September 28, 2019 | Birmingham, Alabama.
 
The energy in Seibert Hall is palatable; it is the first practice of the Carley Kuhns era. It doesn't matter who you are, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior or transfer; with a new coach everything is different, everything is new. There is something fresh about lacing up basketball shoes this year, and there are no expectations, zero. Picked seventh out of eight teams in the Southern Conference. Brutal non-conference schedule. This is a quote-unquote rebuilding year, a chance for a new coach to get her feet wet and for these players to enjoy another season as a Samford Bulldog.
 
Time to press play on the 2019-20 women's basketball season.
 
Sit down. Buckle up. This isn't going to be what you expected. It isn't all pretty, but often, the most difficult journeys make for the greatest stories.
 
November 24, 2019 | Birmingham, Ala.
 
It's basically a non-conference to forget. Six, count them, six losses in a row. Given, Florida, 12^th-ranked Florida State (on back-to-back days we might add), and 15^th-ranked Kentucky were among the list of losses. For the most part, the merciless non-conference schedule had little to show in the win column for Samford. One last chance to prep for Southern Conference play came at the Fordham Holiday Classic in the city that never sleeps.
 
December 29, 2019 | The Bronx, New York
 
Regardless of the level of athletics, inevitably there will be that bus ride. You know the one, after that game everyone wants to forget. The one where the coach burns the film, the players erase the stat lines, and everyone searches for a way to hit the reset button. Fans remember the triumphs, the championships, the biggest wins.  But none of those moments come before that silent bus ride.
 
Rain pattered against the windshield of a pair of white vans. The hustle and bustle of New York City seemed to fade into the overwhelming silence. Players sat in their seats, frozen. Samford Women's Basketball had just dropped another non-conference game in the 2019-20 season. This time, to the Fordham Rams, by a score of 68-37. It wasn't just a bad night, it was a beat down. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. No matter the personnel changes or the timeouts called, it just wasn't going to work for Samford. Call it an awakening, call it a culture shift, call it a total "team timeout". The Bulldogs don't really care what you call it, but something changed on that silent bus, well, van ride, and what happened next, no one could have predicted. Well, no one, but the Samford Women's Basketball players and coaches.
 
Fast forward. Conference season begins...
 
Down goes Wofford on the road. Mercer, Chatt, and ETSU dispatched at home.
 
A fluke? Well the bandwagon was starting to gain some consistent members, but questions still remained. Fast forward again.
 
February 1, 2020 | Greensboro, North Carolina
 
It's almost midnight, and the bus is silent, again. The occasional flash of a computer screen, or ding of a cell phone, but that is pretty much it...that, and ESPN playing in the background on the bus televisions. But this silence is very different from the one two months ago. The Bulldogs had just completed what everyone had said was impossible, or at least unthinkable for this year. "They'll grab a couple of SoCon games, for sure," or "They'll definitely be better than their preseason projections." The Bulldogs had heard it all.  No one outside of that locker room expected to see this final score. But suddenly, with a 56-42 win over UNC Greensboro, on the road no less, the Bulldogs stood alone atop the Southern Conference mid-season standings. There were smiles, cheers, incredible sighs of relief, and of course, road-win ice cream. All followed by a nearly silent seven-hour bus ride. Shouldn't this bus ride be a party? Isn't this bus supposed to be rocking? Well, some of it had to do with the late night, but the other part is, this team knew there was so much left unfinished, so much left to do, and just proving they are better than seventh isn't going to be good enough anymore. There are bigger goals in mind, and those goals end on top of a ladder, scissors in hand, cutting down the nets in a season no one ever saw coming.

Pause.
 
Call it a focus check or a first-place aftereffect, but the Bulldogs lost consecutive games at home to Furman and Wofford. They, then, dubbed themselves the road warriors, completing season sweeps of Mercer and ETSU by considerable margins, before dropping a painful game to Chattanooga on the road.
 
February 27, 2020 | Birmingham, Ala.
 
Problem 1: For the Bulldogs to claim a share of the regular season title they had to win two games at home where they were currently 4-5 on the season.
 
Problem 2: The team that stood between them and their hopes of the first regular season title in program history was the team currently sitting alone at the top of the standings.
UNC Greensboro.

Who had the advantage? Well, from the outside, it seemed the Spartans did. Samford was on a one-game skid, and they hadn't won at home since January 25. They embarrassed UNCG on the Spartans home court, with a 56-42 win, holding them to just 12 points in the first half, yes… the first half.
 
As shoot around came to a close, head coach Carley Kuhns called the team to half court. They all clapped and cheered, as they did at the end of every practice, but this time Coach Kuhns decided that it was time to swing the momentum back to the Bulldogs. If you feel any pressure at all, get rid of it. They are the ones with something to prove, not us. You are not the hunted anymore, you are the hunters.
 
Advantage Samford.
 
The Bulldogs won three of the four quarters on their way to a 69-57 win.
 
February 29, 2020 | Birmingham, Alabama
 
Win, and the regular season championship is yours. Samford versus Western Carolina. A tumultuous first half, coupled with a fifty-percent three-point percentage from the Catamounts left Samford with just a one-point advantage at half. However, the Bulldogs conditioning, balanced scoring and stifling fourth-quarter defense allowed them to cruise to a 70-53 victory, and the first regular-season conference championship in program history.
 
The gym is anything but silent as the team, one-by-one, gets to climb the ladder and trim a piece of nylon from the net. They had accomplished something that had never been done before.
 
There can't be any more questions, right? They did it, they won a regular-season title.
 
Wrong.
 
Fast forward again.
 
March 5, 2020 | Asheville, North Carolina
 
The bus is so not silent. The players bustle about in the back on the ten minute ride from the hotel to the Harrah's Cherokee Center. Their run in the 2020 Southern Conference Tournament starts today.
 
Western Carolina: familiar foe, same result. The Bulldogs got hot from downtown, making 11 three-pointers, and held the Catamounts to just four points in the second quarter, enroute to a 77-62 win.
 
Problem 1: Furman outlasted Wofford in game two.
 
Problem 2: Samford has not beaten Furman all season.
 
Advantage? Samford. Why? Two words:  Paige. Serup.
 
March 6, 2020 | Asheville, North Carolina
 
It is early, and the tip is set for 10:00 a.m. CST. Furman is dancing to the music playing over the loudspeaker, goofing around and smiling. On the other end of the court, the Bulldogs run through their routines, high fiving each other at every opportunity, but it is all focus and all business.
 
The ball tips...Furman is cold. The Bulldogs are not.
 
Defense turns to offense, as Serup ties a career high with 19 points, five steals and shooting 72.7 percent from the field. The Bulldogs sprint away from the Paladins to a 75-45 win, the second-largest tournament victory margin in program history.
 
March 8, 2020 | Asheville, North Carolina
 
It is a beautiful Sunday morning for a championship basketball game. Outside the team bus, the sirens of the police escort turn heads from the hotel parking lot to the arena entrance. Inside the bus, you can hear a pin drop. Everything for the entire season comes down to 40 minutes. Bulldogs vs. Spartans. Round 3.
 
The Spartans hold Samford to single digits in the first quarter, but the Bulldogs hold UNCG to just four in the second. The Spartans came out hot in the third quarter, and the Bulldogs trail by one with 10 minutes remaining in the game.
 
The teams trade baskets down the stretch, and Natalie Armstrong ties the game with just over a minute remaining. The Bulldogs were in desperate need of a stop in a game that was either going to end with heart pounding elation, or heartbreaking loss.
 
The Bulldogs' active defense led to a missed three-point attempt from UNCG, and Armstrong gathered the rebound.
 
51 seconds to go. 
 
Here we go, the movie moment. This is the kind of stuff most of these players grew up dreaming about and watching on big screens.
 
The ball swings in and out of the post, senior guard Charity Brown backs up with the ball to the top of key, seconds ticking away on the shot clock. She drives, and Armstrong clears the lane. Brown kicks the ball back out to the three-point line where Armstrong waits. Barely any time remains on the shot clock. Armstrong gathers the ball straight into her shooting motion. The shot clock sounds, followed by the swish of the net.
 
Bulldogs lead by three! The bench erupts, the whistles of the referees can hardly be heard over the roar of the crowd.
 
20 seconds to go.
 
On the ensuing possession, UNCG gets rattled by the Bulldog defense, and throws up a quick shot that bounces harmlessly out of bounds. Senior Sarah Myers takes the inbounds. UNCG looks to set up a press.
 
Problem 1: They don't get set fast enough.
 
Problem 2: By the time they do, Myers has already thrown a baseball pass three-quarters length of the floor to a streaking Brown, who lays the ball off the glass.
 
Bulldogs lead by five!
 
Seven seconds to go.
 
The bench cannot contain their excitement, not a single person in the gym in Samford red and blue is sitting down.
 
Moments later, UNCG turns the ball over at half court.
 
Four seconds to go.
 
Brown has the ball and runs down the court towards a hysterical bench, launching it into the air as the horn sounds. Pandemonium ensues. The trophy is hoisted.
 
After the celebrations, after the post-win ice cream, after all the smiles and the hugs, the team boarded a bus back to Birmingham. This time there were plenty of laughs and conversations, and cheering when ESPN2 aired the final moments of the game and celebration, but eventually it all fades to silence again.
 
You see, many people equate silence with failure, and unbridled noise with success.
 
A game is either won or lost.
 
Period.
 
It's sports. Right? It's black and white.
 
Or perhaps, there IS some gray area between winning and losing...and it's far too often overlooked. Silence doesn't have to mean failure; it can also mean growth. Sometimes that growth is more painful than others, but that's what makes it all the more important and more appreciated. Even after the greatest of wins, when the balloons have fallen and the trophies have taken their place on the glass pedestals, the cheers and smiles fade, for a moment, into silence.

You see, something happened on that silent bus...van ride... in the streets of New York City, and it led to this moment. Two sets of nets, two trophies, and a team who was willing to lay it all on the line, not for glory, but for each other.