ESPN had hoped an exhibition basketball game it was planning to promote a book written about former Lipscomb basketball coach Don Meyer by one of the network’s reporters would be played at Allen Arena.
But, because the Bisons had other commitments — including a game against Stillman College and a trip to the “Dean Dome” to play North Carolina — during the same time period, the inaugural Don Meyer Classic is going to be played at the Curb Event Center and feature Lipscomb’s rivals, Belmont University.
The plan, as put forward by the author, ESPN baseball analyst Buster Olney — who covered Lipscomb and Belmont during his stint at the Nashville Banner — was to have the classic pit two of Meyer’s former basketball teams — LU and Northern State in Aberdeen, S.D. — against each other.
The game is to be played on Nov. 9, the date the book, How Lucky You Can Be: The Story of Coach Don Meyer , is to be published by ESPN Books.
For last few years, Olney has been working on the book about Meyer’s life. Meyer received the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the 2009 ESPYs for his courage after cancer was discovered in his body during surgery to remove a leg after he was in a near-fatal car wreck in 2008.
His will to win on and off the court is chronicled in the book about the coach who has victories by any men’s coach in NCAA basketball history.
He is also known for his influential coaching style and his five C’s to a successful team: Concentration, Courtesy, Communication, Competition and Consistency.
It was a matter of logistics and the determination to fulfill a previous commitment that had Lipscomb rejecting the game against Northern State, that will be broadcast on ESPNU.
And besides that, there really wasn’t much time given Lipscomb by ESPN to prepare for this endeavor.
“About six to eight weeks ago I was contacted by Buster, who said he was in a production meeting, and the idea of a game came up to promote his book,” said Lipscomb Athletic Director Phillip Hutchison. “He informed me that there were certain dates that would work for a game against Northern State.”
Hutchison was thrilled to hear that Meyer wanted to come back to Allen Arena. However, the list of possible dates was very short.
“One of those dates was on the same day as our game versus Stillman College,” Hutchison said. “We were already under contract for that game, and did not want to break that agreement we had with the school. If it had been an issue where we were not under contract it would be a different story. However, we wanted to be loyal to the games that we were under contract for.”
The other date was just before Lipscomb would have to travel to the University of North Carolina.
Playing an exhibition game so close to a road game against the perennial national power Tar Heels would have left the team crunched for time and, perhaps, energy.
The team would have had to play Stillman, then leave the next morning for UNC, practice that same day upon arriving and then play the next day. Hutchison decided that he did not want to put that sort of pressure on a team, and he waived that date as well.
“After I responded to ESPN’s initial question, I was never contacted again,” Hutchison said. “It was not until about three weeks ago that I knew Belmont would be hosting the game. I had heard about it, and then I contacted Belmont’s athletic director and he confirmed that what I had heard was true.”
Hearing the news disappointed Hutchison. However, he still had to do his job as athletic director to make the best decision for the team, he said.
“I have known coach Meyer for a long time, and would have loved to have him here on campus promoting his book,” Hutchison said. “My first job was working with coach Meyer at Lipscomb basketball camps when I was 10 years old.”
But he notes that if you are a fan of Don Meyer and his philosophy on coaching and life, the Athletic Department is doing all it can to get Coach Meyer on campus soon.
“We are still working on getting a date together for Buster and Coach Meyer to be on campus during a game,” Hutchison said.
Hutchison submitted a letter to students, faculty and alumni to make them aware of the situation at hand:
You may have seen that Belmont University will be playing against Northern State University on ESPNU in a game in early November that is entitled the “Don Meyer Classic”.
ESPN called us about 6-8 weeks ago to see if we could host a game between us and Northern State in an effort to create a game to promote ESPN writer/reporter Buster Olney’s new book about Coach Meyer. By the time they first called us, we were already under contract with our maximum number of exhibition games, regular season games and our maximum allowance for non-D1 games (we’re allowed one regular season, non-D1 game and it’s against Stillman College) and couldn’t work it out. I told ESPN that we would have loved to have been a part of this event, but that we were already contractually locked in for this year. They thanked us for responding quickly to them and I did not hear from them again.
I heard about 2 weeks ago that ESPN had then gone to Belmont and that they were trying to put together a game with them in order to promote the book and to make the Nashville connection that plays a large role in his book. Belmont still had the availability in their schedule to get it done and so they are going to play Northern State on ESPNU in an exhibition game.
For the past few weeks, we have been talking with Coach and Buster about trying to do a book-signing event around another game of ours later in the season when all of our schedules allow, and in addition, we have invited him (as we have every year) to be in attendance with his family at the 3rd Annual Don Meyer Evening of Excellence in the Spring if his schedule and health allows.
You can be sure that I would have liked for us to be involved in this game in order to promote our program and this book. And you can be sure that I will be cheering for Northern to “Beat Belmont!” But whatever the outcome of the game, Buster and Coach are both great friends, and while I have not read it yet, I think that they have collaborated on an amazing life story that is sure to be a big-seller.
I wanted everyone to know what was going on in case you were asked a question about it.
Thanks,
-Phillip Hutchison