A new era will dawn at Bellarmine as one of the greatest basketball names in the city of Louisville is calling it a career. Scott Davenport is set to retire after twenty seasons as the head coach of the Knights, guiding the program to significant success prior to their recent transition to D1 athletics.
Born in Louisville, Davenport graduated from and was briefly a grad assistant for the Cardinals back in the mid-80’s. After a brief stint at VCU, Davenport would spend the rest of his career back in his home city, beginning with a decade long stint at the high school level. Davenport then spent nine seasons as an assistant at Louisville, serving under both Denny Crum and Rick Pitino, while helping the Cardinals to the Final Four in his final season.
Bellarmine head coach Scott Davenport will retire, source told @TheFieldOf68.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 10, 2025
Scott’s son, Doug, is expected to take over for his father as part of an agreement that was in place for the last couple years.
Scott Davenport won 423 games at Bellarmine over the last 20 seasons -…
Bellarmine hired Davenport back in 2005, then members of the GLVC at the D2 level. He spent his first few seasons building a foundation before turning the Knights into a stellar program. His Bellarmine squad won the D2 national title in 2011 and advanced to three more D2 Final Fours over the next six years. He actually led the program to eleven straight trips to that postseason event.
In 2020, Bellarmine transitioned to D1 and joined the ASUN and things just weren’t the same. The Knights finished 2nd in the league in each of their first two seasons, but Davenport’s two final seasons weren’t great. The Knights finished this past season just 5-26 and in last place in the league for a second straight year.
Regardless of that lame finish, Davenport is an icon of basketball in Louisville, having worked in the city for four decades. The expectation is that his son Doug will succeed him as head coach of the Knights, with plenty of work to do to build a competitive program at this level. Interestingly enough, Doug was a staffer at Louisville back in 2013 when they won the national championship and just might have an even taller task ahead of him to make major strides at Bellarmine.