Most noticeable were guard J.P. Kuhlman and 6-10 forward Jake Cohen. Both were heavily recruited and showed why, with Cohen scoring inside and out to finish with eight points and at least three blocks, and Kuhlman contributing a three-pointer, a layup in transition and a jolt of confidence.
What happened at Elon Monday night must continue to happen if Davidson is to win the Southern Conference Tournament championship and the NCAA berth that accompanies it.
Someone besides Stephen Curry must hit a few three-pointers.
When Curry is not the best player on the court, the Wildcats rarely are the best team. And Curry struggled mightily against the Bulldogs, missing his first eight field-goal attempts. He scored 20 points, but he needed 23 shots to get them. He had seven turnovers and no excuses.
If you need another reason to like Davidson, here it is. Neither Curry nor coach Bob McKillop cited Curry’s obviously injured ankle as a reason for the loss. Curry said that once the game began, he was fine. Rather than talk about the ankle, McKillop talked about Butler’s defense.
Curry, in fact, seemed to be about to lead a Davidson spurt when he knocked in his first three-pointer 20 seconds into the second half, trimming Butler’s lead to 34-32. But the Wildcats (22-6) turned the ball over their next four possessions, and the Bulldogs (23-4) went on a 10-0 run.
“They have a winning attitude,” McKillop said of the Bulldogs. “They have great confidence. Their players are custom-made for their system -- versatility, the ability to put it on the floor, the willingness to defend any position.
“And they have that inside/outside presence. They’re a superb basketball team and deserving of a Top 25 ranking.”
On a day when Davidson’s basketball team was not at its best -- not nearly at its best -- the Wildcats eventually managed to pull away from UNC Greensboro Thursday night ...
The Wildcats weren’t particularly sharp on offense, but they wound up with a 75-54 victory over UNCG. The Spartans made a close game of it for a while but eventually were ground down by a bigger, stronger team. The big number that UNCG really wanted materialized with the attendance of 11,687.
It was 1966, and Davidson basketball coach Lefty Driesell was certain that he had two very special recruits—a 6-foot-7 center with big hands and a stunning vertical leap named Mike Maloy and a 6-5 guard with the ability to take over a game named Charlie Scott.
Both were African American, and Davidson, just like virtually every other school in the South, had never had a black player. Lefty was getting ready to bring that barrier crashing down.
“I had Charlie Scott too,” Driesell said Wednesday, a day after Maloy was found dead in Vienna. He was 59.
Maloy held to his pledge. At the last moment, though, Scott decided to attend North Carolina. Twice, in 1968 and ’69, his Tar Heels and Maloy’s Wildcats would meet in NCAA Regional Finals. Twice, Scott’s teams would prevail, winning by four points and then by two. The two came on an 18-foot, final-seconds jumper by Scott, who had 32 points in the game.
Is there any doubt that had Scott gone to Davidson, the Wildcats would have won both of those games? Is there any doubt that they would have won them easily?
Davidson would have been in two Final Fours, might well have won two national championships. And with that kind of base to build from, maybe the administration would have tried harder to keep Lefty, who left for Maryland following the second of those losses.
Maybe today when we talk about traditional basketball powers, it wouldn’t seem strange to say North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky and Davidson.
Do yourself a favor and go see Curry play before he’s finished at Davidson. There are subtleties in his game that don’t translate as well on TV as they do when you’re in the arena. Watching him shoot is a treat in itself; the operation appears effortless. If ever they decide to remake “The Natural” as a basketball movie, Curry is the logical star. Consider that he has won the Southern Conference Player of the Week award six times this season, and 14 in his career. They should put his name on it and retire it. He leads the nation in scoring at 29.5, but I believe he could average 40 if he wanted to; he’s also in the top ten nationally in assists.
You had to see him to believe him, and not that many people did. Gerdy was pretty much the only weapon on several of the Wildcats’ poorer teams, but wound up the leading scorer in school history against defenses geared to stop him. That was without a three-point line, and long-range jumpers were his specialty.
After a sensational performance against South Carolina, Gamecocks coach Frank McGuire said simply that Gerdy was the best shooter he had ever seen. Gerdy almost personally upset then No.4-ranked Wake Forest by himself. The Deacons won on a last second shot, 70-68. Gerdy had 40 of those 68, on 18-of-24 shooting. Deacons coach Carl Tacy said, “We played a box-and-one on Gerdy. We should have played the box on Gerdy and the one on the rest of those guys.”
As far as I’m concerned, he was the best there ever was.
“We couldn’t guard him. He almost single-handedly beat us by himself, really,” Elon forward Ola Atoyebi said of Curry. “We just let him play. We weren’t physical enough on him. We let him get going, and once he gets going ... .”
By now, most of America probably knows how that statement ends.
Charlotte: There are times when Davidson guard Stephen Curry simply takes charge of a basketball game and you sense that the other team really doesn’t have a say in the matter.
Will Bryan: Steph did his thing again. It actually made a message boarder eek that he’s back (he’s back?!?). Dagger three at the end of the half off a 50-50 ball that made new Elon assistant Wes Miller slam his clipboard and Bob McKillop nod.
Also: AP. ESPN. Elon. Davidson. Stan Olson’s observations. Above the Rim. QC Sports Blog.
