After playing around world, former Eastern and Bellarmine star excited to compete with The Ville

Angela Bonner and the other members of the Chris Dowe contingent will be easy to spot when The Basketball Tournament tips off Tuesday night at Freedom Hall.

The group of 20 to 30 family members — and "a ton" of friends, Bonner said — will cheer loudest not for the former U of L stars taking the court for The Ville in the 64-team tournament with a $1 million grand prize. They'll be waiting on the edge of their seats for Dowe, the lone Louisville native on the roster, to check in.

"He brings a lot of spark," said Bonner, Dowe's mother. "He's really such a pleasure to watch."

Bonner and company also plan on wearing shirts from Dowe's apparel line. Its name, Forever Underrated, would make for an apt title to the 31-year-old guard's basketball journey from Eastern High School to Bellarmine to a decade of playing professionally across eight countries — but that may change after the city gets a taste of what he's been cooking up overseas.

"(He's) a really great player, still in the prime of his career, and we're very lucky to have him on the team," said Peyton Siva, whose friendship with Dowe dates back to their college days. "(He's) also just a great overall guy. Personality-wise, he's another really kind soul."

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'This is where you were meant to be'

Dowe first shot a basketball on a Little Tikes goal inside a house divided.

Bonner is a diehard Cardinals fan, and his father, Chris Dowe Sr., bleeds Kentucky blue. Their only child decided to follow in his mom's footsteps, idolizing former U of L players such as Reece Gaines, Alhaji Mohammed and Larry O'Bannon.

"These guys are people I talk to and get advice from — like mentors, in a way," Dowe said. "I've always been around Louisville basketball."

Football also had Dowe's attention growing up, but when he arrived at Eastern he decided to focus primarily on his first love.

That move paid off. As a senior during the 2008-09 season, Dowe averaged 14.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, three assists, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. He was named the Most Valuable Player of Eastern's run to a Louisville Invitational Tournament championship, then received Seventh Region Player of the Year honors after helping lead the Eagles to a 31-3 record and a trip to the KHSAA Boys Sweet 16.

Dowe's accolades outnumbered his list of Division I suitors, however, so the 6-foot-2 guard took his talents — and a chip on his shoulder — to Bellarmine, where he played from 2009-13 on a full-ride scholarship.

Success followed him there; and after he averaged 13.5 points off the bench as a sophomore during Bellarmine's DII national championship 2010-11 season, earning a spot on the Midwest Regional All-Tournament Team, Bonner said her son realized he belonged with the Knights.

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"A lot of basketball players take different paths in life — how they're going to get from Point A to Point B," she said. "I said, 'I think this is where you were meant to be,' and he was good with that."

Linking up with Siva and the Cardinals for summer pick-up games helped further build Dowe's confidence and friendships with players such as Rakeem Buckles and Russ Smith. Having proved his mettle against DI players, the guard proceeded to start every game of his junior and senior seasons and leave his name all over Bellarmine's record book.

He ranks sixth in career scoring (1,731), assists (358) and blocks (79) and has the fourth-most steals (133) in program history. He was crowned the Most Outstanding Player of the Midwest Regional when the Knights again reached the Final Four in 2012. And after his college career ended in 2013 with a loss in the Sweet 16, he earned a spot in the Reese's DII All-Star Game at the Georgia Dome.

Three days later, he watched from Louisville as his summer running mates won a national championship on the same Atlanta court with an 82-76 victory against Michigan.

"I always felt a part of them, in a way," Dowe said, "When they won, I was cheering for them as if I was on the team, too.

"To actually play with them (in TBT), I think it'll be super exciting."

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'I can't stop thinking about it'

The next step was the hardest. After 21 years of living and playing in Louisville, Dowe packed his bags, said goodbye to his loved ones and moved thousands of miles away to Portugal, where his professional career began in São Paio de Gramaços with Sampaense.

"I was definitely worried," Bonner said, "because he was going to be in a place where he had no family."

Fast forward a year. Dowe had signed with a French team, Aix Maurienne Savoie Basket, for the 2014-15 season when his parents decided to visit him for the first time abroad.

Their reunion after a "really tough" 12 months apart sticks with Bonner to this day.

"You would have thought that it was Christmas morning for him as a kid," Bonner said. "He ran out of his house and gave me and his dad a really, really big hug."

Dowe and his family have grown more comfortable with the distance between them. His absence is felt at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Bonner said it's worth getting to see her son live out his dreams — he's won trophies in Poland and Ukraine and now plays in the top-flight Italian league.

Dowe also makes the most of his summers in Louisville when he returns during the offseason. High up on his to-do list every year, Bonner said, are getting his Crumbl Cookies fix and hosting a Fourth of July cookout, where there's no shortage of trash talk between his father and Siva on the cornhole boards.

Something different is at the top of that list this go-around. That would be bringing a championship back to his hometown, splitting $1 million among pals and proving once and for all he is to not be slept on.

"I can't stop thinking about it," Dowe said.

Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Chris Dowe: Ex-Bellarmine University, Eastern High School star in TBT