Wildcats Aiming For Back-to-Back titles

The men's basketball team heads into the 2007 Southern Conference tournament with their second top seed in three years after the Wildcats set a new conference record with 17 conference wins in the regular season. Winning the tournament will not be easy, however, and so this section notes some of the teams that will try to knock Davidson off of the top.

Appalachian State (24-6, 15-3)
Appalachian State has put together the most impressive 2006-2007 campaign in recent SoCon history. With their quality wins over top 25 teams like Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wichita State, the Mountaineers have made ripples throughout the basketball world as a team to watch for in March.

ASU is led by firebrand point guard D.J. Thompson, who has gone largely unnoticed in his four years at ASU.

When opponents aren't worrying about Thompson driving the lane, they have to keep the ball out of the hands of big UVA transfer Donte Minter and athletic forward Jeremy Clayton. Clayton ranks sixth in the conference with seven rebounds per game and he is shooting a league-leading 61% from the field.

The second-ranked Mountaineers handed Davidson its only conference loss this season, and the Wildcats will be waiting for revenge if both teams make it to the finals.

College of Charleston (20-10, 13-5)
The College of Charleston entered the season with high hopes after hiring former Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins in the offseason. The Cougars returned a core group of players from last year's squad and the preseason polls picked them to win the conference handily.

The Cougars were unable to defeat the league's top teams this year as they dropped two contests to both Davidson and Appalachian State and enter the tournament as a three seed.


See the rest of this article at The Davidsonian.