Bellarmine men’s basketball wants to play the best teams. Up next? The Kentucky Wildcats.

Scott Davenport had the remarkable stat on hand, and was ready to share it at the earliest opportunity possible.

According to the Bellarmine men’s basketball head coach, only four schools in the history of college basketball have played as road teams in each of the sport’s following historic venues: Cameron Indoor Stadium (Duke), Pauley Pavilion (UCLA) and Rupp Arena (Kentucky).

The schools: Louisville, North Carolina, St. John’s and Notre Dame.

The shortest time span to complete a trio of road games at those college hoops meccas? From December of one year to November of the following year.

Specifically, 333 days, according to Davenport.

That is, until Tuesday night, when Davenport (a Louisville native and U of L alumnus) and his Louisville-based Bellarmine Knights program will conclude a jam-packed nine-day stretch of playing games at Duke, UCLA and finally UK.

There was even a game at Loyola Marymount included in between the Duke and UCLA contests for good measure.

“When you go into the weight room at 6:30 in the morning on June 5th and you’re looking at Kentucky, UCLA and Duke in November, it’s pretty easy to get in that weight room,” Davenport told the Herald-Leader. “You’re probably going to start that lift at 6:05 instead of 6:30.”

Tuesday’s game between the Knights and Wildcats in Lexington will be the first time the programs meet on the hardwood, and it will exemplify just how high a profile Bellarmine (2-5) has attained in a short span of time relative to other commonwealth schools.

Bellarmine played its first men’s basketball game in 1950, but the Knights truly began to excel over the last two decades.

As an NCAA Division II school, Bellarmine made 11 straight postseason trips from 2009 to 2019, including four Final Four appearances. The Knights won the 2011 NCAA Division II men’s basketball championship as a one-seed.

Starting with the 2020-21 season, Bellarmine moved up to Division I status in the ASUN Conference, a move that came with a four-year transition period that means the Knights can compete for conference titles, but can’t qualify for NCAA postseason play.

Bellarmine is now in the third year of the four-year transition period.

This fact gained national attention last season after Bellarmine won the ASUN Tournament in just its second season at the Division I level, a triumph that came without the added bonus of an NCAA Tournament trip (Jacksonville State, the ASUN regular-season champion, got the automatic bid instead).

“What I see these young men do in a classroom, in the community, on a court, gives me incredible confidence that we as a society, we’re going to be OK,” Davenport said.

That event — along with a YouTube video breaking down Bellarmine’s distinct offensive style that has nearly 2 million views — was probably the main source of Bellarmine basketball knowledge for most people entering this season.

Then, the Knights recorded a 67-66 season-opening win at city rival Louisville, a noteworthy upset in Kenny Payne’s first regular-season game as U of L head coach.

While results have varied since then — Bellarmine immediately followed that historic win with a loss at Morehead State — the Knights have acquitted themselves well against their power conference opponents this season.

In addition to defeating the Cardinals, the Knights have lost by 10 at Clemson, by 17 at Duke and by 21 at UCLA.

According to the game-time odds listed by Caesars Sportsbook, Bellarmine has covered the spread each time.

“People brag about our offense, our passing ... everything we do is about team,” Davenport said.

Kentucky the latest elite team to play Bellarmine

Since the transition to Division I status began with the 2020-21 season, plenty of elite college basketball programs have been on Bellarmine’s schedule.

The Knights’ first-ever game as a Division I team was at Duke during a COVID-impacted season. Since that debut, Bellarmine has also faced the likes of Notre Dame, Purdue, Gonzaga, UCLA, West Virginia, Louisville, Clemson, Duke (again), UCLA (again) and now Kentucky.

According to last season’s final NCAA NET ratings, Bellarmine played the nation’s second-toughest non-conference schedule.

Davenport said Bellarmine assistant coach Beau Braden — who oversees the Knights’ non-conference schedule — deserves “every accolade imaginable” for how he’s put the schedule together.

“It’s like ‘We get to be able to do this,’” redshirt freshman guard and Lexington native Ben Johnson said. “It’s like three of the most iconic basketball stadiums in the country. To be able to go around and play all three of those teams, and especially for me to go back to Lexington and play in front of my hometown and everything... We’re just always motivated, always excited for the challenge and just want to get better.”

Are Johnson and his teammates able to properly take in the impressive road environments they often find themselves playing in?

“In warmups a little bit you can kind of take it in, but when the tip happens you’re just so locked in that you don’t even really know what’s going on,” Johnson said. “Afterwards, when you’re on the bus or taking a shower after the game you’re like ‘Dang man, we just played at Cameron (Indoor Stadium). That was awesome.’ And then you kind of reminisce about what happened.”

Earlier this year during the Greater Louisville UK Alumni Club Tipoff Luncheon at Churchill Downs in Louisville, UK head coach John Calipari joked about being implored by his fellow churchgoers to schedule Bellarmine for a game.

Davenport has joked that he planted those people at Calipari’s church to make sure an on-court meeting between Kentucky and Bellarmine (a private, Catholic university) became reality.

“My respect for Coach Calipari goes way back. This respect didn’t just occur in the last two years,” said Davenport, who coached against Calipari when Calipari was the head coach at Memphis and Davenport was an assistant coach at Louisville.

“The scheduling of these games are done through relationships, and it’s us exhausting everything we can do for our university, our players and our community. ... College sports can unite people in the state of Kentucky better than anything. If it’s a tornado, if it’s floods, we’ve seen it over and over and over.”

What does Davenport want to see from his team against its latest marquee non-conference opponent?

“To compete every possession,” Davenport said. “I thought at Duke we competed every possession. (At) Clemson we competed every possession.”

When speaking to reporters on Monday morning, Bruiser Flint — Kentucky’s associate to the head coach — spoke about the defensive discipline the Wildcats will need to show against the Knights, who currently rank No. 352 in the country (out of 363 Division I teams) in adjusted tempo, according to KenPom.

On offense, Bellarmine is 358th in the nation in average possession length, also per KenPom (Kentucky ranks 14th).

In short, this means Bellarmine plays slowly and methodically when it has the ball, while Kentucky trends in the other direction.

“I don’t want to say they hold the ball, but they’re going to work the shot clock,” Flint said. “Our discipline on defense, our communication on defense is going to be important, just because of the type of offense that they run.”

The Knights could be playing the Wildcats while shorthanded, though.

Starting graduate student guard Juston Betz didn’t play in Sunday’s loss at UCLA, despite starting Bellarmine’s previous six games this season.

Additionally, junior guard Zac Jennings and senior forward Nick Thelen were also injured in practice before the UCLA contest.

All three injuries to Betz (knee to the labrum), Jennings (dislocated shoulder) and Thelen (knee injury) occurred during a 10-minute stretch of Bellarmine’s practice Saturday.

“These kids, they are resilient, they’re tough, they understand challenges,” Davenport said. “What they’ve done in transitioning in two years from Division II to Division I speaks volumes for these young men.”

Tuesday

Bellarmine at No. 19 Kentucky

When: 7 p.m.

TV: SEC Network Plus (online only)

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Bellarmine 2-5, Kentucky 4-2

Series: First meeting