 percent from the charity stripe.
Redshirt junior guard Juston Betz was a regular off the bench for Bellarmine last season, appearing in 26 games. Sophomore guard Alec Pfriem showed promise after shooting 64.7 percent from the floor in 14 appearances, including a 7-for-7, 16-point outing against the GLVC’s perennially strong Drury.
Also returning are: redshirt sophomores Garrett Tipton, a guard, and Baylor Younker, a center; sophomores Bash Wieland, a guard, and Nick Thelen, a forward; and redshirt freshman guard Drew Comer.
Bellarmine’s new arrivals include sophomore forward Sam DeVault, a transfer from Austin Peay and former high school teammate of Penn, along with true freshmen Zac Jennings, Hunter Brogan and Eli Roberts. Jennings and Brogan are guards while Roberts is a forward.
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