Davidson 68 ASU 55

Appalachian State is wearing their brand new solid yellow uniforms. They didn't bring them the best luck against Niagara. The crowd is still filing in here in Belk Arena. We've got all of our resident videographers here tonight...Austin Bell, Wells Black...the NY Times is in the house.

And the white towels are waving as the Wildcats take the court. We have complained a lot about "low" weekday attendance this year...but I swear that this is the biggest crowd before tip for a Senior Day game that I have seen in my four years. We're improving.

They will introduce the senior cheerleaders and Boris, Thomas and J-Rich here in a second. The game-day program featured a four-page feature on the seniors where they interviewed each other about every topic under the sun. I will be sure to get the full text of it up on the blog a little later.
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16:10 D 4 A 3
Wildcats lose track of the shot clock and Max airballs Davidson's first shot, but then Minter shows his colors and is once again unable to deal with the double team. He had a lot of trouble with that the first time in Boone. Jason scores Davidson's first point by staying with the play and putting back the trash bucket. Thomas does the same a minute later. ASU having trouble with Davidson's double team.

And these refs might not want to blow their whistles at all tonight. Thomas was absolutely murdered underneath and all the players stopped for the whistle...but it never came. Fancher was pretty surprised...the fans were mad.
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13:20 D 10 A 3
First media timeout and Meno remains in the ballgame, despite having mishandled his first touch of the game. In case anyone forgot, Jeremy Clayton is not a shooter. Kellen Brand is holding Stephen all over the place and the fans in this corner don't like it. They finally get Brand for it, but no one on Davidson's squad wants to shoot it. Jason does. For three! ASU subs out Brand and puts Ryann Abraham on Curry...it doesn't work. Curry for three!
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11:53 D 12 A 5
Another inbounds turnover for a Davidson opponent. Max forces them to throw it in the backcourt and Steve picks it up. J-Rich short on the three but he turns around to get a steal and finishes with the layup. Wildcats finally with a little energy here.
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10:21 D 18 A 10
Curry gets it going with two straight threes off some nifty passes around the perimeter. Curry with nine so far and Jason with 7. ASU not finding too much success inside, outside of one Minter put-back. Davidson's double team forces horrible first shots but sometimes there's another forward with good rebounding position.
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7:23 D 22 A 16
The refs are letting them play tonight. Lots of physicality on both ends. Not sure that it's been called uneven so far...but guys are getting killed without recourse. Minter with his third paint basket, but J-Rich gets to the line and now has 9 points. Richards again to the hoop. He's going off again, but it's because they can't stop his penetration. Kellen Brand gets crushed by Bryant Barr going for a loose ball...they let them play for a while and Fancher goes nuts. Barr looked pretty bad on two three-point attempts.
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4:10 D 27 A 17
Barr makes up for it by hitting a nice teardrop off the drive. In "moments you don't see everyday," Andrew Lovedale takes a charge. Thomas says, "hey wait a minute," and takes a charge on the very next posession. Davidson is trying to go tit-for-tat with ASU's physicalness and now they are getting called for it. That's starting to suck a little. No one in big foul trouble yet. Davidson has had some nice looking shots rim out right in front of me. Jason breaks the scoring drought with a nice three. He's got 14.
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2:26 D 32 A 17
So apparently Dcats.com was down. It's up for me right now. Calm down everyone.

Will Archambault with a nice three. And almost gets another one. The form looks good. Curry's been quiet lately...but he finds a cutting Archambault and Fancher calls a quick TO. ASU is forcing shots instead of getting it to Minter. Davidson's hot right now.
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Half D 34 A 25
Ooooh...and Archambault with a great drive...hit #1: gets called for the charge...hit #2: he went down hard on his right elbow. Yikes. Updates to come. ASU going on a little mini-run now with another O foul on Davidson. Wildcats need to lead by more than 10 at the break. It's nine now. 7 now. Wildcats tip it in at the buzzer as they fought for the rebound for 6 seconds in the air. What an athletic play and a little mo to cut their run.

To answer a question from anonymous...when I say "take a charge" I mean draws the offensive foul on the opposition. I will try to say "charge" or "called for charging" if it's on us. Andrew and Thomas "took charges," while Will "charged." Hope that clears things up.

Jason Richards with 14 first-half points and three assists. Steph is stuck at nine while Boris and Steve are scoreless. The Wildcats do have a huge edge on offensive rebounds, however, 8-1 (good for a 9-2 advantage in second chance points). Davidson is shooting 38% from the field while App is at 45%...neither team has gotten to the line much.
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17:50 D 38 A 33
Boris Meno drives from the top of the key and hits a J-Rich like jumper off the glass.

MPG now following a fast break...Bermudez loses the ball and stops in front of him...Max barrels into him like a car screeching on the interstate and is called for an intentional foul. The students are all over the refs for that one. They are beginning to be a little annoying. ASU should be called for that "two hands" thing on every possession. Minter hits and we have a close game.
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17:10 D 40 A 33
Lovedale now picks up his third foul away from the ball and that's another questionable call. McKillop wants a summit meeting but they won't talk to him.

Curry hasn't gotten going in a good long time. Jason has felt that and taken over quite nicely. I can't wait to see what happens when teams cover Jason for his drives and his threes and have to cover Stephen and maybe need to double team Andrew or Thomas...so far, they are only on the shut-down Steph phase.
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16:18 D 42 A 33
I love this inbounds defense...it's almost funny. Steph gets the steal on that one after ASU has to throw it to halfcourt. Steph played wide receiver and went up and Lynn Swann-ed it.

The refs heard McKillop and evened it up quick. Not that they called bad fouls on App...but they blew the whistle quick. And again. Fancher knew it was coming sooner or later.
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15:20 D 46 A 33
Davidson now on a 10-0 run over the last two minutes after Jason Richards tabs his 18th point. Willie Archer back in and we'll see if he can get going as well.
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14:23 D 46 A 35
Curry is very cold right now though. He missed two jumpers on that last one and Minter is beginning to eat the Wildcats up inside. He's got 13 points and is on the line after Rossiter fouled him before the media timeout. Minter is hip to the double team and he's making moves quicker before it can come. Davidson can't handle him one-on-one.

Will seems to be fine after landing on his elbow earlier. He shoots his first shot which is way short...but I don't think that was an injury thing.
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12:10 D 46 A 41
Minter is eating Davidson alive. The double isn't coming and Rossiter can't take him one-on-one. Davidson is ice cold. This is getting scary. At least the fans know it and are screaming loud. They are discovering for the first time this year that we could lose in here. Scary, ain't it?
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11:06 D 48 A 43
ASU on a 10-2 run. And Curry hasn't scored in nearly 20 minutes of game-time. The crowd falling asleep again, though. Davidson hasn't lost a night, conference game in Belk Arena in six years. Now that's a streak.
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9:11 D 50 A 43
Jason now with twenty. Here is the negative right now: ASU is eating Davidson alive inside. The positive: unlike last year, Davidson isn't panicking with the three point shot. They are shooting twos.

Curry is something like 3-14 right now...his decisions aren't bad. But he just looks very human when the ball hits the rim.
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7:57 D 53 A 45
Thomas loses his man chasing screens and what not and Davis Bowne is wide open. Max comes over and whacks him for the and-1 attempt. He misses and Clayton whacks Thomas on the rebound. This thing is physical, physical....

And Curry is back. NBA three and the crowd is on its feet. BOOM BOOM BOOM...out on App State, and the dagger has been thrust. Sweet Caroline keeps the mo going.


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5:00 D 64 A 47
Three from Steph. Steal and finish from Richards. And the white towels are out. ASU might not be able to withstand this now that Curry is back. Richards has 24 points, a new season high.

Max forces yet another steal off an in-bounds. I just told our SID that if I get my hands on some tapes, I will work up a stat for steals off inbounds in the last month. I'm sure it's something outrageous.

Davidson students get the wave going. But it died in the Pines section. Ouch. That's harsh. I'm sorry (but it's true...).
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1:50 D 66 A 53
Steve Rossiter slips the screen to get his sixth point of the night and Minter walks out of bounds on a loose ball. App is really bad. Another charge drawn by Curry...several for him tonight. Wildcats haven't landed a knockout punch yet. But they are sparring until the time runs out. App certainly is landing anything.

I like not having Jeremy Clayton slam the ball down our throats. It feels good to win this one after last year.

Students with a "Let's go Seniors..." as all three are still on the court.
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Final D 68 A 55
And they announce a sell-out crowd...5,838...and a standing O for the seniors. It's a great day to be a Wildcat...and a senior. It's been a fun four years.

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.

SoCon North Division

Chattanooga

While Davidson likes to flaunt its rich tradition of basketball, no Southern Conference school can hold a candle to the basketball history of UT-Chattanooga. The Mocs' men's and women's teams have each won 24 conference titles and have been in the title game in most other years. Two years ago, the Mocs took a young team, after graduating a conference championship class the year before, and returned to the title game as a five seed. And we won't talk about how dominant the Chattanooga women's team has been over the years.

But last year, the Mocs fell on hard times. They finished 6-12 in the conference and were bounced by Davidson as an 8 seed in the quarterfinal round of the tournament. They finished eighth in the league in scoring offense, and their top scorer, Keddric Mays, finished just 11th overall in the conference in points per game.

With Mays and Casey Long lost to graduation, fans in Chattanooga had little to look forward to in 2007-2008. The Mocs were picked to finish fourth in the preseason polls while most of the outside attention of the Conference went to Davidson and UNC-Greensboro. But now, at the end of December, the Mocs sit with the conference's best record of 3-0 (7-4 overall). They have knocked off the College of Charleston and handed Elon its own conference loss of the season. They also came within six points of knocking off regional rival Tennessee.

This year, little known Stephen McDowell has stepped into the scoring role and has averaged over 15 points a game. He has been joined by fellow junior Nicchaeus Doaks who has averaged over 12 points and 6.5 rebounds a game. As a team, the Mocs have shot 48% from the field and averaged 81 points a game. Only five of Chattanooga's fourteen players have hit less than half of their shots taken (compare that to nine players for Davidson).

Davidson has struggled to play well in Chattanooga's McKenzie Arena over the years, sporting just a 2-5 record in that building since 2000 (that includes Davidson's 1-1 record in the 2005 SoCon tournament in McKenzie Arena). The Mocs have averaged nearly 40 rebounds a game this year. Combine that number with their high shooting percentage and it shows that most of those rebounds must be coming on the defensive end. Davidson will have to play very crisp basketball in order to sweep the season series with the Mocs this year. Chattanooga looks to be back to defend their basketball tradition.

Elon

When the Elon Phoenix joined the Southern Conference several years ago, most conference fans complained about adding another basketball cupcake. The tiny school from Burlington, NC has a gym that doesn't even seat 1,500 people and a basketball program with little notable history. But two years ago, Elon found themselves at the top of the North division and playing in the SoCon tournament semifinal game against Davidson. The Wildcats bested the Phoenix and sent them back down to the road of mediocrity as they put together an atrocious 7-23 record while going 5-13 in the conference last year.

Little more was expected from Elon this year, but they have been a pleasant surprise so far, putting together a 3-1 conference record with their only loss coming at Chattanooga. The Phoenix have been led by returning starter Ola Atoyebi who has averaged seven rebounds and fourteen points per game. He has been helped by senior guard Montell Watson who has averaged just over 10 points a game.

While Elon was one of only a handful of teams to beat Appalachian State last season, they dropped an embarrassing loss to Davidson in front of a home crowd that was louder for the Wildcats than the Phoenix. Davidson's first matchup comes next week when they travel up to Burlington for a late 9 p.m. tip.

Western Carolina

The Western Carolina Catamounts were counting on this year to be one in which they moved out of the basement of the Southern Conference. The Catamounts have not won a conference title since 1996, but they looked to compete in a weakened North Division because of returning star forward, Nick Aldridge. Aldridge would have been a shoo-in for Conference Freshman of the Year in 2007 had it not been for some guy named Curry.

But less than a month into the season, word came out of Cullowhee that Aldridge was gone. Personal issues between him and the staff and players led the school to cut ties. All of a sudden, the Catamounts did not have an identity. Role players were forced to produce and they were unsuccessful. After starting 2-2 with a two-point loss to Cincinnati, the Catamounts have gone 2-6 with their only wins coming against first-year D-I programs N.C. Central and Presbyterian.

Stepping in to fill Aldridge's shoes has been 6-6 sophomore Brandon Giles and 6-2 freshman guard Michael Porrini. Both have averaged double digits in scoring while Giles scored 46 points in Western's two conference losses against College of Charleston and Elon.

Appalachian State

Through the middle of last January, App State thought that they had become the most dominant sports program in the Southern Conference. The school had wrapped up back-to-back football national championships, and had rolled through their basketball season picking up wins against Virginia, Vanderbilt, VCU, and defending SoCon champion Davidson.

But then, they lost...to Elon...at home. Then, in the SoCon semifinal, star Virginia transfer Donte Minter had the chance to send the Mounties to a finals rematch with Davidson. But he missed the free throw. App State lost to CofC, went on to the NIT and got blown out in the first round. D.J. Thompson graduated and then everyone started watching football again. Not that football was ever questioned as the premiere sport up in Boone, but after a stunning upset of Michigan and a third straight national title, fans could care less about a Mountaineer basketball program trying to find an identity.

So far this season, it has seemed as if the players don't care much either. App State now sits 0-2 in the conference and 5-6 overall after dropping games to Davidson, San Jose State, Georgia Southern, and East Tennessee State. Against the Wildcats, App gave up 39 points to sophomore sensation Stephen Curry while star forwards Jeremy Clayton and Donte Minter struggled to produce offensively.

But then Appalachian State went and messed up all the trends. They went out on the road and beat SEC power Arkansas on the Razorbacks' home court. Donald Sims, a young point guard who had pretty much averaged the same amount of points as he had turnovers, went off for 24 points including 4 threes. He only turned the ball over once and managed the game perfectly for Houston Fancher's squad. Minter, a player who had underachieved ever since he arrived in Boone, scored 20 points and pulled down nine rebounds.

The Mountaineers have shown that they have the talent to make noise in the North Division. But only time will tell if they can play well consistently, and draw enough fan support to create a menacing home court environment.

Observations from Boone

-My party had a pre-game meal in a nice Greek restaurant right across the street from the arena. The food was really good and we enjoyed eavesdropping on several App Fans conversations about Mountaineer sports. I was dismayed that the restaurant was totally decked out in football stuff without any reference to a winter sport. Then we found a basketball poster in the corner...for the women. No wonder this basketball team has had a hard time becoming a winning program.

-I admit that I was really looking forward to seeing the Holmes Center and experiencing one of the best SoCon basketball environments outside of Charleston or Davidson. But I was pretty disappointed in the Apps for several reasons. First off, they turned off the lights for their pre-game intros which was cool...except for the fact that they turned them off before our intro, which we did in pitch blackness. Then the announcer pronounced Steee-ven Curry which got all of the Davidson fans really riled up. After Steph outscored ASU throughout most of the first half, the announcer started saying Stef-ahhn. What is this, Family Matters? At this point, there is no excuse for any school in the SoCon to pronounce his name wrong. I guess I just didn't believe that the ASU athletic department would stoop so low as to try to rattle him by intentionally mispronouncing his name. That wasn't so classy.

-Appalachian State seems to be having some identity issues when it comes to their success as an athletic program. One poster in a local Subway celebrated the Mountaineers' 2005-2006 D-I Football National Championship. Hey now, I think an A or two might be needed for that one. Also, this year's basketball team media guide has a picture of a 2006-2007 Regular Season Champions ring. First off, who gets rings for winning the regular season and then putting an NIT logo. And second of all, ASU DIDN'T WIN THE REGULAR SEASON! They won the SoCon's North Division and lost as a 2 seed in the conference tournament semis before getting blasted in the play-in round of the NIT. I guess people will buy rings for anything these days.

-This rivalry is probably one of the cleanest amongst SoCon foes. I know that Georgia Southern-CofC has gotten heated over the years and so has Georgia Southern-ASU in football. Every year there are some pretty frustrated CofC fans and overzealous Davidson fans who don't always get along. But I felt like everything was pretty calm in the Holmes Center tonight. The App students and administration did their part to try to rattle Steph, and the Wildcats were very intentional in their silencing of the crowd. It could have gotten uglier than it did.

-It seems like opponents are going to be getting open looks from the corners for the rest of the season. Davidson doubled down on the post and trapped near the perimeter a few times. App. State was very effective in their rotation early on, and they kept the score close by hitting some wide open three-pointers. Thankfully, they cooled off after a while. I guess the defense makes sense most of the time because ASU had untold numbers of missed layups, charges and travels while being doubled in the paint, and several of their players could not hit wide open threes if their life depended on it. But that is something we are giving up right now and it looks like it will continue.

-Davidson hit 12 three-pointers tonight, nine of them coming from Curry (Curry finished with a career-high 38, setting a new Holmes Center record). Some people might worry that we are relying on him too much, but there were a few moments when either Steph wasn't in the game or he was tired and the rest of the offense just sensed that they needed to step up. The Bryant Barr three-pointer to break ASU's late run came as a result of too much defensive attention being spent on Steph. It was a perfect example of how such a great player made his teammates better.

-I was a bit worried about the lack of entry passes that we put into the paint in the first half. Thomas "The General" Sander converted on several nice back-to-the-basket opportunities later on, but our frontcourt struggled during much of the early going. All of the bigs, Sander especially, seemed very tentative about taking their shot. They almost just expected Jeremy Clayton to come swat their shot on every attempt. There were several times where they had open layups or dunks, but their hesitation allowed the defense to recover. One stat that really displayed this tentativeness was FT shooting. Davidson had absolutely none until the final minutes of the game.

-Will Archambault seems to be in the slump of a lifetime. This thing is beginning to get to those proportions where in baseball, players would completely change their pregame rituals, sleep on the other side of the bed or switch the order in which they eat their pregame meal. Coach McKillop didn't force the issue tonight as he allowed Bryant Barr to come in and play the 3 position alongside J-Rich and Stephen. Jason also had a tough game. He missed several open threes and his patented drives seemed to have been a tad off. He was visibly frustrated with his lack of offensive output.

-The biggest part of this game was the fire with which Davidson played. ASU tried to slow the game down and deflate Davidson's emotion by running a 2-3 zone defense, but it ultimately didn't shut us down completely. From the first tip to the final whistle MPG, The Big Cat, Boris and, of course Steph, created loose balls, crashed the boards and answered every run made by the Mountaineers. They pulled out a victory on the road against a very formidable SoCon opponent. That is no small accomplishment for November.

Rossiter's double-double leads Davidson to 2-2

Photo by Tim Cowie

Coming into today's game against North Carolina Central, the 25th-ranked Davidson Wildcats seemed to have more questions than answers about where this 100th season was going. The Wildcats had fallen to unranked Western Michigan on Wednesday night and started the season 1-2.

On the message boards and around the Thanksgiving turkeys Wildcat fans were wondering where the Davidson post game had gone...where was the production of Lovedale/Barr/Archambault?...where was the team's rhythm?...how was Davidson supposed to beat Duke/UCLA/NCSU and earn an at-large bid if they couldn't even lead Western Michigan for more than one minute?

Against NCCU, the Wildcats seemed to take a step forward in answering those questions and becoming a better team overall. The team's bench scored 51 of Davidson's 98 points. The Wildcats doubled the Eagles' offensive rebounding numbers (18:9) and they scored 24 points off of turnovers. Davidson finished with a 98-50 victory in front of 3,412 at Belk Arena.

Before Saturday's game, Coach McKillop told John Kilgo that he led such a "passionate" practice on Thursday morning that he was worried that none of the players would show up at his house for Thanksgiving dinner.

Davidson's first half attack was headed by Thomas Sander who scored seven points early. He finished with 13 points and two steals in just 21 minutes of play. Stephen Curry had a 2-minute spurt where he scored two point baskets on three straight possessions. Curry finished with a team-high 16 points on 6-14 shooting. Jason Richards also played well, tallying four steals and 10 assists against zero turnovers.

The biggest plus from the game, however, was the play of Steve Rossiter, Bryant Barr and Will Archambault. Rossiter, who has been one of the unsung heroes of this program for the last two years, had a very impressive double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds (including 4 offensive). Rossiter contributed huge minutes in Davidson's four-point loss to #1 UNC on the 14th. He is averaging 6.5 points a game and is shooting a team-high 75% from the field.

Bryant Barr also broke out with four three-pointers on 4-7 shooting. While he needs to attempt more two-pointers (21 of his 26 season attempts have come from three land), his ability to hit the outside shot will be crucial in stretching the defense when Curry is taking a breather.

Even the much maligned Will Archambault ended up with a nice stat-line. He started the game cold but finished with 10 points. Archambault had only hit two threes in the past three games and Coach McKillop had spent a lot of practice time to work on Archambault's balance. Even with today's game going the route of the blowout, McKillop stuck with Archambault and helped him get some confidence, as he hit several nice shots and ended up with some big rebounds late in the contest.

The Wildcats used a matchup zone at several moments during the contest. This was an interesting decision after McKillop claimed that his use of the 1-3-1 in two possessions was one of the biggest keys to the Wildcats' loss to UNC. The Wildcats lost several Eagles who found open space after Davidson came with the trap, but Davidson also came up with 15 steals and forced 27 NCCU turnovers. The Wildcats will need to continue their aggressiveness against some very quick opponents in the next week. However, they need to react and recover like they did against UNC instead of the way that they did against WMU.

The Wildcats' next game will be against Appalachian State on Monday night in Boone. The Mountaineers started the season slow with an opening loss at UNC-Charlotte, but they have since recovered to hold a 3-2 record. In their latest win, they knocked off Campbell 71-64. Game time is slated for 7 p.m. The game will be televised on MASN.

New Look, New Links

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday filled with fun and family (and hopefully some reprieve from Wednesday night's setback). I will be traveling to Boone on Monday, but will not be live blogging from either that game or next week's Duke game. I apologize. In the meantime, I thought I would update the site to give it a new feel. You can find labels down the right side that will point you to articles that have the appropriate material. I plan to use more labels in the future (and I might even go back in and relabel a few of the older articles).

I also encourage you to "digg" stories that you find interesting. Just click the button at the end of the post and then paste the URL into the box. If you have never heard of Digg, it's a user-generated news source that allows readers to upload articles, read other people's articles, and then "digg" the ones they like best. The more diggs something gets, the more popular it becomes and the easier it becomes for people to see on the front page. I see it as a great opportunity to get the news of Davidson basketball to more people around the internet.

Here are some new blogs and articles that I found:

This is a blog run by an Appalachian State fan up in Boone. Run through Wordpress, it's got many more features than we have over here at Blogger and it seems to be the final word on everything Appalachian State. I've been really impressed with the several posts that I have seen over there.

Be sure to check out the news from UNC-Greensboro's big man himself, Kyle Hines. His blog is apparently very popular among UNCG fans and college basketball fans around the country. Kyle claims that his "blog has become a weekly topic in some of my classes and even a bedtime story for a few little kids." That's great stuff, Kyle.

Finally, we have an article from the Charlotte Magazine titled, "Lefty, Bob and the Kid." Written by former Davidson history major and Davidsonian editor Michael Kruse, this is the definitive story of anticipation and regional insight for the 2007-08 Davidson basketball season. Kruse tracks the course of Davidson basketball's involvement with the Charlotte community since 1960 and shows how the program is at a tipping point once again. As a feature writer for the St. Petersburg Times, Kruse always incorporates descriptive imagery and parallelism into his storytelling. When he was a student at Davidson, he took a year off after his junior year and traveled around with the men's basketball team writing a book about the Wildcat program. Although Kruse was never able to finish the book, he came into close contact with the character and heartbeat of everything that makes Davidson special. That intimate knowledge truly shines forth in this article.