Friday, August 15, 2008

If it wasn't for Andy Wicke, Belmont might have been just another flattened No. 15 seed. In one of the most memorable first-round games from the 2008 NCAA tournament, the then-junior came off the bench to bury five of his seven shots -- including four long 3s -- for 14 perfectly timed points. With Wicke's help, the Bruins came within a single point of shocking two-seed Duke.

"Looking back on it is almost surreal," said Wicke of that 71-70 loss. "When you're in the moment like that, you don't understand the importance and significance of what was going on. … We were trying so hard to win. But we played so well, a lot of people connected to the program look at that almost as a win. You know, I can only really remember bits and pieces of the game. I don't remember the noise or the crowd, everything was so intense."

But not as intense as the five months that followed. His whirlwind summer adventure spanned from Brazil to Florida to the wilds of Tennessee, multiple academic disciplines, and a number of life-changing moments. What Andy Wicke did on his summer vacation was earn a world's worth of perspective.

Three months after his team's stunning near-miss at the Big Dance, the Bruins guard found himself in a house near Dale Hollow Lake in remote central Tennessee, accompanied only by his loyal dog Ernie.

"It was just an opportunity to take a step back from it all," said Wicke. "I got some time to think abut my life and all that kind of stuff, what I wanted, what's important."

Wicke was there for a purpose, and it wasn't to reenact Henry David Thoreau's woodland survival adventures. He's an environmental studies major at Belmont, looking to become the school's first graduate in the program's seven-year history next May. The 6-2 guard known around the Atlantic Sun Conference for his impact on games spent 24 days in June testing the human impact on the local ecosystem.

Story By Kyle Whelliston
Special to ESPN.com