by John Spugnardi

Although 2025-26 was Doug Davenport’s first year as head coach, Bellarmine basketball has coursed through his veins for two decades. He spent four years playing for the Knights from 2006 to 2010, earning academic all-conference accolades every year, and served on his father
Scott Davenport’s staff as an assistant coach for nine years before taking the reins of the program.

Now, as head coach, Doug, a 2010 graduate, is showing that the program is in very good hands after leading the Knights to a positive 2025-26 campaign that included an ASUN tourney win over Jacksonville while compiling an overall record of 13-19, an increase of eight “W”s over the previous year. The team also showed flashes of brilliance by beating Austin Peay and Central Missouri (the Co-ASUN regular season champs), as well as downing Queens (the eventual ASUN Tournament winner).

“It’s always hard following the most successful coach in the history of a school — any school — and it’s even harder when you share a last name,” Doug said of replacing his father. Despite the challenge, he said the 2025-26 season is something the Knights can build on.

“We certainly didn’t accomplish what we wanted to this season,” he said, “but getting a win in the ASUN tournament, beating all four teams that made the ASUN semifinals, and playing meaningful games in February and March certainly felt like a small step in the right
direction.”

To Knights fans, the wins and losses don’t tell the whole story for the 2026 team. The Knights were competitive in nearly every contest, and the brand of hoops the scarlet and silver faithful call “Bellarmine Basketball” is alive and well.

“We talked to the guys in June: before we could worry about winning games, the first goal was to make sure we are a team and program that our alumni and supporters could be proud of,” Doug said. “That’s a vague way of saying we wanted the guys to take ownership in the program and be great teammates. I hope we did that.”

A favorite quote of his father’s during his tenure was “the numbers don’t lie,” and using that logic, fans can look at the Knights’ 2026 statistics to prove that the team bought into Doug’s June plea. Bellarmine Basketball is known for its unselfish play and offensive efficiency, notably a strong field-goal percentage, and in that regard, the 2025-26 Knights shined brightly, ranking second in the nation at 52.1%. Other top numbers from the past season included ranking fifth in Division I in free-throw percentage (79.2%) and 16th in 3-point percentage (38.2%).

While the team’s current brand will be around for some time, it’s noteworthy that it has been molded beyond people named Davenport. Following his playing days at Bellarmine, Doug earned his master’s degree at Xavier while a graduate assistant on Coach Chris Mack’s staff, which included assistant coaches Pat Kelsey and Travis Steele, the current head coaches at Louisville and Miami-Ohio.

Following his Xavier experience, Doug joined Rick Pitino at the University of Louisville from 2012 to 2015. During that span, the Cardinals won the 2013 national title and reached an Elite 8 and a Sweet 16. Before returning to Bellarmine for the 2016-17 season, Doug served a year at Eastern Kentucky under head coach Dan McHale.

His own Bellarmine playing pedigree includes being on the school’s first Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament Championship team (2010), as well as ending an 18-year NCAA Tournament drought while kicking off a streak of making the championship field for 12 consecutive years.

As a Bellarmine assistant coach, Doug helped close the team’s Division II era as one of the most dominant teams in the country. Among the achievements were three straight GLVC Tournament championships and a Final Four appearance in 2017.

Doug also helped Bellarmine transition to Division I in impressive fashion. In the 2020-21 season, the Knights sported a 14-8 record overall and earned an invitation to a national postseason tournament (CBI) while falling just one game shy of winning the ASUN Conference regular season title. The next year, Bellarmine posted its first 20-win season at the D1 level and won the ASUN Conference Tournament Championship, which set off a national debate about tournament eligibility. (Because Bellarmine was officially still in the “transition” to D1, the Knights were ruled ineligible to use the ASUN’s automatic bid to compete in the NCAA Championship.)

Beyond basketball, Bellarmine has been a huge part of Doug Davenport’s family life. In addition to the role his father played, Doug’s brother Russ and his sister-in-law, Ashley (Heck), are also alumni. And perhaps most important is the fact that Bellarmine is responsible for Doug meeting his wife, Alex (Stanley), who worked as an Athletics intern while pursuing a master’s degree at UofL. Doug and Alex’s courtship ultimately culminated where it began, when Doug made his marriage proposal to her on the Knights Hall basketball court, at the very spot where they met.

With his deep basketball and personal roots at Bellarmine, Knights fans hope that Doug continues to add to the Davenport lore at his alma mater for a long tim