Two friends, 29 coaches make an amazing road trip

Dean Smith was one of the legends Dave Bensch (left) and Andrew Hemminger met in their travels. Photo courtesy of Dave Bensch/Andrew Hemminger

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They traveled 27,125 miles in 23 trips over a span of 421 days. They slept in their car

On short notice, they drove 13 hours from Bowling Green State University in Northwest Ohio to Lawrence, Kan., to spend a few hours on the Kansas campus before returning home. In a span of 32 hours, the two childhood friends from Oak Harbor, Ohio, spent 27 hours on the road.

Why?

They did it all for the chance to meet Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, John Wooden and 26 other coaches. It was an incredible journey to discuss basketball and life with the biggest coaches in college hoops and a pair of analysts. It ultimately became the book Destination Basketball. It's a journey made all the more incredible when you consider it was pulled off by a couple of college kids.

"They had a quality about them that was very engaging," said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, who is profiled in the book. "When they started telling me that they were sleeping in their car and driving these insane distances, there was one word that stuck out to me and that was 'hungry.'"

Fittingly, this hoops dream all began while Dave Bensch and Andrew Hemminger were shooting hoops in the driveway. It was June of 2006 and the two BGSU seniors-to-be were looking for something special they could do together before they graduated and had to enter the work force, when it hit them.

"We thought 'Man, this would be a pretty cool project. But we don't really have any way to pull it off and we don't know if any of these guys would talk to us, but if they did it would be pretty cool,'" Hemminger said.

They put out calls and e-mails to coaches, but had difficulty finding anyone to give them their initial interview. "Everybody wanted to know who we had met with at that point and when we didn't have anybody, we'd say 'Well, we want your coach to be first' and that was tough," Hemminger said.

But they received a boost from Vinny Tatum, executive assistant to Louisville's Rick Pitino, who said the coach would try to squeeze them in during a camp for high schoolers. Five days later, they were sitting outside Pitino's office, trying to calm themselves at the prospect of meeting with a coach who has a national title and five Final Four appearances on his résumé.

"We were like little school kids getting sent down to the principal's office waiting to meet with him and our hands were sweating and we were really excited," Bensch said.

As they would with every coach they interviewed, they asked Pitino about his greatest influences and what lasting impact he hopes to make on his players before snapping photos for proof of the meeting, getting a few autographs and heading back on their way.

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