SPOKANE, Wash. — Over the last three weeks or so, as Holy Cross made its improbable run to the N.C.A.A. tournament, Coach Bill Carmody took a book with him to read on the long bus and plane rides home after games: “The Lives of the Artists,” one of the foremost pieces of literature on art history, written by the Italian artist Giorgi Vasari in the 16th century.
The book details the development of Renaissance art through biographical accounts of several artists, including Donatello, Leonardo and Michelangelo. Carmody kept the book in tow partly out of superstition — the Crusaders kept winning — but also for inspiration.