Tonight in California

Stephen and the Warriors host the Pacers. Chron. Thompson: Curry is a better passer than Watson right now. But not a better shooter or better defender, and not as comfortable out there. For that reason, you might start seeing more of Watson.

SoCon Freshman of the Year?

Rhode Island

Cranston:

DAVIDSON -- Keith Cothran scored 19 points and Rhode Island used stifling defense in a 75-65 victory over Davidson on Saturday to continue the Wildcats’ woes following Stephen Curry’s departure.

Lamonte Ulmer added 12 points and Akeem Richmond scored 11 for the Rams (4-0), who won their first game outside Rhode Island this season behind its suffocating fullcourt press.

Rhode Island forced 18 turnovers and held Davidson (1-5) to 39 percent shooting, overcoming foul trouble to second-leading scorer Delroy James in the first meeting between the teams since Davidson’s victory in the 1966 NCAA tournament.

Jake Cohen had 16 points and seven rebounds and Brendan McKillop scored 12 points for Davidson, which has yet to win against a Division I team as it rebuild after losing Curry, the school’s all-time leading scorer and seventh overall pick of the Golden State Warriors.

Observer. ProJo. Davidson.

Anthony Morrow’s pep talk

Went like this: “I told him, 'You averaged 30 at Davidson for a reason. It wasn’t like you were just throwing up shots. You were a basketball player. You were taken No. 7 for a reason.’ ”

This afternoon at Belk

ProJo:

A few years ago, when he was beginning to coach his son, URI coach Jim Baron sought advice from Bob McKillop.

“He and I talked about having your son play for you,” Baron said. “He’s given me some real good advice on how to handle it. He’s a guy I look up to. He’s a terrific coach and a great person. I’ve gone on trips with him and his wife. They’re great people.”

Baron and McKillop go back a long way.

“He’s from New York, I’m from New York. I’ve known him since Holy Trinity High,” Baron said. “He’s the best. He’s done an outstanding job with that program.”

Game notes.

Puerto Rico next year

Andy Katz: The Puerto Rico Tip-Off will be really entertaining with North Carolina, West Virginia, Minnesota and Vanderbilt leading the way, followed by Western Kentucky, Davidson, Hofstra and Nebraska.

Claire

Says thanks.

Cape Canaveral

Here for the shuttle landing.

Smart on Stephen

After Wednesday night in San Antonio: “I just think he’s a young player. In the NBA, you’ve got to grow. He’s playing against some good players the last couple of games. I just think he’s a little indecisive right now. It’s the first time he’s had a back-to-back against a high-level team, night one and then night two. And you’re playing against a high-level point guard and off guard. But he’s going to grow out of it. He’s a smart kid so he’s going to figure things out.”

Check out No. 30

A Thanksgiving tweet

McKillop: Very thankful for a great day with family & a great meal cooked by Cathy, Rosemary & Kerrin. Equally thankful for a team who listens & works.

Thanksgiving over at Lefty’s Legacy

Blogging from Houston: ... maintaining the John Kilgo internet feed crackling in the background.

Cocoa Beach

Interesting little piece

McKillop on Stephen on NCAA.com: “He put Davidson on the national map and how many players can do that for a mid major program. Larry Bird did that for Indiana State back in the 70s. A host of players did that for Gonzaga. A number of players did that for Southern Illinois and Butler. Even when George Mason had that magnificent run, they didn’t have one guy that put them on the map. But here, it was Davidson and one player -- with and a group of teammates. But it was his face that was the face of the program.”

Why I read Kyle Whelliston

His latest, from Natchitoches, La.: Fans, broadcasters, and we writers generally judge play based on expected end results, which are scores and runs and wins. On the bench, they measure performance against the plans they’ve written up -- it's an important and simple difference that’s nearly always forgotten here on the outside. If their blueprints fail, it’s a matter of accountability, and it’s a question of whether failure was a result of poor planning or bad execution. They live with the consequences on a 24/7 basis, while we have the luxury of disengaged and detached judgment.

Today

Claire:

Every day I continue to be amazed by the unforgettable experiences and relationships that I’ve formed through following this team over my four years here. This board has been such a great part of that, as a connection to fantastic alums, a procrastination tool, a wealth of opinions and humor (and poetry!), and a way to share our love for this community. Being a Davidson student and a fan of this program has literally changed my life in ways I could never have fathomed even this time three years ago, and for that I can hardly express how grateful I am to all of you, to everyone involved. Thank you thank you thank you. There is no team I would rather support, no college and community I would rather be part of. Thank you for helping to make this the truth in my life. Happy Thanksgiving!

Bryant: Got a lot to be thankful for...what are you thankful for?

McKillop after last night’s game

Here: “There was such a sense of tightness, about 'We’ve got to win, we’ve got to uphold the tradition, we’ve got to show people that we’re not looking over our shoulder for Steph to come ...’”

Last night in San Antonio

Stephen: 11 points, five assists, seven rebounds. After the game: “The turnovers I had tonight were pretty lazy, which is why I was frustrated with myself. If I’m attacking the basket stronger and trying to make a play and I make a mishap, I’m fine with that. But the top of the key, making one-hand passes (that are) getting stolen, and finding myself trapped and getting those passes stolen, those are just dumb plays. That’s why I was frustrated. ... It’s just me being dumb.”

Retro jerseys!

Matt Nicholson offers up the idea over on Cats.com. For instance:

#44 Hetzel
#10 Snyder
#15 Maloy
#33 Gerdy
#11 Rucker
#13 Huckel

It’s a great idea. Who do we need to talk to to make this happen? And who else? My proposed addition: #40 Kosmalski. Or Williams. Your choice.

Aaron Bond

No longer with the team. McKillop in a statement: “Aaron has decided to leave the basketball team here at Davidson. The success that he has experienced as a student will now be his total focus. We wish him the best as he moves down this path in pursuit of his career goals.”

Coaching them

Go watch Droney

If you’re in or around Wheeling, W.Va., the afternoon of Jan. 2 at the Cancer Research Classic.

A lot to a little

Wednesday night in the village:

DAVIDSON -- Will Archambault recorded 22 points and eight rebounds, and Davidson’s defense allowed just 14 field goals in a 78-37 home-opening men’s basketball victory over Fredonia State Wednesday night at Belk Arena.

Archambault was 8-of-15 from the field and added three assists, a blocked shot and a steal for Davidson (1-4), while Jake Cohen collected 18 points and eight rebounds.

JP Kuhlman tallied 11 points, five assists and three steals, and Steve Rossiter posted nine points, five rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots.

McKillop: “We’ve been searching as to what I should emphasize. We’re still evolving.” Will: “We had some pretty tough games these last four games. Getting a win boosts our confidence.” AP.

The view tonight in Belk

Via @BrianDFrancis.

The Fredonia head coach

Kevin Moore: “Every kid playing Division III basketball wishes they had a chance to play on the big stage. It’s hard not to feel that way with all of the exposure that Division I basketball gets on television today. My six seniors will a get chance to experience what that’s like with our game at Davidson.”

Look who wrote this

Waitress from Cats.com.

Career high

So far. Monta on Stephen: “Man, you saw it. He did everything that we needed out of him in the fourth quarter. I know a lot of rookies who would have just lied down, but he continued to play, continued to take his shots and did a little of everything.” Watch.

Game notes

Tomorrow night at Belk: They’ve won 17 home openers in a row and have scored 100-plus points in seven of the last eight.

Elon in N.Y.

Matheny and Roberson: Davidson classes of ’93 and ’02.

Gary Parrish

On CBSSports.com:

I wrote a column last April explaining how I was less concerned about Stephen Curry’s future than Davidson's because history suggests programs typically return to their rightful place when a transcendent player departs. I cited what happened when Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble left Loyola-Marymount, what happened when Doug Christie left Pepperdine, what happened when Keith “Mister” Jennings left East Tennessee State, etc. The point was that though North Carolina, Kansas and other power-league programs can endure losses and simply reload, it’s much more difficult to maintain success outside of the BCS for pretty much everybody except Gonzaga, Memphis and Xavier.

Which is why I’m not surprised Davidson is 0-4.

I mean, I’m a little surprised, I guess.

But the moment Curry announced he was turning pro is the moment Bob McKillop’s rebuilding job began, and rebuilding jobs at places like Davidson take time, way longer than just one offseason. Remember, before Curry enrolled, Davidson was the type of program that made the NCAA tournament once every four or five years, and when the Wildcats did it, they did it with little-to-no national recognition. So even though McKillop is tremendous and one of the gems of college basketball, it’ll be tough for him to get Davidson back to where it spent the past three seasons, i.e., as a borderline Top 25 team serving as the darling of college hoops.

I look forward to following the effort.

I hope it happens.

But right now, Davidson just needs a win.

The RBC concourse

After the Georgetown win. More like this from Tripp over at The Davidson Project. Who else has photos like these?

Having a chat

Sink on Cats.com:

It means we are there in good numbers the evening before Thanksgiving to share time together. Even if the team is 0-4 and the opponent is some group of vertically-challenged D3 players that we’ve never heard of. We are there because the team does better with us and we do better when we're with the team.

Claire:

Amen, and amen.

William:

That post already got a couple of amens, but I say amen again. The race is not always to the swift, and I’m quite willing to see what happens in March.

You ride the ride.

Pretty simple.

Eddie:

In 2008, Davidson went into January with a non-conference record of 2-6, with the only wins over Emory and NC Central. For those whose memories do not extend back beyond LaSalle’s scoring deluge, 2008 was not a sub-optimal season. (If only this board had the ability to archive posts made in the two weeks between the NC State loss and the GaSo game that season. I can paraphrase, but I can’t quote.)

Does this mean everything is going to be great and you’ll be ordering replays of NCAA tournament games from CBS in a few months? No. It means we don’t know. We never know. But a statistically significant percentage of the time, Davidson makes strides before January 1, and a statistically significant percentage of the time, the improvement isn’t perceptible until conference wins start piling up.

Your media guides are arriving now, and they follow the wonderful recent trend of including the dates for each game from 1949-1950 forward. Look at the ones since Davidson rejoined the Southern Conference under McKillop and see if you can discern a pattern.

Sink:

In that 2007-08 season ... y’all do remember that we had zero non-conference wins away from Belk in November, December, and January right? In fact, we wouldn’t have had any at all the whole season had the scheduling gods not thrown us some patsies (Winthrop, Gonzaga, Georgetown, Wisconsin). Hard to believe, but it took until February 22 to get a non-conference win away from Belk.

Room to operate

Stephen: “Those guys need the ball a lot to be efficient offensively. It was a tough line to walk. But it’s a beneficial thing for me to put up shots and keep attacking, and I’ve got to be willing to do that.” Tuesday night at Dallas.

Roles and wants

Ten a.m. on a Sunday can be a good time to think about who you are and what you might be able to be.

At tip in Charleston against Penn State there maybe were a couple hundred people watching this year’s Wildcats trying to figure that out.

At around 20-4 or so I left my seat and walked up to the concourse at Carolina First and saw a woman up there wearing a Davidson Elite 8 sweatshirt. The calendar says it wasn’t that long ago. It was and it wasn’t.

The legacy of that incredible achievement is many things, and different things to different people, and not yet fixed. The legacy is still very much being determined.

For this year’s team, and particularly for this year’s seniors, the legacy of the Elite 8 is extraordinary expectations. Expectations are good, or can be, but that doesn't mean they’re always fair.

Every player on this team has a new role. That includes Bryant, Will and Steve. Their roles now are as new to them as college ball in general is to JP, Jake and Nik. They’re trying, trying their hardest, maybe trying too hard, to adjust to those new roles.

It remains to be seen whether Bryant, Will and Steve are trying to be things they can’t be. That’s only four real games. But it’s a statement of fact that they're trying to be things they haven’t been.

“I think the biggest part is being expected to be a leader,” Bryant told me after the game outside the locker room. “Right now I’m making mistakes. How can we expect our freshmen to do things the right way if I’m not doing things the right way?”

This could be a long season?

No. This is a long season. They all are.

That’s the point.

Thoughts from Charleston

1. That these guys made quite competitive three games that could’ve been so lopsided says something good about them. That the early holes were so deep says something maybe not so good.

2. Many of the biggest shots in Davidson’s second half came from JP and Jake.

3. Radio man Ken Hall said after the game that we’d seen 59-57 before. Then he opened up his copy of the book standing in the hall down a bit from the Davidson locker room and reminded me of a part on page 47:

In Detroit a reporter had asked McKillop about his team’s 4-6 start.

“We did not surrender,” McKillop said.

“Our world today is full of surrender. People surrender morals, principles, beliefs, dreams, at the first sign of a challenge, at the first sign of failure.

“We did not surrender,” he said again.

4. Tripp made the good point watching the game Sunday that for the last seven years Davidson basketball has had a clear No. 1 scorer. There were the three years of Stephen but also before that the four years of Brendan Winters. Best not to forget Brendan Winters.

5. The first option on that last play? JP.

Penn State game coverage

The Observer:

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Davidson’s visit to the ESPN Charleston Classic might not have been the most enjoyable of trips, but it certainly proved to be a learning experience for the Wildcats, who lost Sunday for the fourth straight time this season.

Penn State (3-2) jumped to a big lead early in the game that tipped off at 10a.m., and managed to hang on for a 59-57 win.

“Losing is never easy for me or for our players or our program or our fans,” Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. “We all feel the loss. We have great expectations. I’m proud of the way we fought. I think we fought hard in every game. Certainly, we need to have the players executing at the same time. That's my responsibility. We’re going to go back to work to get that done. I’m very encouraged.”

DavidsonWildcats.com. GoPSUSports.com.

Sunday morning at Carolina First

No more see to be seen. Just us now.

... and out in Oakland

In a win against the Blazers, Stephen had 12 points, eight assists and six rebounds in 46 minutes. Rusty Simmons: This was the best Ellis and Curry have ever looked together. They defended well as a tandem, consistently pushed the pace of the game, looked for each other on breaks and even exchanged a couple of low fives.

The La Salle loss

The Observer:

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- It’s been more than 10 years since Davidson has started a basketball season at 0-3, but even after losing 84-70 to LaSalle Friday night in the ESPN Charleston Classic Wildcats coach Bob McKillop saw some promise.

“I’m delighted with our competitive toughness, the way we came back and in the end we were relentless defensively and getting better,” McKillop said after the Wildcats dropped their second straight game in the tournament to fall to 0-3 for the first time since the start of the 1998-99 season.

“There’s no way we feel good about losing the game, but I feel like we’re going to get better as we go along.”

Giannini in the Philly Daily News: “Davidson likes to play fast and we like to play fast, so I think this was a comfortable game for both teams in terms of tempo. Of course, when it gets down to around 4 minutes, you don’t want to shoot it that quickly, so we kind of backed off.” Inquirer. DavidsonWildcats.com. Cowie photos on DavidsonNews.net.

A thought here

Either they’ll figure this out, and it’ll be interesting, or they won’t, and that’ll be interesting, too. Numbers.

This is funny

Elon’s players are starting to talk like Bob McKillop. Here’s Adam Constantine: “We’re going to have times where it may seem like we get knocked to the mat.”

Brendan with the bounce

Dusseldorf Giants.

McKillop talks to David

Listen:

“On any given night a number of players can step forward and score points for us.”

And must.

Other highlights?

“The greatness of Davidson College is the community of Davidson College. And I believe that any time Davidson College succeeds the community succeeds.”

“You don't buy yourself onto our team. You marry yourself to our team because of your commitment to Davidson College and the Davidson community.”

Also he uses the word tertiary.

The La Salle coach

John Giannini: “Davidson wins 25-plus games every year. I know Stephen Curry is gone, but that’s still a very good team. They pose a lot of challenges for us. That’s why we didn’t beat ourselves up immediately after the game because we have to get ready to go up against a high-quality program tomorrow.”

Warriors sans Jax

Marcus Thompson: Another contribution to the improved ball movement is the presence of Curry. He was forced back into the starting lineup Tuesday and Wednesday because of the injuries. Despite his rash of turnovers (nine the past two games), he’s been an aggressive playmaker, giving the Warriors an extra distributor. Tonight at home against the Blazers.

Coverage off last night

SPT:

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- USF has a faster, stronger, more athletic team than Davidson, but it took a long time for that to manifest itself on the scoreboard Thursday night.

With Gus Gilchrist scoring 19 of his game-high 21 points in the second half, USF held on to beat the Wildcats 65-58 in the first round of the Charleston Classic at Carolina First Arena.

“That was a really tough game,” said coach Stan Heath, whose Bulls improved to 3-0. “We just could not shake them. We knew they were awfully good. I’m really proud of my guys.”

McKillop in the Observer: “I think guys have to execute their assignments better. The ever elusive quality we need to grasp is consistency. I thought we got pretty good looks at the basket. We need to capitalize.” Trib. DavidsonWildcats.com.

Tweeting from the Lowcountry

Bryant: big time disappointed...too inconsistent on our part...mind’s on tomorrow’s game now...learn and move on.

With nobody watching

Tonight at Carolina First Arena.

Just some quick thoughts on tonight

Oof. Listened to this one down here in St. Pete. Tough to tell with no video feed so what do I know?

But ...

1. Defense creates offense. At least it does when a team has the personnel to do that. And Davidson has been that kind of team and was very much that kind of team over the last few years. That was because of the will of the sytem, but it also was because of Max, and Stephen, and Andrew. They’re gone now. Those extra possessions add up.

2. Will started strong. Bryant finished strong. It’s harder without Stephen and all the attention he drew. But everybody knew that coming in.

3. Honest assessment from McKillop on the radio after the game: “We cannot have any missing links. That’s got to be the standing motto for our team. No missing links.”

4. That’s two games of data. Tomorrow there’s a third. It’s Nov. 19.

5. We don’t have to fix it. We just have to watch.

March 2008 in Charleston

Championship game against Elon. More pictures over at The Davidson Project.

(More of) how people talk

From the Daily Gamecock: The field includes notable teams such as Penn State, Miami and Davidson ...

No. 2 in the nation

In student-athletes’ graduation rates.

Perusing the game notes

Interesting factoid out of the Butler game: Davidson won all 20 games when it outrebounded its opponent in 2008-09. The Wildcats owned a 31-27 edge on the glass against the Bulldogs.

Find Martin Ides

Nuernberger Basketball Club.

Tonight in Charleston

On the bottom of 5C in the paper that pays my bills:

Star guard Stephen Curry is now with the Golden State Warriors, so Davidson isn’t quite the force it has been.

Distraction for USF? Eh. Nobody cares. It’s still football season down here.

Observer says ... not much.

Last year in Charleston? At C of C. At The Citadel. Also (of course) March ’08. A text I got from Bro that night after the championship game win while sitting in the bar at the North Charleston Sheraton: “We are good. George Mason good. Gonzaga good. Stan Heath Kent State good.”

Best advice Stephen’s gotten?

Here: “From my mom -- finish school.”

If you’ll be in Charleston ...

Pre-game gathering. King Street Grille. Thursday evening at 5.

Advice from LeBron

Stephen: “He’s been checking on me, there’s been a little chaos on our team, and he’s been making sure I’ve kept my head straight. He has been a voice of encouragement.” ABJ. Last night in Cleveland.

Sounding like someone he knows

Matheny: “We don’t surrender. And we didn’t surrender.”

Left from Saturday

Watch out for the ...

Bearcats?

The Warriors mess

Cam Inman:

Curry is concerned about making his teammates better. Ellis is concerned about making Ellis’ scoring average better.

Ugh.

Thursday night’s opponent

SPT: It’s only two games, but there’s a different energy around USF’s basketball team. Stan Heath on Twitter: Team Defense sparked Bulls home victory. Up nxt Davidson in Charlston Tourney. Developing more bench depth will b a focus ovr nxt week.

One more take on Saturday

Lefty’s Legacy:

The result against Butler last season provoked a hopeless feeling; last Saturday’s game, on the contrary, made me feel significantly hopeful. Last year’s game was a sloppy version of Davidson basketball, too reliant on one player who was off his game due to injury and fatigue; this year’s game featured more than a few moments of perfect Bob McKillop basketball -- an energized and balanced offense, crisp passing, smart cuts, excellent rebounding, and tough defense. I could be biased given the negativity that pervades my reflections on last season, but the team on Saturday reminded me more of 2008 than last year’s team ever did.

YouTube reminders

Marcus Thompson:

Before Saturday’s 129-125 loss at Milwaukee, Warriors rookie guard Stephen Curry logged onto YouTube and watched some highlight clips of himself.

“Remind myself that I can shoot the ball,” Curry said, “and just to be on the attack.”

Curry was on the attack against the Bucks, finishing with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting in 26 minutes. It snapped a streak of six consecutive games scoring in single digits and washed away the sour taste of his New York experience. He played only three minutes against the Knicks on Friday.

Wonder what he watched. This? This? This? Or maybe this? Probably not this.

Somewhere in Indiana

Early morning in Middle America on the way to see the Wildcats.

Recapping Davidson at Butler

Storming the Floor: Anyone who expected Davidson to just curl up and die when Steph Curry left for the NBA hasn’t been paying attention.

Stephen on Monta

To Dime: “I don’t really know what was going on in his mind when he said it, but at least give me a fair chance to come in and prove myself. And we did that in training camp and now we’re fine, so it was just a veteran marking his territory kind of thing.”

Kyle and Damon have a chat

Over at Mid-Majority:

Damon: ... the Butler-Davidson game probably didn’t go as fans expected it to go. Davidson came out swinging...especially McKillop's kid.

Kyle: Davidson, as you noted during the game, got a lot of open shots and were able to answer every Butler basket for the first 30 minutes or so. Even though they’ve lost what’s-his-name, there’s still some real talent there. People shouldn’t forget they’ve got three very experienced seniors!

Damon: For a guy making his first start, Davidson’s Ben Allison impressed me. 13 points and 7 boards in 23 minutes is a great day for any big man. We’ll call him a "stud in the making." Strangely, their three senior starters (Archambault, Barr, Rossiter) were all kind of duds on Saturday.

Kyle: And full agreement on Mr. Allison. If he can produce like that, and if Frank Ben-Eze can recover from his surgeries and get some minutes, Davidson will have a formidable front line by the time SoCon play starts.

I’ll agree to disagree on Rossiter. He was solid. “Rebounded, defended, ran the court,” McKillop told me after the game. “Executed his stuff.”

In my morning paper

My SPT colleague Greg Auman on USF’s big-hope big guy: If you ask Stan Heath, the difference in Gus Gilchrist from a year ago is like night and day. It could also end up being the difference between losing and winning for USF basketball. Charleston Classic.

The adoration of strangers

More over at The Davidson Project.

Three headlines

New York: No. 11 Butler Is Sluggish in Its Opener. Baltimore: Sloppy win gives Butler work to do. South Bend: Butler wakes up, gets by Davidson.

My favorite text from this weekend

Came from William: I guess the fairly obvious Big Picture truth behind today and maybe days to come is that exceeding expectations is always more fun than the opposite.

Someone was paying attention

Rush the Court:

On the other side and typical of most Bob McKillop teams, Davidson played hard, generally shot the ball well (47% for the game), and rarely seemed to get rattled in the difficult environs of Butler’s home arena. Well worth the price of admission for the packed house today, the fans were treated to a couple of hours of intense basketball from two teams who aren’t very familiar with the meaning of the word half-assed. Once Butler gets situated to the new season, the Bulldogs will certainly be a force to be reckoned with on the national level, and for those in the SoCon who are assuming that Davidson will simply fade away now that Curry is playing for the Warriors, they should definitely think again ...

McKillop: “It’s like having a Broadway show and actors are now being challenged with playing different roles. Our leading singer, our leading dancer, our leading dramatic presenter is gone.”

Numbers I like

In flight back to Florida -- thanks to the generosity of the community -- and I’m looking again at the box score.

1. Five guys made four field goals.

2. 24 baskets. 17 assists.

3. Won rebounds 31-27. Bryant didn’t play his best game, obviously, but he did have six boards from his guard spot.

4. Won bench points 19-14 against a deep Butler team.

5. Shot 47.1 percent from the floor against a team that last year held its opponents to 38.5 percent.

My favorite board past from yesterday

Came from 4thWatts: This is the first time I’ve really truly enjoyed Davidson basketball since 2008. Last season wasn’t fun. This one already is.

The morning after

David’s gamer in the Indy Star:

Butler fans and college basketball analysts were eager to see the Bulldogs in action. Their coach was, uh, more subdued.

“I dreaded this game for six months,” Brad Stevens said.

Indeed, all his apprehensions -- that Davidson was seasoned, saucy and sizable -- were in evidence Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The 11th-ranked Bulldogs were thrown into the fray right away, and they responded by rallying from a 10-point deficit to win 73-62.

McKillop in the presser: “We had a 10-point lead, and all of a sudden we wanted to have a 20-point lead.” More: “New experiences for all of them. Different roles.” “Every one of them has adjusted to a new role.” “For us to get this kind of performance from them is very encouraging to me.” And on Butler: “That’s the great thing about this program. It’s a program. It’s not a season. It’s not a team. It’s a program.” Listen also to his radio chat with Kilgo.

Last night in Milwaukee

A rookie point guard scored 55 points. Stephen had 14. Thompson: Say what you want about Curry, but he showed some life Saturday. He clearly wasn’t in Jennings’ stratosphere. But he went at Jennings, even ripped him once. Curry was 6-for-9 with 14 points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals, a turnover and a block in 26 minutes. Not a bad stat line. The 5 fouls is becoming typical, however. But if he is going to be on the court, and thrive, he’s going to have to return to be more than just a distributor on offense. Meet him.

Some notes from Butler

*** Watched Brad Stevens find McKillop in a Hinkle hallway after the game and extend his hand. “Big fan,” the young Butler coach said. “You guys are great.”

*** First time in Hinkle. The place is a treat. It’s not in a parking lot, it’s in a neighborhood, and it comes out of nowhere almost Fenway-style. Inside, the big windows up top let the natural light in, and the sounds of the bounce of the ball and the squeaks of the shoes sound the way they’re supposed to sound. And what happened after Davidson and Butler finished their game? Little kids. Rec league.

*** Tripp’s trip: He left his house in Charlotte at 2:50 a.m. and drove the 600 or so miles to Indianapolis, making only one stop, somewhere in Tennessee, he said, where he bought six Cracker Barrel biscuits and ate them all.

*** Radio man Ken Hall after the game: “I think this year’s team can be better than last year’s team.”

*** Enjoyed some postgame pizza and Blue Moons at Binkley’s with Waitress from Cats.com and his road-tripping daughter.

Matheny’s head coaching debut

1-0. Matt: “For the last eight months now, having been at Elon with these guys, they have committed themselves to our program and our system. I just could not be happier with our players right now.”

That was Davidson basketball

I’m not talking about production, although go look at the box, and go look at the balance. I’m not even so much talking about execution, although anybody who’s watched this program for any amount of time saw plays, cuts and reads they’ve seen before.

I’m talking more about … disposition. Demeanor. What did they look like?

From where I sat in Hinkle, they didn’t look lost, they didn’t look scared, they didn’t look overmatched, and they didn’t look like they were looking for the guy who’s no longer there. They looked right.

This might sound funny or strange, and hopefully I can think this through a little more over the coming weeks and months, but I’ll give it a shot after Game 1:

Last year was entertaining. Saturday afternoon was interesting. What was most interesting last year, at least to me, often was more the stuff going on around the court, and less the stuff going on actually on the court.

It’s kind of a difficult distinction to draw, because wider, outside attention isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it struck me at Hinkle on Saturday that nobody was there to ogle or gawk. The people who were there, 6,713 of them, were there to watch two good teams play good basketball. There wasn’t any see-to-be-seen.

I’m mixing senses here, but it makes me think about what Scott Fowler wrote the other day, the thing about “the new era at Davidson,” after Stephen, and how it’s going to be “a much quieter one.”

That depends on what you’re listening to, and what you’re listening for.

McKillop didn’t look quiet on Saturday. Not to me he didn’t. That bench didn’t look quiet. The five guys in red out there on the court didn’t look quiet either. And I don’t just mean sound. I mean energy. And it was an energy that was familiar. And it was familiar in a way that sometimes last year’s energy was not.

After the game, standing against a wall in a hallway at Hinkle, McKillop talked about the closed scrimmage last month at Texas and how his guys went down 15-4, quick, and then fought back, and how he saw that same thing in the second half on Saturday.

“I saw great fight,” he said.

A little later I talked to Rossiter outside the locker room.

“We saw what we could do,” he said.

And a little after that I talked to Fox on his way to the bus to the airport.

“We’re going to be who we are,” he said.

Stevens on Davidson

After the game: “It’s great opening against a team like this. You have to do everything well to compete against them. I’m talking about entering the ball out of bounds, moving from side-to-side. I’m a real admirer of the program. These are two good teams.”

Report from Hinkle

My DavidsonNews.net debut:

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Davidson men’s basketball team didn’t get a win Saturday afternoon, but what happened in the Cats’ season opener here at Hinkle Fieldhouse wasn’t a total loss.

The Wildcats played 10th-ranked Butler even for much of the game before losing 73-62 before a crowd of 6,713.

More to come of course.

The view

Thoughts from Lefty’s Legacy

Here:

This year, I don’t know what to expect, but I do know that I will try to watch and follow this team the way I did prior to 2008. At the risk of sounding tacky and dramatic, there is something about this program, about being part of this story, that makes my allegiance to this team feel oddly important to my life.

Here at Hinkle

Saying the right things

Brad Stevens: “You replace guys in a program, and those guys have a program.”

Stephen: 2 minutes in NYC

Here’s what he said: “It sucks.” Also this: “I’ll ask some questions, because I hate this feeling. ... I’ll do it in a respectful way. I’ll do it in a way that shows I’m willing to work harder if I need to or do something different if I need to. I’m not going to walk in and yell, 'Coach, why ain’t you playing me?’”

Here’s what the Knicks fans said: “We want Curry!”

And here is what Chris Sheridan wrote after the game:

NEW YORK -- From starter to splinter-gatherer, that pretty much describes Stephen Curry’s evolution over the first eight games of the season.

At least Warriors coach Don Nelson had an explanation Friday night, no matter how invalid it turned out to be: “I told you. He needs to get some tattoos.”

Nelson was only joking, and Curry certainly stands out in the Golden State locker room for being one of the few players not to have a majority of his torso covered by body art.

But none? Nellie got that one wrong.

When the “He has no tattoos” comment was related to Curry, he rolled up his left shirt sleeve and turned his wrist up, revealing the tatooed letters T C C and the number 30. “That’s trust, commitment, care -- a little slogan I picked up at Davidson.”

Damn.

Last time playing at the Garden was a little different. Stephen: Searching for answers ... just gotta be patient and keep the faith.

RTC at Hinkle

Follow along.

The Observer drops in

Scott:

But don’t forget that coach McKillop got the Wildcats to the NCAA tournament twice before Curry ever arrived on campus. Although the Wildcats will have far less flash this season -- it’s doubtful that Dick Vitale will show up this season for a Davidson game, as he did last season -- you can bet Davidson will still have some moments.

Three times actually.

These two teams

One more thing from the sky before we land in Indy: Davidson College and Butler University, with enrollments of 1,700 and 4,000 students, respectively, have combined to win 170 basketball games over the last three years -- 85 apiece.

How people talk

From the Gonzaga student paper: After returning, six of the team’s next eight games are against big name schools: Washington State, Wake Forest, Davidson, Duke, Oklahoma and Illinois. More: here and here.

Links and a thought from 35,000 feet

The links?

Andy:

... the Wildcats, who are playing their first game without Stephen Curry in four seasons.

Gary:

... now that Stephen Curry is with Golden State.

Jeff:

Not exactly an easy start to the Life Without Stephen Era for Davidson coach Bob McKillop.

The thought? I know it’s hard to avoid, and I know it can’t be ignored, and I wouldn’t want it to be -- but I do hope that this game at some point can be less about who’s not on the court and more about the guys who are.

Here’s a new one

Mike Young: “Davidson lost Boy Wonder.”

Flight tonight to Indy

Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

Reading the game notes

My three favorite factoids:

1. McKillop in his 21 years at Davidson has had 38 players go on to play pro ball.

2. Frank and the Wildcats plan to continue the Kicks from Cats program this year.

3. The last time Davidson had five players play all 40 minutes in a game was Feb. 16, 1977, when Marvin Lively, Rod Owens, Pat Hickert, Ernie Reigel and John Gerdy did it against Wake Forest. Awesome. It’s in every set of game notes and presumably never won’t be.

Tomorrow’s opponent

The Butler Bulldogs:

Butler’s players don’t exactly back away from the forecasts. They acknowledge their goal is to win the national championship.

CHN game preview. Forde: They’ll go to the Final Four.

‘I’m a math geek’

Bryant. Also because he took and posted this picture.

Up against Butler

Last year at Belk.

Familiar system in a new place

Burlington:

So while the short-term tasks center on establishing an identity and foundation for the future, there’s a greater objective ahead that comes into focus as Matheny applies the proven winning formula of the Davidson blueprint to an Elon program starving for success.

Forward Adam Constantine: “What Coach Matheny has experienced is necessary for a winning program. He’s been around wins, a lot of wins.”

Stephen on not starting

After last night’s loss to the Pacers: “I’m guessing it’ll be for a couple of games, maybe, to see how it works. I don’t expect to start next game.”

If you’ll be in Indy ...

From Peter Wagner: Pre-game gathering. Brother’s Bar and Grill. Saturday morning at 11.

More of this

Uch in Chattanooga: Southern Conference basketball begins a new era this year. Call it 1 A.C. -- After Curry.

Feb. 7, 2009

Belk Arena. College of Charleston. Two hours before tip. More over at The Davidson Project.

Logan and Brendan speak German

Kind of. Also: schedule and results so far.

No. 30’s GQ diary

His latest entry:

It was bittersweet to be back at Davidson. I went to the apartment where I was supposed to live -- the one I had picked out last year before I made my decision to go to the NBA. All my roommates are still there. And when I went by the room that was supposed to be mine, it was kind of surreal. I knew I had one more year of school left, and I wasn’t going to be back at Davidson. But in the back of my mind, I was thinking, I’m going to Oakland. I'm going to have fun playing in the NBA. What more can I ask for?

My friends are always giving me a hard time for leaving. Even Coach would have, say, a team meeting, and they would all purposefully look at me and tell me to get out of the gym. Funny stuff like that. In that apartment where I was supposed to stay, they put a big poster of me in my Davidson jersey on the front door. So I’m like the sixth roommate.

Last week here: “... a brand he can be associated with.”

Bobby Cremins

He never says STEFF-in. Or even just Steph. It’s always STEFF-on. Weird.

‘Toxic’

Dime mag:

Steph is a genuinely good guy and should be a very good player in the League for a very long time, but you have to wonder what type of effect this toxic environment will have on him long-term. Luckily, he seems to have a good head on his shoulders -- hopefully he can survive until the Warriors eventually fix themselves.

Ryan Blake on the rookies. Tonight at the Pacers: Didn’t start. Another loss. Stephen on Twitter: Promise to all the Warrior fans ... we will figure this thing out ... if it’s the last thing we do we will figure it out.

Matt Matheny

This morning on the SoCon preseason teleconference: “I’ve got Coach McKillop on speed dial.” Last March.

‘Rebuilding,’ but …

Andy Katz: ... don’t be surprised to see Bob McKillop’s team find a way into the title race with the College of Charleston and Appalachian State.

Droney’s signature

The release from his school: Sewickley Academy senior Tom Droney will sign a National Letter of Intent on Thursday, November 12, at 1 pm in the Boyd Room of Hansen Library at Sewickley Academy. Tom is signing with Davidson College, a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,700 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, North Carolina. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level. Tom will play basketball for Davidson.

On the Indy Star’s Bulldogs blog

Here:

“Attack.” That’s one of McKillop’s favorite words. “Attack the attacker.” There’s a big part of McKillop that loves when he gets doubted, when his team gets doubted -- his program -- when he’s pushed up against a wall, into a corner, on the ropes, on the mat, however you want to put it. And I’m using those terms because he uses those terms. This is one of those seasons, and this is one of those games, and some would say -- odd as it might sound -- that this is actually kind of his most natural state, and also when he does his best work.

Woods on Butler.

Q&A with the Butler beat writer

I sent David Woods of the Indianapolis Star some questions about Butler and he sent me some about Davidson heading into Saturday’s game up at Hinkle. His questions and my answers are over on his blog. My questions and his answers are here:

*** Gordon Hayward: What’s he do well? What’s he do really well? What’s he do just okay?

Hayward, at 6-9, is very versatile wing player. He shot 3-pointers at 45 percent last season and probably had his best game against Davidson, scoring 20 of his career-high 27 points in a span of 10 minutes. He accelerated his rate of improvement by helping the U.S. team win a gold medal in the under-19 World Championship at Auckland, New Zealand. He made the five-man all-tournament team there. Hayward could still be more assertive, especially if he’s the best player on the floor, as he will be in almost every Butler game. He is not yet adept at driving to the basket, although he is getting better at it. And he has become better at rebounding and blocking shots.

*** How many points is Hinkle worth?

Hinkle is great home court, and perhaps worth five or six points. A crowd of 3,000 can sound like twice that many. I'd expect about 6,500 for Davidson. But just about every team is better at home. One odd thing about Hayward is that all of his best games have come on the road. He has never scored more than 18 in a game at Hinkle.

*** One of the major reasons for the consistency of success at Davidson -- the major reason -- is the consistency at the top of the coaching staff: Bob McKillop. He’s going into his 21st season. Not the case at Butler. What’s the secret up there?

Barry Collier revived Butler’s program in the 1990s, and the defense-first, team-oriented system he introduced has remained intact. Collier was succeeded by one of his assistant coaches, Thad Matta. Then Matta was succeeded by an assistant, Todd Lickliter. Then Lickliter was succeeded by an assistant, Brad Stevens. Stevens began with Matta in 2000-01, so Stevens has been a constant throughout the decade. Collier is now the athletic director at Butler and a resource for Stevens.

*** To echo one of your questions: What should Davidson be worried about heading into this game?

If the Bulldogs are making their 3-pointers, they are nearly impossible to beat. But they didn’t shoot well from the arc in their two exhibition games. Their staple is defense.

Good read from Karen Crouse

Stephen: “The N.B.A., there’s a lot of chaos sometimes. A lot of things going on throughout the year. I came in with an open mind and ready to work hard, and Coach Nelson just keeps encouraging me to be myself and be a professional and handle my business.” Tonight in Indianapolis. His last time at Conseco.

A trip to Hinkle

Bro Krift, today on the phone, edited and condensed: “It was March 20, 2003. We were there in Indianapolis for the NCAA tournament first and second rounds at the RCA Dome. We stayed in an Econo Lodge the night before across from a place called the Classy Chassy. We took the picture in the morning. Tripp had a screen printer do the uniforms with the HICKORY and the 15 on the front. There was a pickup game going on, professors and random people, and we walked in there dressed like that. That place is so cool. The windows and the bleachers, cold spots, drafty spots. It kind of has that drippy-faucet feel. On my fridge I have the schedule magnets from ’07-’08 and ’95-’96, I have a picture of Stephen as a freshman shooting a layup against Charleston, I have a picture of me and Tripp and Stephen after we beat Georgetown, and I have a picture of the UTC game from January of ’08. And I have a picture of Tripp Cherry as Jimmy Chitwood.” Bro and Tripp.

The latest in ‘Life After Stephen’

Mike Cranston:

Davidson coach Bob McKillop, upset with his team’s defense, halted practice and brought his players together. He then reeled off the names of the three starters from last season no longer on the roster -- mentioning Stephen Curry last.

“We’ve got to be perfect,” McKillop yelled, “We’ve got to be a team.”

Above him was the banner proclaiming “NCAA Tournament Elite 8 2008,” the dominant symbol of a storybook three-year run that ended steps away in a conference room in April when the dynamic Curry announced he was leaving for the
NBA.

Stephen on The Stephen Effect: “In the future when coach goes out recruiting he doesn’t have to go through, ‘Oh, we’re a small school outside of Charlotte, we’re pretty competitive,’ and all that.”

Talk with Bryant

We’re supposed to chat on the phone tomorrow afternoon. What do y’all want to know?

Message from Max

Via Facebook: I am doing great. I coach basketball and I do motivational speaking for kids in elementary and high school.

The start of the season

Claire:

Row by row seat by seat standing muttering building up the whole place folks with canes kids bouncing on the balls of their little feet hands swaying and we hear it because we know what to listen for disjointed guitar chords barely there blending with the buzz unrecognizable until one loud rock-heavy strum and we know we know ...

SoCon preseason media poll

Here. Picked second in the South. Charleston.

The view at Belk

The Davidson Project.

A big win over an awful team

And for Stephen: 8 points and 5 assists. Says Rusty Simmons of the Chron: The defensive problems are the same as always. The Warriors have no answer for Al Jefferson inside, and Stephen Curry can’t stay in front of speedy point guard Jonny Flynn. Over on Cats.com: The Warriors are in for a really, really long season.

I concur

The Can Ball Report via Raptors HQ: If you’re not aware of who Archambault is you’ll know by the end of this season.

The SoCon sans 30

Jeff Hartsell in Charleston: He will be missed by ticket managers throughout the league ...

Stephen on defense

Marcus Thompson:

The Clippers took advantage of Curry’s slight build -- 6-foot-3, 180 pounds -- and lack of experience. Guard Eric Gordon drove straight at Curry or ran him off a collection of screens. Point guard Baron Davis took Curry straight to the post.

Stephen: “I’ll just weather the storm. I’ll look at the film and see if there’s anything I could do differently ...” Sunday night: 9, 6 and 4 in a loss. Hard time.

This is the group

Albany: Gonzaga, Butler, George Mason, Siena, Davidson.

How Butler spent Saturday

“Holy Toledo.” Tip time next Saturday at Hinkle: 2.

Looking at last night’s box score

Some numbers that jump out at me.

7 and 5: minutes and fouls from Ben.

10: combined rebounds from Will and Bryant.

20: Davidson turnovers.

33: Brendan’s minutes.

Exhibition win over L-R

Last night:

Four Wildcats scored in double figures as the Davidson men’s basketball team earned an 87-65 exhibition win over Lenoir-Rhyne Saturday night at John M. Belk Arena.

Seniors Will Archambault and Bryant Barr led the ‘Cats in scoring with 18 and 17 points, respectively. Archambault hit 7-of-13 from the field, including one trey, and was 3-for-3 on free throws. Barr went 6-for-11, hitting 5-of-9 from behind the arc. Steve Rossiter and Brendan McKillop both scored 10 points each.

McKillop to DavidsonNews.net: “Equal opportunity.” L-R. Box. Lauren: A.S.I.F. Bryant: Need to be more consistent but some great first steps. Stephen: I'm missing my old teammates.

Stephen and the Warriors

Tough one last night.

Radio chat leftovers

Whenever I do TV or radio, I get off thinking: Well, that was pretty fun, but there was so much more to say. So here are some of the notes I jotted down during today’s radio conversation on WUNC:

1. Pre-Stephen, post-Stephen, all that stuff: I think something some people forget, or never knew, or just don’t care to know, is that Davidson under Bob McKillop has been playing good basketball for a good long while -- well before Stephen showed up. The year before he came? NCAAs. The year before that? Undefeated in the league. NCAAs in ’02. NCAAs in ’98. NIT in ’96 and ’94. Point being, Davidson basketball, in its place within the ecosystem of the sport, has been consistently good and often spectacularly good, and that’s been true now for more than a decade and a half.

2. What March of ’08 did, and what Stephen did, and his star power, was it took a program that already was very good and was on the cusp and pushed it across that line that divides the most avid fans of college basketball and the most casual fans of sports or even non-fans altogether.

3. Stephen as “media darling,” still, even now in the NBA (because I was told that might be something they’d want to discuss): Why? Style of play. Scripture on the shoes. Dad and mom: He’s a basketball prince. Also: Accessible frame. Accessible face. Read into that whatever you will. But he can kind of swing both ways -- by which I mean he fits in on the campus at Davidson College, and he fits in at the Charlotte pro-am, and he fits in inside an NBA locker room. Take the GQ diary. That makes sense. That’s a brand he can be associated with, and not that many athletes can. And he’s not even in New York playing for the Knicks -- he’s in Oakland, for goodness sake, tipping at 10:30 in the east. He’s got to perform on the court to make any of these early opportunities matter, of course, but you can see the beginning of his professional (corporate?) persona starting to take shape. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s smart.

4. This season? Who knows? But that’s part of the fun. There are questions, and there are answers, and they’re out there somewhere. Find them. The last time Davidson went into a season with some of these kinds of questions? Look it up: 29 wins. So it’s conceivable, I suppose, that this year’s group could go, like, 16-14. Given the built-up record of success, though, it’s not all that likely.

5. This is the kind of year where McKillop tends to do his best work.

Next up for Stephen

Tonight: Clippers at Warriors.

Reading the media guide

Media guides of course are propaganda as much as they are actual information, and that’s the way it should be, but two things (so far) stand up on the page and sound like truth:

1. Three players from last year’s team -- Lovedale, Paulhus Gosselin and Curry -- were superb defenders. It will take dedicated team defense from this group to make up for their absence.

2. McKillop: “We need to convert our 3-point shooting potential into game production.”

Happy birthday Will

He’s 23 today. Watch.

Up for grabs

McKillop to Tommy in Winston: “We’re in a process right now of trying to define roles because everyone’s role has been redefined with the graduation of seniors and the loss of Stephen. Steph’s departure will obviously take away points and it will take away defense and experience. And it also might take away some openings that others got because of such a consciousness of Steph’s presence on the court. He made other players better. So that’s a tremendous adjustment we’ll have to make.”

Radio reminder

Today: noon to 1 on WUNC.

Tonight in the NBDL draft ...

Jason goes to the Utah Flash. On Twitter: “can’t wait!!!” Salt Lake Trib. Deseret News. SBN.

Congrats to Michael Bree

The former Wildcat point guard: now a parent, with Jamye Plesants ’02, of Mikaela Riley, born this week in Sweden.

Where will Jason play?

North Dakota? The NBDL draft is tonight. Alpert will be on NBA TV.

Some quotes of note

From the Slam piece:

Bryant: “Obviously with Steph here the last couple of years there have been a tremendous amount of expectations. When he declared for the draft those expectations for this season went right out the window. We have no pressure on us, we’re not supposed to be any good in conference, we’re supposed to be a lot worse of a team now that he’s gone. In one sense that’s nice to not have any weight on our shoulders, but we feel like we’re going to surprise a lot of people.”

Will: “We knew we were a team and we all had our roles, there was never any resentment of Steph. Whether your job was to be a practice player or anything else, we knew that you helped the team reach where we did. Steph is going to be irreplaceable. He’s a great guy, a great teammate and a great player. But the fact that he brought leadership to the team and he always knew how to act on and off the court benefitted us a lot.”

Here’s Stephen, last March, on expectations.

L.A.S.C.

Slam on post-Stephen Davidson basketball. Question: Do you think we’re going to get all of these out of the way in November or will they just keep popping up all season long?

Stephen’s GQ diary

On opening night:

They introduced every single person on the team, starting with the reserves, and building up to the starters. I was second-to-last to be introduced, and so everybody was on the court. It was pretty much just like when you announce yourself as a kid. I heard my dad in all those starting line-ups, so I mimicked that growing up: “Starting guard, 6-3 from ...” -- back then, I didn’t know what school I was going to yet. It was a pretty intense moment. My mom said she cried.

And the first road trip: The one thing was that it was good to get an up-close-and-personal look at Steve Nash. We have a lot of similarities, but he out-performed me by a lot in that game. I’m glad I got that experience early.

True Hoop noticed. And the Bay Area Sports Blog thinks he’s a blogging superstar.

Jordan’s son’s sneakers

Y’all been following the most interesting sports business story going right now down here in the Sunshine State?

A couple summers back I tagged along for a couple days on a recruiting trip with Matheny down to the Peach Jam. One of the guys Matt was watching was Marcus. Davidson was on his list. Kid was good, and lefty. I thought of Chris Alpert, Ali Ton -- lefty points, Davidson hoops. Could work, I thought.

Or not. Yikes. Just a head-shaker of a situation over in Orlando.

Two reasons this would never have happened at Davidson: 1. Nike school. 2 (and much more important). Bob McKillop. Can you imagine? No. Just no.

Last year in Indy

More over at The Davidson Project.

Another little preview

The Sports Network:

There is no question the Wildcats will not be as dominant as years past, but Davidson is still strong enough to battle any team in this conference.

Generally a reasonable, sense-making take, except for the glaring fact that they either forgot about Will or just don’t totally understand how much of an opportunity he’ll have to really realize his considerable potential. Watch.

Company in the conversation

Gene Frenette in Jacksonville: We’ve all seen what a Gonzaga, Davidson and George Mason can do in college basketball under intense postseason pressure.

Preseason SoCon coaches voting

Davidson’s third in the South, behind Charleston and Wofford, and Will was picked all-conference heading into his senior year. All okay.

This note:

Davidson, which has won the South Division each of the past three years, earned the final first-place vote ...

Gotta be Cremins.