LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The life of a college basketball manager is selfless.
"Whatever a player or staff member needs, we're there to do it for them," Bellarmine University men's basketball manager Sheldan Christmas said. "So that could be doing laundry or filling up water bottles. If we have practice, we'll get here an hour or so early."
But as they clean floors, set clocks and run errands, they still find time to get their own games in.
The Bellarmine managers participate in the Manager Games, a national competition where managers from opposing teams will play exhibition games against each other.
Bellarmine found out about them when Louisville invited the Knights to play last season.
"We had no idea what we're getting ourselves into," Bellarmine manager Tristan Beckmann said. "We go down to Louisville's practice facility and we won. And we were like 'Wow, that was pretty fun.'"
The competition is meant to be fun, but can get intense. Managers will try to play one another the day before their actual teams play. The hosting school often helps or takes care of the visiting managers with facilities and transportation.
"It really brought awareness to how close it is and how helpful others are," Christmas said.
But it's the support from around and outside the program that really counts this time of year. While on-court performance can help your end-of-the-year tournament seeding, Twitter poll voting often determines who advances in the actual tournament.
Bellarmine fell a round short of the Final Four a year ago.
"We knew that this year, we were going to go and take it seriously," Beckmann said. "So, we practiced all summer. After the stuff was done at the gym, we would stay and shoot."
That helped the Knights reach a record of 6-0 and national ranking of fourth. Then, in the postseason, those they've helped pitched in with support on social media.
Bellarmine coaches and players would spread the word to vote for the managers to advance. Even some from other schools, like Louisville legends Peyton Siva and Luke Hancock, helped with exposure too.
"Growing up as kids, you watch the Final Four and you're like, 'Holy crap, I want to be there one day,'" Christmas said.
With all of that help, Bellarmine earned the chance to go to the Final Four.
"It's unbelievable," Beckmann said. "And we beat two Power Five schools to get there."
Now, they're trying to raise money for lodging and flights to make the trip to Houston. The Bellarmine managers have a GoFundMe with a goal of $10,000, with many of the program's coaches and their families already pitching in to help.
"I think it's different here," Bellarmine manager Bryce Hutchins said. "I don't know if there's any managers in the country that get more support from their players or staff."
Christmas said they spent so much time with Bellarmine and practices that "now it's kind of cool that, okay, we're the ones who get to play now."
If in Houston from March 31 to April 3, you can watch Bellarmine play at the Final Four Fan Fest.
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