This Feels Eerily Familiar

While all of the Davidson historians among us have been quick to look to the 1960's for a context for this Davidson run and its subsequent ridiculousness, I want to argue that maybe Davidsonians can also look to a more recent example of a watershed moment in Davidson athletics for some context on this Sweet 16 experience.

In 1992, Davidson College was selected to host the National Semifinals of the NCAA Men's Soccer championship. Little did Davidson know that they would be playing in those very same national semifinals (The Final Four!) on their home field by the end of the year. That was a year when things stopped at Davidson...students could hardly focus on class...newspaper reporters seemed to pop up behind every oak tree, and the Wildcats just seemed to keep on winning despite improbable odds. Davidson beat UNC-Charlotte and Coastal Carolina on penalty kicks before knocking off N.C. State in overtime to earn a berth in the Final Four. Although the Wildcats did not reach the national title game, the legacy of those years still lives on.

When I ran into Matt Spear, Davidson's current men's soccer coach and member of that 1992 team, in the athletic complex today, the parallels between the two teams hit me before either of us could get a word out.

"There are definitely some huge similarities but differences too," Spear said. "Rob Ukrop and Stephen Curry are very similar in my mind in that they were really under-recruited and very talented. They both have an incredible humility about them and quick to put the team first in everything. They are once-in-a-generation players who are tailor-made for these watershed moments."

Ukrop was an All-American soccer player who was highly under-recruited, but ended up winning the Adi Dassler award as the nation's top senior. He scored more goals than anyone in college soccer that year.

But even more compelling than the athletic accomplishments and national success was the way that Davidson's community responded to those giddy times.

"Because of the nature of soccer and basketball and the prevalence of the internet, you see that this Sweet 16 trip gets a whole lot more national play than we got," Spear said. "But because we were playing the Final Four in Davidson, I actually think that the local hysteria was pretty comparable."

In a 2002 article by Davidson alum Michael Kruse, he claimed that the Davidson soccer team was "doing it all, it seemed, on a different campus, at a different college, in a different town. The students had cause to celebrate each other, for the tournament run was, if nothing else, tangible, watchable, cheerable proof that little Davidson could make it big."

Sound familiar?

It didn't take soccer alum Preston Davis nearly as long as myself to figure out this angle, as he already has a post up over on Charlotte Magazine about those incredible weeks of soccer euphoria.

But while these two events will certainly give Davidson folks a set of memories through which they will always connect, the question remains as to how long-lasting the impact will be. Davidson soccer has not returned to the Final Four since 1992. Will Davidson basketball be able to replicate this incredible run in the coming years? Will people still remember where the school is come April or May?

"I promise you that there will be ripple effects in ways that you can and can't see for a long time to come," Spear said. "I definitely believe this will help all of our athletic programs, not just men's basketball."

So many things have already been revolutionized around this school. Davidson gear is being sold in area sporting goods stores. Athletic department staff have been able to provide savvy media facilitation and have used the close proximity of Charlotte, NC to market the program. And we have all seen the actions of the trustees in going out on financial limbs for their students whether it is for basketball or financial aid.

I see one of the biggest lasting effects of this weekend on Davidson's own Bob McKillop.

"More so than at any point in my life, I am at peace right now," McKillop said in Thursday's NCAA news conference, trying to fight back tears. McKillop has spent so many years knocking on the doors of perfection and success. Now he is in the Sweet 16.

Not five minutes after that comment, ESPN.com's Andy Katz came on to answer whether McKillop would remain the coach at Davidson.

"You heard him, didn't you?" Katz replied. "He is completely comfortable where he is right now. I think that a lot of smaller program coaches often get to a point where they have to make very hard decisions and do either the right or the wrong thing with their lives. We saw what Gregg Marshall did last year. I wonder if he doesn't wish he was still at Winthrop."

And so the Madness continues. Davidson keeps reaching higher and they keep proclaiming their mission ever louder. But as Kruse wrote back in 2002, "that [soccer] group doesn't so much remember the shots or the saves or the scores; what remains fresh is the feeling, the ringing in their ears, the slow and steady buzz that never, ever totally goes away."

Fall sports refuse to yield

I, like so many other Davidson people right now, am absolutely obsessed with the start of men's basketball. With national press proclaiming us to be the prince of the cinderellas, it has been fun to bask in the spotlight that Stephen Curry, Jason Richards and Bob McKillop have drawn to little ol' Davidson.

But even within all of the respect for men's basketball that most other students and student-athletes have on campus, the fall sports teams aren't ready to pack up their bags and go sit in the stands in Belk Arena.

The men's soccer team pulled out a thrilling OT win to beat Wofford last Saturday and are now positioning themselves to pull an upset or two in the SoCon tournament. Despite starting the season at 1-9, the Wildcats could finish as high as fourth in the conference and will likely face off against rival UNC Greensboro in the tournament's quarterfinal round.

The women's soccer team finished the season with four straight straight shutouts and have only allowed more than goal in a game once in the past 15 contests. The Wildcats earned a two seed heading into this weekend's tournament and they will host Wofford at home on Sunday at 3. The Wildcats are doubly confident because Davidson was selected to host the semifinals and finals of this year's conference tournament. With defensive specialist Melanee Smith back to help out Nancy Haskell on the defensive side of the field, Davidson might not give up another goal for the rest of the season.

With some missing links on both sides of the line, this was supposed to be an up and down season for Davidson football. After losing to Dayton on Oct. 13, it looked as though the Wildcats season was over. But after a miraculous victory over Drake, the Wildcats now sit at 5-3 and are on the road to having another winning season. If the Cats can repeat their magic tomorrow against San Diego, they will be in the scenarios for the PFL regular season championship (they would need Dayton to lose both of its final games).

Combine these strong fall teams with the start up of swimming where freshman Lindsey Martin has been destroying the Davidson record books, and it seems that there are still quite a few student-athletes who can wait a little longer before Stephen Curry and the Wildcats take the court.

The anatomy of the streak

There is a point in every sports fan's life that they realize that there are only so many different storylines in sports (well at least every journalist discovers this). You have your redemption story...underdog story...unlikely hero story...life is bigger than sports story (but if sports is life does this mean that life is bigger than itself? I will save that one for another day).

One of my favorite storylines is that of the streak. Winning and losing streaks are some of the coolest intersections of sports and psychoanalysis. When teams get into these grooves of losing or winning, players, fans and coaches all start to cultivate some really weird habits and reactions related to the team's onfield successes or failures.

Right now, two of Davidson's fall teams are involved in incredible streaks. The women's soccer team has won six straight games including two over SEC powers and three over conference rivals. Two of those six wins came in overtime.

On the other side of the hallway, the men's soccer team has now dropped five straight games and are only 1-8 on the season. Out of those eight losses, three of them were decided on golden goals or last second scores.

The men's soccer team came into this season hoping to rebound from last year's disaster where the team suffered a few tough lossesand mailed in the season. After starting 0-3 this season, Davidson thought that they were back on track with the return of senior leader Aaron West in an overtime game against Dayton. While West scored a goal in that lone win, he was also given a red card and had to sit out against Charlotte a few days later. Charlotte demolished the Cats and the losing streak was on.

Precisely when the men's soccer team thought that they were turning the season around by winning at Dayton, the women's soccer team dropped to their third game of the season in a lethargic match in Colorado against Colorado College. After picking up a win against Mercer, Davidson seemed to be falling back into lethargy in the first half of its next game against Vanderbilt. The early season prognosis was not very bright. But then the Wildcats came out in the second half, got a quick goal, eked out a win in OT and a winning streak was born. The women's soccer team has not lost since that early September day in Colorado.

One of the most amazing things about streaks is all of the crazy ways that teams seem to continue them. With the losses piling on, men's soccer coach Matt Spear began to mix up his lineup to find a winning combination. Starting forward Robby Hoak was held back on the bench for a game and then was put in on the defensive side of the field. The team changed their coming out song to the UEFA Champions League theme. If they had the option, I'm sure they would probably try out new jersies. Yet, all of those small things still have not translated to victory.

Last Wednesday, the men's soccer team hosted nationally ranked South Carolina and held the Gamecocks to only three shots over the first 75 minutes of play. The Wildcats had double digit opportunities on goal and were clinging to a one goal lead. With under 15 minutes remaining, the Gamecocks struck off a free kick and tied the game at one. Minutes later, they put home the go-ahead and took a 2-1 victory. The Wildcats had put forth their best effort and it still didn't translate to success.

Back on the women's side, the confidence of the Vanderbilt and LSU victories upped the team's intensity and they went on to pull out a OT win over then-unbeaten conference rival Appalachian State. During that week, the team's coach had gone out to lunch with several athletic department employees at a local eatery. Davidson has since beaten The Citadel and Furman in conference play. The same group has gone back to the same place every week since then...the superstition of the winning streak.

The men's and women's soccer teams still have several more conference games before the end of season tournaments. The men will keep trying to mess with the karma and get themselves back in the W column, while the women don't intend on changing anything for a while.