Davidson 75, Western 72

AP:

CULLOWHEE -- Nik Cochran and Jake Cohen each scored 14 points to help Davidson hold off Western Carolina in a 75-72 victory on Saturday night.

Ben Allison had 12 points and Steve Rossiter added 10 for the Wildcats (13-12, 8-5 Southern Conference), who held a 70-67 lead on Will Archambalt’s jumper with 4:20 left in the second half.

Western Carolina’s Harouna Mutombo answered with a 3-pointer to tie the game at 70-70 with 4:07 to play. But the Catamounts (18-8, 8-6) would not pull ahead, as Cohen’s layup with 1:05 remaining put Davidson up for good.

Asheville Citizen-Times: Sparked by one of the larger and more boisterous out-of-town crowds to visit the Ramsey Center this winter, Davidson (13-12, 8-5) won for the fifth time in its last six games despite shooting 7-of-23 (30.4 percent) from 3-point range. DavidsonWildcats.com: Davidson reserves put up 35 points. ... Cochran, Barr and Allison combined to score 28 points off the bench in the first half. ... Barr and Will Archambault are one game away from tying Andrew Lovedale for the school record for career games played (130). McKillop: “This is the kind of game you’d see in a conference tournament. This is the kind of game that shows you why Western Carolina’s won 18 games and beat Louisville.”

McKillop on Ben

Brits Abroad: “He showed his versatility, but you know the enigma of Ben is that he shows that brilliance, and then he’ll fall asleep and put his hands on a guy, on a cutter, and get a silly foul, and that’s been his nemesis all year long.”

Samford thoughts from snowy New England

1. Samford’s been in the league long enough now, all of a year and change, to know how they play. It’s excruciating. Against those guys, a win is a win is a win, and then get the hell out of there.

2. Davidson basketball is a better, more enjoyable thing when a McKillop is doing well, and right now Brendan is doing very, very well. Since the Gonzaga game, McKillop the father said postgame on the radio, McKillop the son has shot “as well as any player we’ve had.” As well. As any player. We’ve had.

3. Loved Ben’s game tonight. Who didn’t? This group is more than capable when Ben does stuff like 13 and 9. It was mostly just how he looked before the numbers started to catch up. Alert and energetic. With it. McKillop: “He’s just getting better and better and better.”

4. That’s a tight little stat sheet. The slower the game, the more mistakes cost, and the number that jumps off the page tonight is seven turnovers. You’ll only give us 46 shots? Fine. We’ll do this then. Goodwingoodwingoodwin.

5. Get well Jake.

Davidson 79, Penn 50

AP from last night:

DAVIDSON -- Brendan McKillop scored 19 points to lead Davidson to a 79-50 win over Penn on Monday night.

McKillop led four players in double figures for Davidson (5-8). Jake Cohen scored 12 points, while Will Archambault and Ben Allison scored 10 each.

Davidson jumped out to an early 8-0 lead, and then went on an 11-1 run for a 24-8 advantage with 9:43 to play in the first half.

Charlotte: Against a team trying to turn around an 0-8 season, Davidson was not an ideal foe for Allen’s first game. Philly Daily News: Thrust into the coaching duties after the Quakers fired Glen Miller 2 weeks ago, Allen fell into a perfect storm of chaos in his debut last night. Davidson: The advantage never dipped below 20 points in the second half and reached as high as 34 on three occasions. Penn: Reality quickly set in, however, as the Wildcats were patient, athletic, and accurate on offense in the first half. David Boraks (with Tim Cowie photos) at DavidsonNews.net: Two games do not make a long winning streak, but since the Wildcats’ 103-91 loss to Gonzaga in Seattle, the team has been shooting more reliably and playing more aggressively, McKillop said.

More from yesterday

At DavidsonNews.net:

SEATTLE -- Nationally ranked Gonzaga outlasted Davidson, 103-91, in a high-scoring game Saturday afternoon in the “Battle in Seattle” at KeyArena. Six Wildcats scored in double figures.

Forward Jake Cohen had 16 points, guards Brendan McKillop and JP Kuhlman each had 15, Will Archambault had 11, and Ben Allison and Nik Cochran added 10 apiece.

Times. McKillop: “We’re in the process of working through getting some experience.”

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.”

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.

From the department of the dim

Stopped in this morning at my Publix and saw a magazine I’d never seen before, the Yahoo! Sports college basketball preview, and so I dropped $7.99.

The Southern Conference section calls Stephen “the face of the Southern Conference the past three seasons” and declares that No. 30 “will be missed, unless you’re a fan of the College of Charleston, Western Carolina, Wofford ... ”

Scattershot thoughts:

1. The predictable but still disappointing SoCon storyline the preview mags are peddling seems to be this: Stephen is gone, so Davidson isn’t any good anymore, and the rest of the teams in the league all of a sudden have a chance again. It’s lazy, it’s uninformed, and it’s insulting to the parties on both sides of that far too simplistic equation.

2. There are no Wildcats on the all-conference team. Not unlike most of the other preview mags. That’s not going to happen. Will, Ben, Steve, Frank, JP -- one of them, at least, will be all-conference. Mark that down in ink.

3. So the folks at Yahoo! ranked the Division I basketball teams, every one of them, Nos. 1 through 347. Pretty much all rankings are ridiculous on face, coaches’ polls, writers’ polls -- they’re silly fan candy, and astonishing conflicts of interest -- but this little endeavor is especially impossible. Anyway, Charleston (85) is ranked ahead of Davidson (177), which heading into this year is certainly justifiable, but from the SoCon so are Western Carolina (131), Samford (162), Wofford (165) and The Citadel (175), which is not. That’s just stupid.

4. Someone wrote this: “Where have you gone, Stephen Curry? A sad fan base turns its lonely eyes to you.” We know where he’s gone, and we’re not sad, we’re proud of him, and our eyes aren’t lonely, and they’re still focused on Belk Arena, where we’ll watch the continuation of the last decade and a half of the consistently fine basketball being played at Davidson College. Love, me.

Sooner than you think

Ben: Not long now. Real excited for the season!

Friday afternoon at Belk

1. “Toughen up!”

“Knucklehead!”

“Jesus Christmas!”

“You caught it and got soft instead of catching it and busting his face!”

What’s that sound like? Sounds like a Bob McKillop-led individual workout here on campus on a late September afternoon. Friday's group was Bryant, Will, JP, AJ, Ben and Brendan.

2. JP’s turned more man since the last time I saw him. He’s not that much shorter than Will. He doesn’t move cool, he moves effective, and his ball wants to go in. And I heard from the coaches a version of something they always said about Stephen: What JP’s told, JP picks up quick.

3. Ben’s a V with a tan and a British accent.

4. No Bob McKillop team at Davidson, ever, has had a pair of post players who are built the way Ben and Frank are built.

5. Where are all those points going to come from? No one place. But Will is going to score a bunch this year. Bryant on Will right now: “Best I’ve ever seen him play.”

6. McKillop: “Come here. Look at Steve’s body.”

7. After the whole team worked out on the red rack behind Baker, McKillop called his guys together and told them that nobody’s talking about them right now, and nobody’s expecting anything of them, and nobody’s picking them to win anything.

“And that’s fine,” he said.

8. I asked Steve about Stephen.

“Who?” he said, then grinned.

9. Bryant: “The past three years, so much of our offense revolved around Stephen. If something was going wrong, we looked to Stephen.

“It’s just us now.”

It’s just us now.

It’s Just Us Now.

Athlon is out

They say:

LAC (Life after Curry) begins for the Wildcats, but it might not be so bad. Bob McKillop consistently had Davidson in the mix for the league title before Stephen Curry ever set foot on campus. The Wildcats will be big inside with Ben Allison, Frank Ben-Eze and Steve Rossiter. The key will be finding a go-to scorer and someone to knock down perimeter jumpers. Bryant Barr could be the answer to both needs.

Davidson is picked second in the South division behind Charleston. No Wildcats on the five-man all-league team. Look at the bottom of the picture of C of C’s Andrew Goudelock, the player of the year pick, and who do you see in the stands? Hello there, Lee Sargent.

Finishing the trip at 4-2

Last game: In a win, Bryant 22, Aaron 16, Ben 13.

One game down

And a win: 90-66 over KK Alpos. Facebook: Bryant with a team-high 18, and Steve, Ben and Brendan go for double-doubles.

I Love Commons

Austin’s latest. (Now also on Deadspin. And FanIQ.)

He’s a freshman

92-70

Everybody comes to see Stephen make magic. And that’s fine. He’ll almost always oblige. But what all those people also end up seeing, and this goes for all the people in Charleston and all the people in Boone and all the people in Statesboro and now all the people in Chattanooga -- what I’m saying is that what’s becoming harder and harder to miss is Davidson doing what Davidson does. Watch the games. Look at the box scores. I see Andrew. I see Max. I see Will. I see Ben. I see Brendan. I see Bryant. I see Steve. I see a team that right now, on Jan. 28, 2009, is better than its predecessor was on Jan. 28, 2008. I do. So. That’s 10-0. That’s 40 in a row. The story’s not over. The story continues. AP. Early Uch. UTC. UTC Notes. UTC Quotes. The Chattanoogan. Davidson. DavidsonNews.net.

Wofford

Mike Young in his presser after last night’s game at Belk said he practically laughed during his team’s Friday scouting session when he looked at a freshman guard from Cincinnati and told him who he was going to have to guard.

“Brad,” Young said he told the kid.

“You’ve got Curry.

“He’s No. 30.

“He’s pretty good.

“You’re gonna have to roll your sleeves up on this one, buddy.”

Like Eddie says: “the bright, sunlit uplands.”

Some thoughts here before heading back to the Sunshine State:

1. Will Archambault every game gets at least one rebound he shouldn’t have gotten. Not talking 50-50 boards. Like 30-70. Or 20-80. He’s one of the five best players in the Southern Conference. Y’all know that, right?

2. Last night, in the front row behind the near basket, there was a ninja, there was a boxer, there was a white lobster, there was a cat in the hat with Mickey Mouse hands, there was a kid wearing a red Max No. 14 jersey made of nothing but body paint, there was a kid wearing a red Rossiter No. 23 jersey made of nothing but body paint.

3. One lineup last night for Davidson: an NBA point guard, two 6-foot-6 Canadian run-and-jump athletes on the wings, a stone-cut 6-9 Nigerian at one big and at the other a 6-9 Brit who seems to be sucking down more than his fair share of protein shakes. No wonder these guys are 9-0 in the league.

4. Just scads of unmolested jumpers for Davidson. Hardly any for Wofford.

5. 30’s gone for 30 now 25 times.

Words: Spartanburg. Charlotte. Observations. Wofford. Davidson. Triple double? AP.

Thoughts from Davidson

*** Felt like the college acknowledged Stephen’s 2,000th point after the game but it was quick and there was no fuss.

Very Davidson.

And no mention of McKillop’s 35oth career win.

*** Will’s threes, when they go in, which they’re doing a lot of late, look like laser beams, don’t they?

*** Davidson shot 52 percent from three against a team that was holding its opponents to 32 percent from three.

*** Samford made seven baskets in the first half. ONE of them was a two-pointer.

*** Is it just me or is Ben Allison looking taller and taller?

*** My favorite factoid from Marc Gignac’s game notes?

The last time a Davidson player played 40 minutes in a game: Stephen, Dec. 9, 2008, against West Virginia.

The last time FIVE Davidson players played 40 minutes in the same game: Marvin Lively, Rod Owens, Pat Hickert, Ernie Reigel, John Gerdy, Feb. 16, 1977, against Wake Forest.

*** Davidson: where scouts from the T’wolves and the Thunder share space on press row with The Presbyterian Outlook.

*** Sold some books at the bar. Which was nice.

*** Jody Seymour this morning at DUMC: “An epiphany happens when you need it, or when you’re paying attention, or both.”

*** 585 miles up, 585 miles back.

The day after

A few thoughts:

*** Ben Allison had seven points, five rebounds, three assists and a steal in 17 very, VERY impressive minutes. Four of those rebounds were on the offensive end. Some of them were of the I-don’t-care-that’s-MY-ball variety. No way to know for sure what happens from here, of course, and it was somewhat lost in all the Curry-for-44 fervor, but my initial impulse is to call those 17 minutes THE most important development out of yesterday’s game.

*** Seemed, watching the game, like Andrew wasn’t having anywhere close to his best outing, and he didn’t. But the stat sheet was sort of surprising: 12 points on 6-for-13 shooting, nine rebounds, including SEVEN offensive rebounds, and two blocks in 38 minutes. I’ll take that.

*** Rossiter? Ten rebounds, one of them, of course, near the end of the game, off that airball, being hugely important.

It led to what is seriously one of Davidson’s bread-and-butter plays at this point.

Missed shot.

Offensive glass.

FIND 30!

*** Scott Fowler asked in the presser how deep that last three from Stephen might have been.

McKillop thought.

He paused.

Grinned.

“Thirty-seven?” he said.

Stephen?

“I didn’t see,” he said almost apologetically. “I just saw the rim.”

*** I asked Stephen in the hallway outside the locker room how LeBron was entered in his phone. In other words, when a text message arrives on his phone from, you know, the best basketball player on Planet Earth, what’s it look like on his screen?

LeBron?

James?

The King?

Everybody’s in his phone with a full name, he explained, so …

Good luck.

From: LeBron James.

*** Add this to the always fun, always growing list labeled How Things Have Changed: There was Sidney Lowe, coach of the N.C. State Wolfpack of the Atlantic Coast Conference, after a loss to Davidson College, 1,700-student Davidson College, Davidson College of the Southern Conference, telling the assembled press, and with a quite straight face, that this LOSS was “something we can hang our hats on.”

*** Also, this: There are tickets for sale for Davidson’s game against Duke next month in Durham -- right now, as I write this -- selling on StubHub.com for $1,200.

*** Bottom line: That was a game, against an ACC team, that Davidson could have lost, and certainly did enough things to lose -- but won.

Saturday in Charlotte

Stephen had 44. Again. LeBron was there. Again. But Ben Allison had never EVER done THAT.