By Michael Harvey<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Gardner-Webb Men\u2019s Basketball team made history during the 2018-2019 as they became the first men\u2019s team from Gardner-Webb to make March Madness and compete in the NCAA Tournament. In a new documentary titled \u201cDancin\u2019 Bulldogs\u201d, the 2018-2019 season of the Gardner-Webb University men\u2019s basketball team is documented from the preseason to the conference tournament to their spot in the Big Dance. Gardner-Webb alumni\u2019s Christian Jessup, Eli Hardin, and Brendan Boylan, along with current student Thomas Manning, bring you a new documentary with never-before-seen footage and exclusive interviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Christian Jessup\u2019s directorial debut, we celebrate the Gardner-Webb University Men\u2019s Basketball team\u2019s magical season and their journey to the NCAA Tournament. \u201cThe Dancin\u2019 Bulldogs: A 16 Seed\u2019s Journey to the NCAA Tournament\u201d debuted on Oct. 16, 2020, on YouTube<\/a>. The documentary follows the team\u2019s and coaching staff\u2019s entire journey, from the upsets wins against NCAA powerhouses to the heartbreaking losses handed out by Big South opponents. The season ultimately culminated in the celebration of the Big South championship and a tournament appearance that ultimately had the No. 16 seed Runnin\u2019 Bulldogs lose to No. 1 seed Virginia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As of Thursday, October 22, the video has garnered over 2,300 views, a perfect like-dislike ratio with no (zero) dislikes and experienced raving reviews right out of the gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Patricia Sparti, Professor of Music at Gardner-Webb, wrote in a YouTube comment about how impressed she was with the documentary. \u201cI cried most of the way through it. The documentary was incredible, and so amazing! The music was so uplifting and captured every moment perfectly in the music score and the directing!\u201d Sparti wrote. \u201cCongratulations to our school, coaches, the team, everyone who made this possible, and to Christian Jessup and his team, for capturing this amazing accomplishment. The interviews were great, and I am so proud of everyone, and our guys, who gave God great Glory through it all!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gardner-Webb Senior, Patrick Wiggins, felt the documentary was an exciting and much-needed look into the magic that was that season. \u201cAs a student, that NCAA Tournament berth was the most exciting thing I\u2019ve experienced at Gardner-Webb. For the span of two or three weeks our school\u2019s morale was at an all-time high and it made me proud to call Gardner-Webb my school. Jessup\u2019s documentary accumulates all the moments from that season and serves them up on a platter that helps me to relive that exciting feeling again.\u201d Wiggins said. \u201cI was lucky enough to attend the NCAA Tournament game in Columbia, S.C. with some friends, and it was an experience I will never forget. I\u2019m glad that we have something such as Jessup\u2019s documentary to look back on that event and remember that I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gardner-Webb alum and known movie critic Zane Gray expressed his thoughts on the production as he was among the first to watch the film prior to its release. \u201cThanks to my friend Christian, I was lucky enough to watch it a week prior to its YouTube release and bias aside, I thought it was very well made.\u201d Gray said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While at Gardner-Webb, Gray was known as \u201cThe Movie Guy\u201d and if you were looking for any kind of movie knowledge or a critic\u2019s point-of-view, odds are that Zane Gray was your guy. When asked about his thoughts on Jessup\u2019s documentary, he said, \u201cI loved it! It was a touching tribute to that spectacular team. The Dancin\u2019 Bulldogs documentary is something that deeply touched me beyond ways I couldn\u2019t have imagined. As a GWU graduate, this movie moved me, made me miss my last year as a student and made me happy to be part of the great GWU community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even GWU men\u2019s basketball coach Tim Craft chimed in, following the documentary\u2019s release. \u201cThere is Nothing quite like experiencing March Madness, especially when it\u2019s with a team and staff you love. This film captured the excitement that we all felt during those moments! Thanks again to the entire Dancin\u2019 Bulldogs crew,\u201d Craft said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you haven\u2019t checked out the Dancin\u2019 Bulldogs: A 16 Seed\u2019s Journey to the NCAA Tournament, then I recommend doing so. It is available to watch on YouTube<\/a> and you can keep up with all the crew\u2019s updates on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Michael Harvey The Gardner-Webb Men\u2019s Basketball team made history during the 2018-2019 as they became the first men\u2019s team from Gardner-Webb to make March Madness and compete in the NCAA Tournament. In a new […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[981,20,4],"tags":[1100,356,72],"class_list":["post-4650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni","category-mens-basketball","category-sports","tag-documentary","tag-mens-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}