Carry On My Davidson

Pun City had the chance tonight to watch Appalachian State visiting Davidson in a SoCon matchup. This blog was as surprised as anyone that this game was on TV, but Dish Network picked up the SportSouth feed and Pun City was immediately entranced. *Also note that it is no coincidence a Davidson article is popping up the day after this blog got a lot of Davidson traffic.

Most neutral observers don't know about Davidson. "Knowledgable" observers probably think of a typically gaudy overall record and have a vague concept of Dell Curry's son playing for them. Alas, it is people like this that win NCAA pools over fanatic rubes like this blog.

Stephen Curry is indeed the key cog in Davidson's machine, but he is definitely not a one-man show. Even though he's in the top-10 nationally in scoring, with 25.3 points per game. Even though his range is virtually halfcourt and in. Even if, when defenses come out to defend Curry, he just backs up and makes the longer shot.

The rest of the Team, contributing to Davidson's success, includes both inside and outside resources. For starters, there is some size to complement both Curry and point guard Jason Richards' outside shooting prowess. (Richards is 2nd on the team in scoring with 12.6 ppg). Thomas Sander, Boris Meno, and Andrew Lovedale form a 3-headed frontcourt monster and all average over 5 rebounds and 6 points per game. They're also all 6'8", which allows Davidson the flexibility to matchup physically with most teams in the country.

Tough matchups would be against teams like Georgetown or Connecticut where there is a skilled 7-footer. That said, it would be unlikely the Wildcats would end up having to face either of those schools until at least the 2nd round, as ESPN's Bracketology has Davidson currently slotted at a 12 seed, with Georgetown a 3 and Connecticut a 4.

It's easy to see why they were able to compete with Duke and North Carolina, two teams that don't currently have the luxury of a 7-foot behemoth.

For the game Pun City's currently watching, Davidson is very adept at outside shooting, 6 of 13 from beyond the arc at the half. This will definitely extend a defense, so without a good combination of a tall post player and ball-hawking guards, you're going to have problems with them.

This blog is realizing that definitely the most underrated player for DC is Richards. He leads the nation in assists per game and unless you root for a SoCon team, you've never heard of him before. His senior leadership from the point guard position is almost certainly the primary reason that Davidson stands where they are now and will be a great challenge for any postseason opponent. If for some reason the Wildcats don't make the NCAA tournament, a possibility that is unfortunately still out there because they weren't able to schedule a major conference school at Belk Arena or pull off the upset on the road in non-conference play - they will win the NIT.

That said, Pun City is fully confident that they'll continue their undefeated march through the SoCon through the title game and clinch the automatic bid. It would also be hard for the selection committee to omit a team with Davidson's talent level and experience, especially after a snub in 2005, even if they lost in the SoCon tournament. (Although, based on the 2005 snub, Pun City recommends Davidson at least lose in the final if they want to be sure).

Other Davidson points to note:

-Like a lot of non-majors, they know how to handle a zone. This doesn't always apply to major conference programs because there is a prevalence of major-conference schools that refuse to play zone. Smaller conference schools usually don't have the "come-uppance" and will pull out all the stops to get a win. This means a squad like Davidson has seen zone a lot, and their undefeated conference season means they aren't fazed by it.

-Davidson is a good but not great defensive team. They tend to gamble a lot defensively. This leads to a number of steals and easy transition baskets, but they will occasionally give up an easy bucket. Playing a disciplined team like a Wisconsin or Washington State will probably not help their cause in that they'd need to outshoot the disciplined team in a low-possession game without as many transition baskets as they may now be relying on.

-Depth is not a problem for Davidson. They boast a 9-man rotation where each player averages at least 12.9 minutes per game. A team like Tennessee might have ideas for running them out of the gym, but this blog is of the opinion this would not work given the longer TV timeouts during the NCAA tournament, in addition to DC's bench essentially being interchangeable parts with their starters (Curry and Richards excluded). Keeping Curry and Richards out of foul trouble will be important, but this seems very feasible given that the duo averages 2.4 and 1.7 fouls per game, respectively.

This blog is aware that coming out of the SoCon with the best RPI win being over #96 Georgia Southern is a tenuous position. This blog would like to believe their willingness to take on strong opponents will "Curry" favor with the selection committee. This blog would also like to believe that Davidson will make the issue moot by storming through the SoCon Tourney. If Davidson gets an NCAA bid, at-large or otherwise, Pun City predicts a first round win. If they can avoid the UConns and Washington States of the world in the second round, Wildcat fans will enjoy a sweet March to the round of sixteen.

Badgers Nip Cats

This blog was on the road again yesterday, taking in the Wisconsin at Northwestern game in Evanston, IL. It was a surprisingly difficult game for the visiting Badgers, who eventually prevailed 56-50.

In the photo above, Alando Tucker is introduced. Note the "darkened" seating area above the wall on the far side of the court. This section went back about 30 rows, and was filled with 95% Badger fans. This blog sat in a comparable section on the near side of the court which had the same proportion of Badger fans. (Also note the large number of empty season-ticket-holder seats near game time, these mostly filled but it was not the best display on the NU faithful's part.)
Additional Badger introductions. This season the Badgers are undefeated wearing red. They're also undefeated at home, but wore white in a pair of neutral-site games, 1 of which they lost.
The Northwestern student section. There is another section on the other side, but it appeared as though it either wasn't filled by students or was filled very late. A proprieter at a local apparel store said that the university doesn't really have that much school spirit, as they have a hard time selling out games, especially when the opponent's fans aren't accounting for a large percentage of the attendance.
Willie the Wildcat cheers on NU. This blog had low expectations of Willie, given the lack of school spirit. He didn't do too badly though. He wasn't an acrobatic mascot, given the huge head, but this blog would prefer a giant mascot head to any acrobatics out of a mascot. Very good with kids as you might expect, and he seemed to get into the game at the right times. Strangely enough he seemed to be wearing shoulder pads, something you could probably ask him about here.

An under-reported part of the game was an ugly sequence where Wisconsin's Marcus Landry and Northwestern's Vince Scott got tangled up going for a rebound, then both hit the floor. Scott shoved Landry down to lift himself up, then stood over Landry to taunt him. No foul was called, though this blog thinks that one or both of the players should have gotten a Technical Foul. Officiating was a bit spotty and the game was too rough for most of the game, building up to that moment. After officials separated the pair without calling anything, Scott was setting fierce picks on the other end of the floor that should have earned him multiple foul calls. Wisconsin fans booed him every time he touched the ball, and he played especially poorly after Landry then blocked what would have been Scott's wide-open layup.

The stadium area around Northwestern is very bizarre. Only one "sports bar" (The Bluestone) is remotely near the Arena, and it's fairly weak as far as sports bars go. While the food is excellent, and prices pretty reasonable ($6.95 for a cheeseburger with fries), the decor is sort of an Italian movie motif, and though it had roughly 5 television screens, they were all tuned to the same game (West Virginia at Marquette). This worked out very well for this blog's purposes, as it had forgone its seat at the Marquette game in order to go to Northwestern, but a more traditional sports bar would have shown capability of more than just ESPN, and only one game at that. Plus it would have been open earlier than 11:30 on a day when a 1:30 game was planned, and would have started with more staff than 2 waitresses and a bus boy (during the course of this blog's lunch, they added a hostess and another waitress).

Beyond that, though there are 3 sports apparel stores within about a 10-block radius of the stadium, 2 of those are right around the 10-block area. The one that's right next to the Arena seems to have had a lot of the same shirts from around 1997 (supplemented with an occasional new one). This blog doesn't really blame the proprietor though, there just doesn't seem to be a huge market for Northwestern gear, and the proprietor was a pretty affable guy, keeping his well-mannered dog in the store as much for companionship as anything, since it didn't seem like he had too many visitors.

All in all, Northwestern seems pretty harmless. They don't seem to have quite figured out the whole athletics thing just yet, but theyare putting in the old college try. This blog thinks they'll have trouble reaching elite status athletically given the rigorous academic standards required for entry there, but there's a chance they could have a revival if they got lucky with a few recruits and had some major donations from alumni to improve some facilities.

This blog had initially thought Wisconsin would not lose another game until they meet Ohio State on February 25th, but that prediction is looking a little dicey given the tenseness of this game. This blog is going to stick with the projection, but hopefully the Badgers can shoot a lot better for the next few games.