Kruse Thoughts From SoCon

SATURDAY IN CHARLESTON***

One-man team?

Two-man team?

Evidence, ahem, indicating otherwise:

Max. First possession of the game. Wide the heck open on the baseline, surprise, surprise. J is good.

Lovedale at about 9:40 or so. Turnaround jumper in the lane.

About 30 seconds later? Bryant Barr for three.

Should I keep going?

Thought so.

Rossiter at about the five-minute mark. O board. Good and earned. Up strong, to the line, make make.

Boris not even a minute later. One dribble and strong. Finish with a hit. Free throw good.

Then Barr again.

All before the half.

That said, driving layups from Jason and those patented off-glass runners of his, and Steph being Steph and spotting up from the wings and taking it into the lane and finishing just because he can -- well, that's nice, too. And it'll come in real handy in games that don't end up, say, 82-49.

*** To all that, though, I feel like I should say this: Dear Max. Don't take this the wrong way, seriously, because I love your game, baby, love your grit -- but there's a reason you're open. NINE shots? Could do without those 18-footers. Be the top prong on the D end. Be a pest. Be ferocious. Make us all tired just watching you. Do what you do.

*** Does anybody else out there hear a very particular noise inside their head when Steph gets the ball and sets up and lets loose with a top of the key three in transition? Sounds kind of like a whistle, or a high-pitched whine, or a ... oh? Just me?

*** About the second half I have three words and only three words: Civi to Nelms.

*** The coaches of the SoCon have been trying to fatten up the 'Cats with spoken love letters over these last few weeks, saying nice things, too nice, what with Cremins rolling out the whole "Duke of the Southern Conference" thing. Here's Houston Fancher: "They're head and shoulders better than anybody in our league." Mike Young declared the Davidson men "the big red machine." Young kept it up after the game: "I'm glad we don't have to play them anymore. That was our third time. That's enough for me." Two things: 1. All well and good. 2. Hope the guys aren't hearing any of it.

*** McKillop-speak: Thrilled. Consistency. Full 40 minutes. Same old same old. McKillop was asked one question in the presser. That's it. What, really, was there to say?*** Need three. That's one.

*** I'm thirsty. To King Street ...

Thoughts and quotes from Davidson vs. Wofford (82-49)

Davidson rolled over the eighth-seeded Wofford Terriers in convincing fashion on Saturday afternoon. The win was uncharted territory for a Davidson team that has historically struggled in the first halves of tournament quarterfinal games against teams that already have a game under their belt.

The Wildcats were led by sophomores Stephen Curry and Bryant Barr who combined to shoot 10-18 beyond the three-point arc. The roommates accounted for 36 of Davidson's 82 points.

Andrew Lovedale and Boris Meno were stout in the interior as they held yesterday's star Noah Dahlman to 3-6 shooting, while corralling 18 boards between them. Davidson outrebounded Wofford 50-36.

The Wildcats never let Wofford see one ounce of daylight from the opening tip to Nelms' final basket.

"I'm thrilled with our consistency," Coach McKillop said. "I'm particularly impressed with how we played 40 minutes from top to bottom on the roster."

Despite having all of the pressure of a Top 25 ranking and 20-0 mark in conference, the Wildcats were extremely loose and having plenty of fun on the court.

"Our coaches kept us ready to play all week at practice," Stephen Curry said. "We've been taking it one step at a time all year. This is no different."

From Nelms big buckets to rebounds from Rossiter to jumpers from Archambault to threes from Barr and Curry to drives from Richards and defensive stops by Lovedale and Gosselin, the Wildcat machine was well-oiled at every turn and never let up or got bored with their success.

"We stuck with our Davidson system," said Jason Richards. "We played strong, our bench played well, and we never left the system. And our fans were phenomenal. We owe so much to them. We look forward to getting even more of them down here tomorrow."

Davidson featured the second-largest fan showing so far this tournament and certainly took the cake for decibel level and intensity.

Davidson will tip off tomorrow evening against the winner of Appalachian State and UNC-Greensboro.

Davidson 82 Wofford 49

What a bad morning so far. The women’s team loses badly in the morning game and I’m stuck running around the coliseum trying to find lunch and Blogger crashes on me.

The crowd is immense here in the North Chuck. No one outside of CofC even begins to parallel it, and the Wildcat supporters are much more into it than the College was last night.

The rims were really tight in the girls game and Davidson is missing some here in the warmup. This day better not get any worse. This is practically like Belk Arena since Wofford didn’t bring a band. Davidson’s band played Welcome to the Jungle on their entrance.

I will be keeping the blog on a Word document in case this thing keeps crashing. So it will all be up eventually. Also, be on the lookout for a blog entry from Michael Kruse later today and pictures from Tim Cowie.
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18:03 D 2 W 2
MPG opens the scoring after waiting for twenty minutes on the perimeter. No defense is getting near him. If you are that wide open, you have to be able to shoot. MPG defending Nichols and Godzinski (Wofford's tall guy who lit up Western yesterday).
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16:11 D 4 W 3
Richards with a sweet drive to the hoop. Max must have read that USAToday blog. He is all over the place on every play. Now he's on Gibson. Thomas picks up his first foul. It never takes too long for that to happen. Dahlman has been pretty stout inside for Wofford defensively and Sander hasn't looked so hot offensively (misses a wide open layup that time).
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14:51 D 8 W 3
Curry on the board with a nice pull-up in transition. Max is everywhere! Andrew with some nice boards as well. Davidson looks like a well-oiled machine right now.
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12:36 D 14 W 10
Jason Richards connects on his first three and the Wildcats are confident. No wasted movement on offense. Tons of intensity on Defense. The Terriers move to a zone and Boris gets a good shot from the paint but misses. Noah Dahlman starting to get some looks inside…but see then there’s this guy named Stephen Curry. He’s got five and just took a charge called on Wofford.
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10:02 D 17 W 12
Richards on the bench and Curry gets some time at the point. Rossiter and Barr also in the lineup so we've got next year's team on the floor. Steph takes the ball from the top of the key and goes all the way to the bucket. I think that he'll be OK at point guard.
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8:17 D 22 W 15
Rossiter gets put on his back on a free throw rebound and the ball lands in his lap. Wofford fans call for travel but...uh...it wasn't.

Being at Davidson for four years really emphasizes the ideal of the underdog...small student body...often overmatched team that plays really hard, etc. But here in Charleston, Davidson is the team you pull against. I've always known that, but it is really evident when you hear the roar of the coliseum on every made shot.
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7:43 D 25 W 15
Bryant Barr with two straight three-pointers. Kevin Cary turns around and claims that he was really close to predicting that. Curry and Richards both have 7 points right now.

Dahlman hasn't seen the ball recently which spells trouble for Wofford.
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5:44 D 30 W 19
Barr is outrageous right now. Huge loose ball play to tip it back to Sander. And then Curry hits a three at the other end. Wofford is not hitting threes and Lovedale is beasting Dahlman on the boards.
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4:18 D 32 W 19
Wofford has been getting to the line but they aren't hitting a high percentage. Archambault and Barr both in the lineup and playing with great intensity. Rossiter had a nice offensive rebound and made it to the line. But then he goes a little too far and is called for over the back. Wofford back on the line and this game has slowed down a lot.
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3:50 D 35 W 21
Boris Meno attacking the paint off the dribble and he gets the shot to foul and is fouled. Walking to the huddle he looks really confident. He has been a completely different player here in the last month...especially at Georgia Southern.

And the pep band plays Get Low. That's a new one.
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2:23 D 40 W 21
Wofford is getting to the line but they can't put em down. Boris Meno continues to be a hoss. He hands the ball to Barr behind his screen and Barr waits, waits, and fires. Good! Third one tonight.
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1:00 D 43 W 23
Curry for three. Wofford called for charging. Daaa-vviiidd-sooon. Da-vid-son. This building likes the Wildcats.
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Half D 43 W 23
Davidson might be guilty of going for too many homeruns there at the end of the half. They connected on several, but they could be up by even more if they would have put together a few more singles. Curry unleashed a lot of threes. More stats upcoming.
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18:00 D 43 W 26
Drew Gibson hits a three on MPG and Wofford picks up a delay of game warning for kicking the ball. Max misses a short jumper and Wofford gets a small opening to make something happen. That closes fast as Thomas gets a steal.
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16:23 D 49 W 28
Curry with two straight threes and he has 19 points. Get a really tall guy, run Steph behind him. Shoot and hit. Repeat.

And I swear that Jason's cowlick has gotten bigger.
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13:38 D 54 W 28
Lovedale with a very nice turnaround off an offensive rebound but he gets called for a foul on the other end and Rossiter gives him a break.

When Jason starts that whole drive to the side thing and hits the shot over his head, it is a thing of beauty and absolutely unstoppable. That play could kill some BCS team in the tournament.
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12:00 D 58 W 30
Boris with a big steal on defense and Will Archambault connects on a nice J. Boris and Steve connect on the "Jrich-Steph jump and bump." They need to practice it a little more. But Boris likes this building. I think he wants a t-shirt to start waving now.
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9:00 D 66 W 36
Every time I repost, I see that first line. It really has turned out to be a pretty good Saturday.

Barr now has 11 points off a drive down the baseline...not his preferred method of scoring, but it looked pretty good. Then Max hits a three. Wow...just looked at the scoreboard and realized Thomas hasn't scored. Only two fouls so that's not it. Davidson just hasn't used the post-up much today. And Barr for three again.
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6:40 D 71 W 36
Bryant Barr! With five three-pointers! He's got 17 points today...and he might be making his first visit to the Southern Conference press conference. Big-time, Bryant. Big-time.
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3:59 D 73 W 42
Brendan McKillop into the game and he has an open look with the shot clock winding down, but he hands it to Max. Max chucks a three and he now has a new season high for FG attempts.
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1:36 D 78 W 46
McKillop for three! And Civi's shorts are really high. Dan Nelms misses badly. And Schmitt sees action! This is fun. Civi to Nelms for Nelms' second field goal all season. Civi wanted it to be an alley-oop but Nelms wasn't ready for that yet. So he just layed it in. Nelms with a new career high four points!
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Final D 82 W 49
Wildcats win it big here in Charleston...and the big red machine keeps rolling. Stats, quotes and pictures coming up.

Thompson, Gassie leave it all on the parquet in Wofford

They say that true commitment is built by always playing your hardest, even when no one is watching. On Friday night, the men's basketball team fought hard to a secure a very important Bracketbusters victory in front of a national television audience. On Saturday afternoon, the women's basketball team worked even harder to overcome a double digit deficit to win yet another SoCon battle on the road and pick up a game on Georgia Southern for the all-important third seed in the conference tournament. But only their families, three Davidson students, and a handful of Wofford fans were there to see it.

Davidson overcame a 20% shooting first half and a 10-point halftime deficit to beat Wofford 84-76 in overtime. Several Wildcats put up gaudy stats...Julia Paquette went 8-16 for 23 points, Mercedes Robinson picked up yet ANOTHER double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds and Alex Thompson recorded 18 points, 9 boards and a career-high 6 steals.

But this win wasn't about the stats. It wasn't even about beating a high-profile SoCon opponent on the road (which Wofford certainly isn't). This game was about Davidson continually coming out on top in situations when they should have been defeated. This was about overcoming all of that rationality in your gut that tells you that your doubt in the outcome is well based. The Wildcats kept hoping...on every steal, every jump shot and every rebound, and ultimately came out on top.

With four Wildcat players ultimately fouling out throughout the contest, Davidson coach Annette Watts had to go the end of her bench to find players to keep battling back as time was extended. But ultimately, she needed to look no further than her gutsy backcourt of Kelly Gassie and Alex Thompson.

Davidson went to a full-court press in the second half to keep Wofford off-balance, and the Cats' came up with several steals, despite allowing some easy Terrier shots. At one point, Wofford scored on four straight possessions late in the game. At another point, they drew fouls on Davidson for six or seven consecutive possessions. The Wildcats were nearly down and out at the end of regulation as Wofford was at the line with a three-point lead and just 40 seconds remaining. After the Terriers missed the free throw and got their own rebound. Things were even hairier. But Davidson forced a turnover, Paquette cut the lead to one. Wofford only got one point from the line on their next possession and Mercedes Robinson rebounded her own miss in traffic and put-back the game-tying basket with 3 seconds left in regulation.

After two more Wildcats fouled out in overtime, Thompson and Gassie took over on both ends of the floor. On one end Thompson is getting a rebound, then she sets up Julia Paquette for a basket. Then Gassie gets a huge steal and a fast break, misses her layup, gets a defensive rebound after another foul on Davidson, rebounds a miss by Kelsey Cary on the other end and gets the ball right back to her. After yet another Gassie defensive rebound, Thompson came open at the top of the key and hit the dagger three-pointer to put Wofford down for good. Thompson iced the game with her 9th and 10th straight free throws. Her 10-10 mark from the line ties a Davidson record for 100% free throw shooting with a minimum of 10 attempts.

The two Wildcat guards were breathing hard by the end, but it was their determination and savvy that pulled the rest of the team through when most of their veteran teammates could only watch and cheer.

This game could very well go down as one of the most exhilirating and hard-fought Davidson Wildcat games this year that no one ever saw. There are no SportsCenter highlights or parties on campus to welcome the team home. In fact, they are staying down in Spartanburg in prep for their road game at Furman on Monday. They will try to keep going about their business and working, step by step, towards a strong showing in the SoCon tournament.

But I don't have to look ahead quite yet. I get to reflect that today's game was one of the most special and gutsy performances that I have seen in a very long time.

State of the SoCon

Here's a quick glance around the Southern Conference's internet outlets to find out what's on the fan's minds:

In Davidson-land, fans have begun to get over the slight from ESPN that placed Davidson in a Bracketbuster game with a Winthrop team that is 40-50 RPI points its inferior. Fans are now more concerned about how to keep themselves interested and involved while the Wildcats blow out their conference opponents. There has also been a recent little discussion over how students get tickets, where they get them, and how the stadium staff enforces different sections.

Down in the lowcountry, College of Charleston faithful have joined the ranks of UNC-Charlotte fans in questioning the heart of their team's players and the strategy of its coach. While the Cougar faithful have not been called out by the local press for their gab, things are getting pretty downright depressing in Cremins' backyard. College of Charleston suffered their worst defeat in SoCon history on Saturday and the anger that usually accompanies a proud following has started to border on exasperated resignation. It seems that the only corner of South Carolina where basketball still has legitimate standing is in, of all places...Clemson! The Tigers are third in the ACC and go into Chapel Hill tonight with a chance for a signature victory after falling to the Tar Heels in OT a month ago.

In the North Division of the Southern Conference, the Chattanooga Mocs suffered yet another loss to the "dirty", "better than they look" Davidson Wildcats before dropping an embarrassing loss to Western Carolina, a team with only eight players on the active roster after several mid-season defections. But wait, it gets worse. Chattanooga then went on to beat 4-win Furman by a mere three points, and then was kicked out of the North Division lead thanks to a 20-point blowout by Georgia Southern. Things are so bad up in Chattanooga that starting point guard Kevin Bridgewaters rolled his ankle in pre-game warmups just so he could stop committing turnovers.

So, all this means that reigning North Division champ Appalachian State is now back in first place and ready to make a run at Davidson in the Southern Conference tournament...right? Well, Appalachian State gave up 10 unanswered points at home to fall to the Cougars in the final minutes on Thursday. (Yeah, those Cougars...) Then the Mountaineers end up needing the karma of a missed Citadel free throw just to get the Bulldogs to overtime on Saturday. The Appies came away with the win and the outright lead in the North Division. But that doesn't matter too much, because...they scheduled LSU to start next year's football season! Heck, there is more discussion on Baton Rouge hotel rooms than App's loss to the College of Charleston on Thursday.

So...um...who else? Oh yeah, Georgia Southern! They did beat Chattanooga by 20 on Saturday and are now the projected three seed for the tournament. But...um, I can't find their message board. I did find this, but it seems that's just football-only. Heck, even the Eagles' own fanbase have somehow found better things to do than attend a home basketball game against the North Division-leading Chattanooga Mocs. Only 2400 people were on-hand to watch the Eagles shut down that high-flying Moc attack.

I would mention Wofford's recent streak of winning six out of their last eight games, but I'm afraid they would immediately want to kick me out of the SoCon for not playing D-I scholarship football. Oh wait, I was complementing the Terriers on their basketball team? Well, nevermind.

Thoughts and quotes from Belk Arena (vs. Wofford)

-Too many turnovers tonight for Davidson. Richards and Curry both had four and the Wildcats coughed up the ball four more times than did Wofford.

-"We had the right people shooting the right shots. Barr had some big rebounds. We are really coming together right now." Max Paulhus Gosselin

-Davidson's free throw shooting is a virus that they can't seem to get over. Davidson was 10-17 from the line and didn't seem comfortable there all night. At one point late in the game, Wofford fouled Max Paulhus Gosselin to stop the clock and MPG visibly cursed at the prospect of needing to go to the line. He missed the front end of the one-and-one.

-Davidson needs to continue to have confidence attacking the paint with entry passes. Their frontcourt can do anything against anyone in the Conference. They proved that tonight when they opened the game up with big layups inside.

"I am delighted with our second half performance. We have to learn how to come back from a deficit. We set the tone at the beginning of the half and that was delighting." -Coach Bob McKillop

-Everyone was up in arms about Kevin Cary missing tonight's game. The Charlotte Observer sent a replacement writer that almost looked as young as me (he was certainly wearing my wardrobe). No one knew who he was and I felt a little awkward as everyone talked about the Charlotte Observer as if they didn't have a representative there.

-Tonight was only second time that Curry has scored more than 30 points at home. He now has over 200 three-pointers for his career.

"This was a good situation for us. It was different to have to play a close game, but we have to learn different ways to win. Our inside-out game was excellent in the second half." Stephen Curry

"It was great to see Steph [Curry] elevate us at times when I put him at the point. He made some pinpoint passes, that were also singles. That was great to see." -Coach Bob McKillop

Davidson 78 Wofford 65

The Wildcats host the Wofford Terriers in the second of their two-game conference season series. The Wildcats won the first meeting 80-55. Wofford might not have the services of Shane Nichols tonight. He was listed as doubtful this morning and has not been put into the projected starting lineup.

More updates as tip-off approaches.
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It looks like Nichols won't be seeing any time tonight as he in street clothes on the Wofford bench. However, that might not bode well for Davidson as most might think. Nichols tends to overplay in tough situations and often takes his teams out of games by shooting too much. The Terriers did make their run on College of Charleston with Nichols hurt on the bench. The Terriers have a perfect record when a player other than Nichols or Gibson lead them in scoring.

Davidson, on the other hand, has not lost since Andrew Lovedale entered the starting lineup oh so long ago against Georgia Southern. Here's to going January-0 tonight.
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The Wildcats have been blitzing their SoCon opponents out of the gate, the latest romp being an 18-4 run to start last Saturday's road win at College of Charleston. The Wildcats did that to Wofford in their last meeting in Spartanburg. There's no reason they can't repeat the feat tonight.

However, there are vestages of a trap game lingering in the air right before tipoff. Even without Nichols, Wofford is a very hot team. Davidson have too much in terms of a crowd tonight and they might be a little flat after being on the road for so long.
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15:45 D 4 W 6
Like he has done so many times before, Thomas Sander opens Davidson's scoring with a layup inside. Lovedale looking good on the defensive post. He has three rebounds already. Sander launches a three from the wing which was not what Coach wanted from him. The Wildcats are a little cold to start and Salters gives Wofford a quick lead.
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14:00 D 8 W 13
There are a bunch of blue-clad kids in the upper reaches of Belk Arena tonight. They just started making noise when the Wildcat went up there. I don't think many of them are actually watching the game. Wait...now they are chanting defense.

Lovedale continues to dominate inside. He pulled down an offensive rebound in traffic and put it back.

But here we go, Wofford is putting in easy shots and Davidson is missing outside ones...they are good looks, but are rimming out. Wofford didn't come here to lose tonight.
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11:54 D 15 W 15
Sander with another three from the wing and he hits this one. I happen to think that he shouldn't have had his license revoked along with Boris. He has always been able to shoot with touch if he's open.

Meno with some great production in his first minutes as he gets four points and will have a free throw after the timeout. Davidson doesn't look bad right now...but Curry is on the bench and Wofford is hitting shots (7-12 FG).
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10:40 D 20 W 18
Kevin Cary is still not in the building. Word is that there was some traffic congestion and we all know that Mr. Cary is a pretty busy guy. Maybe I can write for the Observer tonight. Radio last night. Regional newspaper tonight.

Curry back in the game and gets a steal away from the basket. But the Terrier threes keep falling.
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9:04 D 24 W 21
Curry has had about enough of that. He hits two nice mid-range step-backs in front of the student crowd to get his first four points of the game.

But in the first 11 minutes, Lovedale already has eight points and five rebounds. He is just dominating the Southern Conference.
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3:49 D 29 W 31
Blogger goes down for a bit. Not sure how long it will be out. The Terriers are outplaying Davidson on both ends of the court right now. Which is what you have to do to lead Davidson by 2 on their home court. But Davidson isn’t using the paint the same way they did at Spartanburg, and Wofford is hitting their outside shots. Curry has warmed up a little and now has 12 points.
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Halftime D 34 W 35
Not a very good half for the Wildcats. Curry (14 pts) and Lovedale (8 pts, 5 reb) played reasonably well on the offensive end but the defensive effort was not there during several bad stretches. Wofford got way too many easy shots…and with Nichols out, they don’t have one guy ending possessions prematurely. Davidson will get quite a talking to...they have 10 turnovers to Wofford's 7. Davidson is not shooting particularly bad (51%), but they aren't defending the basket (Wofford FG=52%) nor getting any points in transition.

So it seems that Bill Polian, President of the Indianapolis Colts, is sitting right down from me talking to John Kilgo on the radio. I hope everyone in the digital world is enjoying their fill of Tony Dungy during halftime.

Back here in Belk Arena...things are weird. There's no sense of urgency as the Davidson elementary school kids did a routine on the court. The students, although reasonably large in number, have not been too loud and might not have looked at the scoreboard lately. Like they did against The Citadel back in November, Davidson will have to generate their own intensity and it has to come from their defense. Wofford cannot be allowed to shoot 52% again.
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19:00 D 35 W 37
Curry seems really frustrated right now. He misses his first two shots and he's running up the court after each one. On the last one, Max Paulhus Gosselin got the offensive rebound and Curry didn't know we had the ball until he was already over halfcourt. He needs to get it together.
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18:07 D 42 W 37
The defensive intensity comes at the top with the leader. Richards jumps a pass for a transition two and then Curry hits a transition three 20 seconds later. Wofford calls time and the Davidson crowd appreciates the effort. That was a mirror image of the first two minutes against The Citadel in the December game that I referenced.
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14:57 D 46 W 43
Another steal...this time Sander picks a pocket, makes a nifty head fake and finds MPG for a big dunk. But Wofford is better than The Citadel and they respond with a high-percentage shot on the other end.
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14:00 D 48 W 43
I'm a little disappointed that Davidson hasn't given the ball to Lovedale on the block. Richards is way off his shot tonight, going 2-6 from the field. But Lovedale is fighting for position and Davidson is not giving him entry passes. He is not the same Lovedale fellas. He can score! "Feed the elephant!"
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12:43 D 52 W 43
Meno causes a very audible gasp from the crowd as he almost launches a three from the top of the key. He wisely held up. And Wofford is quickly picking up some fouls. That's five now in the half, four in the last 2 minutes.
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9:00 D 62 W 50
The Wildcats are heating up from outside and Meno is taking advantage of size finally. He has nine points while Richards has 7. But Wofford continues to pick up baskets here and there and haven't given up like they did in Spartanburg. This next few minutes might do the trick though.
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7:54 D 64 W 53
Sander now in double figures after a great feed from Curry. Once again, great distribution of points...Lovedale 9 Meno 9 Sander 11 Richards 7 Curry 24. I'll take that, especially after a mediocre first half.

For the first time ever, Davidson was at the line coming out of the "Sweet Caroline" media...and the students had to shush themselves on the reprise of the chorus. Good teamwork.
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4:21 D 70 W 58
Richards starting to unravel a little bit again. He just lost a routine outlet pass out of bounds after missing a couple of shots on the offensive end. McKillop calls a timeout to talk to him and settle him down. This game is probably over...but the way that the Wildcats end it will be very important.

Not much from Will Archambault tonight. Max and Bryant have done a great job on the rebounds and 50/50 balls, but not much Archer. Andrew hasn't seen the ball on offense since the first five minutes of the game.
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3:00 D 73 W 60
I hope that Stephen Curry doesn't have anything against John Kilgo. He just threw a bullet pass that barely got deflected and went flying at Kilgo's head. Thankfully no one got hurt...except maybe some pride on Kilgo's part for not catching it. The first-row season ticket holders on this side certainly enjoyed it.

Curry now with 29 point and five threes. He has 204 trifectas on his career and is quickly approaching Matt McKillop for second place all-time.
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Final D 78 W 65
You don't often see Jason Richards and Stephen Curry in the lineup in the final minute when Davidson plays in the Southern Conference, but Wofford applied just enough pressure to make that happen. It gave Curry the opportunity to put in 34 points. Jason Richards finished with nine points and eight assists, while Meno and Sander finished with 11 points apiece.

This game did not fulfill McKillop's challenge to put forth a full effort for 40 minutes. But once again, it was another win in the Southern Conference as Davidson marches closer to that elusive 20-0.

Davidson quiets the Dogs

Tonight's post-game wrap-up is again presented by Davidson's own Lauren Biggers. While not writing for Will's World, Biggers likes to watch The Office and Lost, while keeping up with current events. She enjoys drinking Diet Coke.

Back by popular demand – well, my mom and (most of) the guys in the office liked my mindless commentary at least - I decided to make a second straight road trip. Will’s World is kind enough to air my thoughts again, but stay tuned for a possible Davidson blog in the near future. (I know what you are thinking: Here’s hoping.)

This time we traveled just over the border into the Palmetto State and onto the lovely campus of Wofford College. It really is lovely, and it’s certainly less hot than I remember from my Panthers training camp trip, and much quieter and all around tamer than my last visit to the home of the “Beware of Dog” sign last season. (I love that sign.)

In ’07, I drew the short(er) end of the stick with a seat next to the Davidson bench on the official scorers table. From what I remembered of my trip last year, I expected a much louder atmosphere, though that expectation may have been distorted by that row of students shouting over my shoulder the entire time, mistakenly calling Bryant Barr “J” so much that I finally turned around and clarified for them. A momentary lapse in judgment to be sure, but they did help me get connected to the wireless Internet and, well, you need friends everywhere you go.

I digress, and I just spent most of this opening writing about last year’s game, and that’s because, well this wasn’t last year’s game. Nor really, a game at all. The atmosphere wasn’t electric, the game wasn’t close, and unlike some in Davidson red, I wasn’t annoyed by the Wofford students.

The antithesis to last week’s Elon game, where nothing needed was falling for the ‘Cats, Davidson couldn’t miss out of the gates tonight, going nearly six minutes before finally missing a shot. It was the kind of game that when Wofford scored on an inbounds play to make the margin 21-7, I found myself cheering just a little. Cheering, after all, isn’t allowed on press row.

It wasn’t that Wofford was slacking off or even playing that poorly, it was just one of those games that was decided right from the Andrew Lovedale tip. At the point when Davidson finally missed a shot, Stephen (not pronounced Steven, except sometimes for fun) Curry was outscoring the Terriers 12-7 all by his lonesome.

Even the Wofford students couldn’t get up for this one, and can you blame them? At their own arena the P.A. announcer directed a security guard to take away their bullhorn, in so many words, over the loudspeaker to cheers from the Davidson contingent. Though, you can’t blame the guy, since the bullhorn was literally within an earshot. And don’t even get me started on the unnecessarily lengthy horn for timeouts. Was that guy serious? Or just as bored as the rest of us? Or afraid that Wofford wouldn’t actually come back out?

Lacking in drama from the start, expect for if the ‘Cats would get to 100 (no), the crowd pretty much kicked back for a show. For Davidson though, the memories of a close win at Elon combined with a near-miss at Wofford last season, combined for a big win on Saturday night.

“It felt really good,” said Jason Richards, demoted, also to his amusement, to my press conference this night. “Coming down here, it’s always a battle against Wofford. We came out fired up. We learned a lot from the game against Elon. We knew we needed to get out of the starting gates early, and we got out to a big lead. It was a good win for us.”

And if it was a lackluster game, as indicated by the final scored of 85-50, it certainly wasn’t for effort. Steph finished with 26 on 11-of-13 shooting with three each in rebounds and assists. Jason finished with 12 (four treys) points and was credited with six assists, though it probably should have been more. Will, who had such a big game in this arena last season, posted another good total with 15 points on 7-for-11 shooting, while Stephen (actually pronounced Steven) Rossiter was close to a double-double with eight pounds and rebounds off the bench, back after an off-night at Elon.

“Obviously that builds confidence for us,” Jason said of back-to-back SoCon road wins. “Winning on the road in the conference is huge; every game in conference is hard. Furman will be really important for us; they are gonna bring it. Anytime you go on the road in the conference, we just need to come out like we did tonight against Wofford.”

Here’s hoping for a very similar result.

Davidson 85 Wofford 50

Davidson Basketball travels to Spartanburg, SC today to take on the Terriers from Wofford College. Wofford is 1-3 in the conference but their three losses have come to UTC, ASU and UNCG, all teams that are fighting to win the North Division. Davidson has only won twice in the last several years at Wofford, and those wins were decided in the final minute. The Wildcats are coming off a heart-stopping two-point road win at Elon where Stephen Curry broke out of a game-long slump to score the team's last eight points in the final two and a half minutes.

I plan on live-blogging the action from Ben Johnson Arena tonight. I have been told that they have wireless, but as many of you remember, my computer's wireless card is not always completely reliable. So look for live updated thoughts throughout the game, but if they aren't popping up, I promise to at least get them recorded and post them as soon as I can get to a working internet connection.
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So I'm sitting here at press row with a few observations with our friend Kevin Cary. Stephen Curry usually takes the last shot before going into the locker room in the pregame. He did that again tonight and hit it, but then out of nowhere Brendan McKillop and Boris Meno picked up loose balls and launched three pointers after Curry. I don't what it means that McKillop airballed his shot while Meno swished it from the wing.

Lovedale is still projected tonight for the Cats. Hopefully Davidson can take advantage of their superior frontcourt and get some easy baskets on the inside to put Wofford down early. The Terriers have been really close here in Spartanburg and they should be itching for a win tonight. Davidson has only won two out of the last six games here in Ben Johnson Arena.
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17:59 D 7 W 0
Richards with a nice three after a long opening possession. I would imagine that Wofford would try to slow down the pace a la Elon. But I've been wrong about these things before. Sander and Curry put us up 7. This is good.
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15:44 D 12 W 2
We haven't seen Nichols jack it up yet. I don't know why Wofford is attacking us in the paint. This early lead is great. Wofford might not be able to have the firepower to come back later on. They certainly can't outrebound us. Lovedale has played very well securing boards and then hits a nice jumper.

The Wofford crowd is not as loud as it has been in years past. Maybe that App game took some of their spirit. Unlike Davidson, Wofford students have already been back for their trimester/Januarymester.
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13:44 D 18 W 5
Davidson is shooting 100% from the field right now. With good points from everyone. I was worried about this game but I also suspected that we could be out for blood after Elon. It looks like it. We need to get some confidence for the bigs and bench tonight. I hope that Rossiter and Will get a lot of PT. For what it's worth, the entire section of red isn't very loud either. But oh well.
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11:40 D 21 W 7
Will with Davidson's first miss of the night. The Wildcats hit their first nine shots. Wofford's defense just doesn't have the size to really bother our shooters, and we're breaking them down by bringing the ball up quickly. This is the team that people imagined back in October. He then lost an incredible pass from J-Rich out of bounds. Maybe seeing Barr soon.

In the media timeout, they are launching t-shirts with an air cannon. But the gym is so small the t-shirts are hitting the upper back wall. Also, the horn is completely out of control and going too long and too loud.
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8:47 D 28 W 8
And Kevin Cary makes the observation of the night. Curry isn't wearing any wrapping on his wrist. That will be in the Observer tomorrow. I never seem to notice these things. Davidson has cooled off a little bit here. They can't let the Terriers back in this one. Then Curry hits a long three. Thanks for bailing me out buddy. Then another one from inside the line. He's good.
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5:50 D 36 W 13
I heard some extremely loud screaming behind me only to discover that there are several rows of Davidson fans behind us as well. The Wofford marketing interns are handing out 3 point papers, but it might be too little too late. This one is about over. And this place is just enjoying watching Stephen Curry play.
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3:22 D 41 W 18
I also just learned that the shortest ref here is Dean Smith's son. He hasn't made too many notable calls, so that's about all I can say about that. KCary thinks that tonight's PA announcer sounds like Mean Gene Okerlund from the WWE. He was also very upset that I didn't know who that was. Boris Meno with a travel inside. Coach is trying to let him play out of his slump but he's still off. Everytime he grabs a rebound he bobbles it a little before Jason takes it from him. If this is anyone other than Wofford those rebounds turn into loose balls.
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1:11 D 43 W 25
All of the Davidson fans behind the bench have to stand up on every Wildcat offensive possession. The middle section is where Wofford puts the students and you can't see from around them down the court unless you stand. When the P.A. announcer told the students not to use megaphones, the older Davidson contingent expressed their approval.

After starting the game, Lovedale hasn't seen too much PT. I understand trying to get Boris some time. But remember, Andrew hasn't had all that much experience this year, starting or no, I'd rather get him the playing time in a lot of ways.
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Halftime D 45 W 25
Excellent first half from Davidson. They had a few breakdowns on defense and picked up silly fouls, but there's not too much to critique them on. Curry has 17 points in the first half with some white-hot outside shooting. His halftime high was 26 against Appalachian State. Archambault has also played well. The frontcourt has dominated as expected, outrebounding Wofford 18-7 (Meno 5, Rossiter 4). The halftime stats are little pathetic. The Wofford staff gave Aaron Bond a minute of play while they only gave Jason Richards 3 assists against 3 turnovers. That's not right.

The halftime entertainment is a bunch of Wofford tennis players playing a small ball game on the court. The guys are being mean and just hitting the ball really hard. It's not very competitive.
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17:21 D 54 W 29
And a quick start for Davidson...Curry has five points to put him at 22. Sweet pass from Lovedale to Sander underneath. Unfortunately Lovedale gets tagged for his third foul on the other end.

I noticed on DavidsonCats that people thought Meno hit a three in the first. He didn't. I wonder where Kilgo thought that he did. Curry now with 24, but he has 3 fouls now.
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15:48 D 56 W 29
Sander down on the court with an elbow to the face. This doesn't look too good. Sander is always the victim of these things, because frankly, his chippiness usually goes unnoticed and other players retaliate obviously. Lovedale might not see too much more time with 3 fouls.
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15:23 D 56 W 29
At the media timeout and Curry has 26 points. That will make up for some of those sub-par scoring performances against Elon and Western Carolina.
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11:54 D 63 W 31
If this margin stays like this, this win will be larger than the cumulative margin of victory for at least ten years down here in Ben Johnson. This is a pretty epic performance by these guys. Too bad we have Furman on Wednesday...I wanna go straight to Chattanooga.

Several Wildcat fans are yelling the margin of the score at every Davidson bucket. The Wofford students are none too pleased and have made jokes about our ability to do math. Well, yes, we can do math.
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9:38 D 71 W 36
Umm...so we hit some more threes or something...haha. What's the over/under on Davidson breaking 100?
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7:10 D 77 W 36
Curry gets his fourth foul (26 points) and J-Rich is back in. Richards looks to be getting his assist total back up by launching rainbow passes over the defense to streaking small forwards. And Wofford goes back to zone. Meno gets a nice one-handed dunk on the inside and the lead grows. Wofford has all but given up.

I get a little nudge in the elbow as Kevin Cary exclaims that Jax has opened the scoring against New England. Cary has broken the rules of dress code objectivity by wearing a Jacksonville sweatshirt to tonight's game. He claims that those rules don't apply to the Jaguars and especially not at a SoCon game in Spartanburg.
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4:21 D 81 W 40
This will be Davidson's 30th win in its last 31 conference games dating back to February 25, 2006. This has turned into a foul-fest for Davidson, but Wofford cannot shoot free throws to save their life. Nelms and McKillop into the lineup.
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Final D 85 W 50
Huge win for Davidson tonight. They came out firing and never let Wofford believe that they could win this game. That sort of mentality will need to continue if Davidson is going to run the conference this year. They won't win 20 close games, but they can win 5-10 close ones and a couple of blowouts on the road.

Lauren Biggers will be providing tonight's game story, so look for that later on.

SoCon South Division

With the conference season about to begin in earnest, I have compiled some short notes on every member of the SoCon and their season thus far. I will publish an entry or two on every team leading up to Davidson's Jan. 3 game with Georgia Southern. I will start with the South Division in this post.

Georgia Southern

The Eagles are currently 8-2 with a perfect 2-0 mark in the Southern Conference. Their conference victories came at Furman and hosting Appalachian State.

The Eagles' biggest out-of-conference win of the season came against Alabama-Birmingham. Georgia Southern held UAB scoreless for four-plus minutes down the stretch as they turned a four-point deficit into a seven-point lead. The Eagles hit 11 of 12 free throws in the final minutes to pull out a two-point victory.

Georgia Southern finished last season in the bottom half of the conference with a 7-11 league record including an overtime loss at The Citadel, 74-69. They lost to the College of Charleston in their first game of the conference tournament.

Although the Eagles lost Donte Gennie and his 16.2 points per game, they returned 6-8 forward Louis Graham and their floor general Dwayne Foreman. This season, Graham is in the top 10 in the conference for both scoring and rebounding while Foreman has averaged 6.2 assists per game (second in the conference behind Davidson's Jason Richards).

Davidson plays the streaking Eagles at odd times during the conference slate: during Christmas Break on Jan. 3, and at the beginning of Spring Break on March 1.

Last season, Davidson trailed GSU in Statesboro by nine points at halftime. However, Jason Richards scored a career-high 32 points including four three-pointers and twelve free throws to give Davidson a 101-92 victory. GSU's Graham scored 26 points while Foreman dished out a game-high 11 assists. Davidson's Thomas Sander hit three three-pointers in that game. The 6-8 forward has only hit four threes in the entirety of the 2007-2008 season.

Wofford

The Wofford Terriers have surprised a few people around the Southern Conference with their 7-4 start and one-point victory over North Division rival UNC-Greensboro. Wofford now stands third in the conference with a 1-1 record after dropping a road game at Elon.

The Terriers responded by defeating the Purdue Boilermakers and winning the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic by besting Texas Southern and Bethune-Cookman.

This Terrier season comes in true form as Wofford continues to be the Southern Conference's most inconsistent squad. Last year, the Terriers knocked off Cincinnati and barely lost to College of Charleston before going 5-13 in the conference with a loss at The Citadel.

Their fortunes have largely been determined by the play of their two stellar guards: Shane Nichols and Drew Gibson. Both players are incredible outside shooters, but they have had very little help from their teammates in the past, and the Terriers usually fall when they are held under 15-20 points apiece. Throughout their careers, both players have missed games due to injury, and Nichols' 15.3 ppg this season is not registered among the conferences' leaders because he has only played in six games.

The Terriers seem to be a different team when playing in tiny Ben Johnson Arena on their campus in Spartanburg. Wofford is 4-0 at home this season and they went 7-5 at home last year with near misses against Davidson (83-78), Western Carolina (81-75), and The Citadel (74-71). In the last seven years, Wofford has held an average winning margin of 7.8 over Davidson with a 4-2 record at Ben Johnson Arena. Davidson will travel to Spartanburg on Jan. 12, the Saturday before students return to campus from their holiday break.

College of Charleston

The College of Charleston Cougars will wrap up their last holiday set of games in the old John Kresse Arena on December 29 and 30 when they host JMU, S.C. State and Mercer in the "Jim 'N Nick's Cougar Classic." The Cougars have come perilously close to knocking off two BCS powers, losing to Florida State and South Carolina by a combined eight points. They are now 4-6 with a 1-1 record in the conference (their sole loss came at Chattanooga, 86-70).

The defending conference runners-up, the Cougars have seen increased production from point guard Tony White Jr. who currently leads the team with 13.8 ppg and 3.1 apg. Last year, White backed up all-conference standout Dontaye Draper who completed his eligibility last spring. Combining Draper's absence with the off-season defection of upper-class forward Josh Jackson, College of Charleston's Bobby Cremins has had to look to his incoming players to make an impact.

Andrew Goudelock has averaged 12 points off the bench while shooting a team-best 44% from the field. His immediate impact has helped to overcome the slow start from returning letterman Marcus Hammond. The junior averaged over 7 points a game last year as a starting guard, but he is only shooting 30% from the field and scoring 5 ppg this season.

Davidson has had College of Charleston's number over the last few years. The Wildcats won all three matchups last year and are a collective 8-1 against CofC over the last four seasons. Out of those eight victories, three of them came in thrilling fashion with Davidson hitting a last-minute shot to win the game.

The Citadel

For a team with 13 freshman and an injury to one of two returning lettermen, The Citadel Bulldogs have done well to go 4-6 to this point in the season. Pat Conroy's team has a victory over county rival Charleston Southern and "good losses" to teams like USC, South Carolina and Washington State. The Bulldogs played conference-favorite Davidson tough for one half two weeks ago.

The Bulldogs have played some of their recent games without returning local senior forward Demetrius Nelson. Nelson missed the matchup with Davidson due to a stress fracture.

With Nelson out, Conroy has seen increased production from sensational freshmen Austin Dahn and Cameron Wells. Wells currently ranks third in the conference with 15.5 ppg. He is also averaging 3.4 assists per game.

Although The Citadel will probably finish ninth or tenth in the conference once again, they have a very talented young team that could sneak up on some conference opponents and possibly win a game in the conference tournament being played in their hometown.

Furman

The disaster that is the 2007-2008 Furman Paladins first reared its ugly head on March 2, 2007 when the Paladins managed only 15 points in the first half of their SoCon semifinal game against Davidson. No player outside of graduating seniors Moussa Diagne, Eric Webb or Robby Bostain obtained anything more than garbage points, and Furman was absolutely humiliated after Teddy Valentine threw out Diagne from the last game of his career.

Furman made several off-season improvements to their home gym in Greenville but that has not helped a team that has yet to win a game this season. Furman's 0-10 record (0-3 SoCon) includes embarrassing losses to USC Aiken and Utah Valley.

The Paladins have been led by freshman Justin Dehm who has averaged 9.6 points per game so far. Returning letterman Tony Anderson is one of two Paladin players with a positive assist/turnover ratio, but he has only scored 29 points in ten games played.

Davidson has only lost to Furman once since 1995. That loss came at Timmons Arena in 2006 as the Paladins ended Davidson's nation-leading conference winning streak. Without a scorer averaging more than 10 points a game, it doesn't look like the Paladins will find much success against Davidson or any other team in the Southern Conference this season.

Davidson women advance to face Chattanooga

Davidson gutted out a quarterfinal victory today behind the strong bench play of Mercedes Robinson '09 (14 points) and Kelly Gassie '09 (9 points). Robinson, who had struggled in several games at the end of the regular season, provided the veteran 'Cats with enough energy to eke out the 71-62 victory over Wofford.

Although the Cats were hampered by foul trouble to all-conference selection Katie Hamilton '08, they stuck to their gameplan and kept attacking the Terriers at the heart of their defense. Danielle Hemerka '08 (11 points) was the key to the second half run as several of her layups began to fell and fouls racked up against Wofford. Davidson finished with 32 points in the paint.

The Davidson defense forced 28 turnovers and they converted that into 27 points. They held the Terriers to 21-45 shooting, including 5-11 from three-point land. Davidson grabbed 13 offensive rebounds and had 15 second-chance points to Wofford's 3.

Although Davidson started the first half with relatively slow production on the offensive end, they continued to attack Wofford's oversized frontcourt in search of simple baskets.

The Cats will advance to meet the Chattanooga Mocs tomorrow. The Mocs are led by SoCon player of the Year Alex Anderson who averages over 20 points per game.

Coach Watts knows that the Wildcats face a challenge tomorrow: "We know that we just have to slow Anderson down. You can't completely stop her. However, I'm proud of our effort today, and I hope that we can reproduce it tomorrow."

Wildcats Escape Wofford 80-73

Davidson didn't look pretty in their eighth straight conference victory. The Wildcats missed numerous shots near the basket as they finished 29-70 from the field. Thomas Sander had a rough night finishing plays inside, as he scored only four baskets on 17 attempts.

Stephen Curry led Davidson with his eighth straight game with at least 23 points. The freshman now leads the conference in ppg average with 20.7. Curry went 10-20 from the field with 4 three-pointers and 4 free throws to finish with 28 points.

Although Wofford ended up shooting a better percentage from the field including 14-32 from three-point land, Davidson was able to hold off the onslaught by limiting Wofford's second-chance points and outrebounding the Terriers by a margin of 48-29. Jason Richards finished with six assists in his persistant slaughter of Davidson's assist records.

Despite the score, the Wildcats were able to control much of the game's tempo. The frontcourt had repeated good lucks at the basket, while the defense did not give up many easy looks. This game was much closer than the 19 point spread for the simple reason that Wofford hit some big shots and Davidson missed several.

In one sequence, the Wildcats missed 4 straight layups in the same possession before Thomas Sander was fouled. He missed both free throws but the Wildcats recovered the rebound and Will Archambault hit a two-pointer. That sequence epitomized the flow of the game: Wofford was not able to impose itself on Davidson's rebounders, but the Wildcats often seembed incapable of delivering the knockout blow.

Davidson will face a dangerous Furman team on Thursday in their final home game of the season. If the Wildcats win, they will secure the top seed in the conference tournament and another regular season conference championship.