2008 Woodie Awards
"Destination Basketball" authors visit BG to share their journey with interested students, faculty
By: Chris Voloschuk
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Sports
Every success story needs some adversity thrown in before it can truly be appreciated. And in the case of "Destination Basketball" authors Dave Bensch and Andrew Hemminger, that adversity came in the form of none other than Bob Knight.
They were in the process of traveling and getting material for their book when they decided to drive 1,369 miles to Lubbock, Texas, to watch Kight's Texas Tech team play, and then hopefully set up an interview. Then the adversity kicked in.
The Red Raiders lost to UNLV, 74-66, denying Knight the chance to become college basketball's all-time wins leader with 880. When the two prospective authors waited the next day to sit down with Knight, they were told he was out hunting and not doing interviews. Their 22-hour trip was wasted.
"Overall, I'd say our record on coaches was 28-1," Bensch said.
Hemminger and Bensch are best friends and major college basketball fans from Oak Harbor, Ohio, who decided during the summer before their senior year of college to embark on a journey around the country to meet and interview 29 of the most famous coaches in the sport.
To accomplish their goal of writing a book about their experiences and interviews with the coaches, the pair had to take 23 trips and log over 27,000 miles. They contacted the coaches through cold e-mails and had to rely on the generosity of those working for the different schools to make it happen.
Outside of the experience with Knight, the travel, as well as the book, have been a success. Since its release, the authors have traveled the country doing signings, watching games courtside and talking with basketball fans. Their story has been told on the pages of The New York Times, USA Today and a host of other media outlets.
According to Hemminger, the journey has been non-stop.
"It's been a whirlwind, really," Hemminger said. "I've just had a really great time, and if I could do this forever I would."
The whirlwind finally rested last night in Room 202A of the Bowen-Thompson Student Union, where Hemminger - a 2007 BG graduate - and Bensch gave a presentation on their experience to students and faculty and sat in for a book signing.
"It's cool that [BG] wanted me to come back," Hemminger said. "I appreciate it … It's nice that they invited us back to speak."
During their presentation, they talked about what it was like to meet legends such as UCLA's John Wooden, North Carolina's Dean Smith and current coaches such as Kansas' Bill Self, who recently won a national championship. The overriding message of their speech was that no matter how lofty a goal may be, it's attainable.
"The biggest thing I learned from this experience was that if you put your mind to [something], you can get it done," Bensch said.
"The [experience] was something that was kind of like a dream," he said. "To have the opportunity to do that is definitely very, very rare and very special that we were able to do it."
They were in the process of traveling and getting material for their book when they decided to drive 1,369 miles to Lubbock, Texas, to watch Kight's Texas Tech team play, and then hopefully set up an interview. Then the adversity kicked in.
The Red Raiders lost to UNLV, 74-66, denying Knight the chance to become college basketball's all-time wins leader with 880. When the two prospective authors waited the next day to sit down with Knight, they were told he was out hunting and not doing interviews. Their 22-hour trip was wasted.
"Overall, I'd say our record on coaches was 28-1," Bensch said.
Hemminger and Bensch are best friends and major college basketball fans from Oak Harbor, Ohio, who decided during the summer before their senior year of college to embark on a journey around the country to meet and interview 29 of the most famous coaches in the sport.
To accomplish their goal of writing a book about their experiences and interviews with the coaches, the pair had to take 23 trips and log over 27,000 miles. They contacted the coaches through cold e-mails and had to rely on the generosity of those working for the different schools to make it happen.
Outside of the experience with Knight, the travel, as well as the book, have been a success. Since its release, the authors have traveled the country doing signings, watching games courtside and talking with basketball fans. Their story has been told on the pages of The New York Times, USA Today and a host of other media outlets.
According to Hemminger, the journey has been non-stop.
"It's been a whirlwind, really," Hemminger said. "I've just had a really great time, and if I could do this forever I would."
The whirlwind finally rested last night in Room 202A of the Bowen-Thompson Student Union, where Hemminger - a 2007 BG graduate - and Bensch gave a presentation on their experience to students and faculty and sat in for a book signing.
"It's cool that [BG] wanted me to come back," Hemminger said. "I appreciate it … It's nice that they invited us back to speak."
During their presentation, they talked about what it was like to meet legends such as UCLA's John Wooden, North Carolina's Dean Smith and current coaches such as Kansas' Bill Self, who recently won a national championship. The overriding message of their speech was that no matter how lofty a goal may be, it's attainable.
"The biggest thing I learned from this experience was that if you put your mind to [something], you can get it done," Bensch said.
"The [experience] was something that was kind of like a dream," he said. "To have the opportunity to do that is definitely very, very rare and very special that we were able to do it."
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