This morning’s papers

Charlotte:

The Stephen Curry road show attracted the first sellout crowd in the two-year history of Samford's 5,000-seat Pete Hanna Center. But what the fans witnessed Saturday afternoon was a Davidson squad that showed it is far from a one-man team.

Birmingham:

The Samford Bulldogs almost hustled themselves into history on Saturday in front of a standing-room only crowd at the Pete Hanna Center.

The Bulldogs came within an off-balance fall-away 3-pointer and just one more free throw of upsetting Davidson College and ending a 40-game Southern Conference win streak. But Josh Bedwell's jumper with two ticks left on the clock bounced off the front of the rim and Davidson escaped with a 55-52 victory in front of 5,116 fans -- the largest crowd to see a game at Samford.

More Birmingham:

No doubt many of them showed up to watch Davidson star Stephen Curry, the leading scorer in college basketball, but they were treated to so much more.

They saw a Davidson team that, even with Curry struggling to find his shot, showed why it's to the Southern Conference what Memphis is to Conference USA.

At NCAA Tournament time, pick the Wildcats to win at least one game.

McKillop in the Birmingham gamer: “They play as a team of defenders. There’s no greater compliment than I can pay a team than that particular comment. You couldn’t just beat one of them; you have to beat their team.”

And Stephen: “I don’t have to do anything special for us to be good.”

Also: photos and slide show. Local TV too. And be sure to go read Tim Cowie.

Today at Samford

The Birmingham News:

A lot of people who have never seen a Samford University men’s basketball game at the Pete Hanna Center will be there today.

Like, for example, the fire marshal and Stephen Curry.

The fire marshal will be there to make sure the 2-year-old facility won’t be packed with too many more people than its 5,000-seat capacity. Curry is there because Southern Conference powerhouse Davidson will be playing Samford in the 2 p.m. game.

Samford students have been allotted 1,000 spots in the gym on a first-come, first-swipe your activity card to get in basis. Some were already in line at 2 Friday afternoon.

Also: Davidson. Samford. Charlotte. The Sports Network. Last time. At Belk.

In Birmingham ...

Jimmy Tillette: “We’re getting better and better. Just to have a chance on Saturday, though, we need to be that good or better.”

Today at Belk

The Samford coach: “They’ve won 31 straight league games, come on. I’m not going to put the pressure on our guys to turn this into a must-win or anything.” Also: Davidson. Samford. Charlotte. Wildcats Pride.