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.

Sporting News preview mag

Michael Bradley says:

Things didn’t go exactly as planned for the Southern Conference last year, thanks to Davidson’s semifinal stumble in the conference tournament and subsequent relegation to the NIT. Instead of showcasing star Stephen Curry and perhaps benefiting from another magical NCAA run, Chattanooga went into the big-time fray as a No. 16 seed and emerged with a predictably ugly result.

Curry, the league’s top performer, has now gone to the NBA. He’s irreplaceable, but the overall quality of play should improve this year, and each division will feature exciting title chases that will make for an entertaining championship tournament, held this year in Charlotte, N.C., in an attempt to cut travel costs. That may or not be enough to capture the nation’s attention, but it will guarantee plenty of outstanding matchups.

The South Division should be exciting, since Curry’s departure renders Davidson mortal and gives hope to The Citadel, College of Charleston and Wofford.

Picked third in the South. No Wildcats on the all-conference team. Recruiting class is ranked second behind Chattanooga.

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.

Those season preview mags

Lindy’s says Davidson will finish third in the South division of the Southern Conference. It says Rossiter will be second-team all-league. It says Jake Cohen will be the league’s top rookie.

Ken Cross writes:

Selfishly, the college hoops world, outside of the Wildcats’ SoCon foes, wanted to see Stephen Curry return for his senior season. Although Curry’s decision propelled him to the NBA, coach Bob McKillop has a nucleus that should once again place the Wildcats in the thick of the league race.

The Elon profile, meanwhile, says Matt Matheny starts as a head coach after learning the craft for a decade and a half “in the highly successful Davidson program.”

What’s all this mean? It means I spent $6.99 on a magazine at my Publix.