John Gordy and Fred Hazel

Yeesh.

(This exists. So does this.)

Tonight in Charlotte

Against the Bobcats:

After a modest start to his NBA career, Curry has been very hot the past two months. He recorded the first triple-double of his career in a February win over the L.A. Clippers, registering 36 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds. Only five other NBA rookies have ever posted a 35-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist performance -- Michael Jordan, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor and Jason Kidd.

“I've got a lot of confidence right now,” Curry said. “Nothing has really changed with how I’m approaching the game, but I’m getting a whole lot of playing time due to all the injuries we’ve had.”

Warriors.com. AJC blog last night: On a semi-related note, as small as Davidson College is, every Davidson grad in the Atlanta area must have been at the game. He got a noticeable ovation at the beginning of the game. He played all 48 minutes, too. Stephen last night in Atlanta: “It’s going to be fun. Lot of family in town. Lot of Davidson fans are going to be there. My teammates from last year are going to be there. They’re going to be loud, and it’s going to be fun to play in that arena. I worked out there all summer, so it’s going to feel like home.” Corey Maggette last night in Atlanta: “Sitting down and watching him is unbelievable. There is something bright at the end of the tunnel. Even in the darkness, you notice the way Steph is playing. You see flashes of greatness. We’re watching an All-Star forming. No one expected him to be doing what he’s doing. I mean, we saw what he could do in college, but you never know if that is going to transition into the pros. He’s scoring and facilitating. He is a hell of a point guard.” DavidsonNews.net: Keeping track of No. 30. Worth the read: Frank Hughes on SI.com. Stephen talks with Kilgo.

SCT: Elon 66, Davidson 59

AP:

CHARLOTTE -- Chris Long scored 15 points, including four clutch free throws in the final minute, as Elon beat Davidson 66-59 on Friday in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament.

Longs free throws were apart of a 6-0 run to end the game after the Phoenix led 60-59 going into the final minute.

The victory moved Elon (9-22), the sixth seed in the SoCon North, into a Friday quarterfinal matchup against Western Carolina. The Phoenix’s win over Davidson avenged a 99-96 double overtime loss on Feb. 27 after the Wildcats hit two 3-pointers in the final 3 seconds.

Observer: Six days after stunning Elon by hitting two 3-pointers in the final three seconds to steal a double-overtime victory at Elon, the Wildcats couldn’t summon the same escape magic. Burlington: That’s what Elon did, never wavering despite the rippling drama and the weight of history during what became a 66-59 first-round upset victory in Davidson’s backyard at the Southern Conference Tournament for men’s basketball. Winston: Matt Matheny embraced Bob McKillop near midcourt at Bojangles Coliseum yesterday, just moments after the student topped the teacher in the opening game of the Southern Conference Tournament. DavidsonWildcats.com: Elon ended a 15-game losing streak against Davidson, including three games in the SoCon Tourney. McKillop: “This team has a lot of tournament experience, but it doesn't have a lot in the roles they're playing now.” Also in his presser: “Matt Matheny has done a fantastic job all year long, and that doesn’t surprise me.” Video: Matt after the game.

Basketball and family

Big Steve Rossiter: “It was a goal of both boys to play Division I basketball. So it’s something we’ve tried to share with them.”

The Stephen show: in town after all

Scott:

There is one tinge of irony to the weekend. Southern Conference organizers hoped that Curry would stay at Davidson for his senior year and become the star attraction at this weekend's tournament.

Instead, Curry went pro a year early. Yet he's going to end up being in Charlotte anyway.

“I found out this was going to be a possibility in the fall,” Curry said, “when the schedules all came out. My one trip to Charlotte all season comes at tournament time. It's pretty funny. It's going to be great for me, of course, but it's going to be great for a lot of people besides me, too. A weekend like this just shows how big basketball really is in Charlotte, and how well the city can showcase such a great sport so many of us love.”

Cremins: “Is it inconvenient? In a lot of ways, yes it is.” Iamarino: “I would have preferred if the Warriors to come to Charlotte on a different weekend. Guess I didn't have David Stern's ear on that one.” Stephen: “I'm putting the pressure on my Davidson boys. They better win Friday so I can see them in person Saturday.”

A history lesson for the new folks in Charlotte

Terry Holland, in this morning’s piece by Ron Green Jr., which certainly is worth the read: “The burgeoning number of ACC basketball games on television had a tremendous impact on game attendance, particularly for Davidson with its small alumni base. The television exposure began to give every ACC team a recruiting edge over even the best Southern Conference teams, like Davidson. So what Bob McKillop has done in an even tougher environment is the greatest coaching 'resurrection' since Lefty did it in the 1960s.”

And a funny juxtaposition from Larry Brown: “There was nothing about that job that wasn’t appealing. It was just some things that happened that didn’t quite work out.”

One of those sentences is necessarily untrue.

Try again?

On his way

Telep on Jordan: “He’s just a guy who finds the winner’s circle. He’s not an attention hound and he has a great feel for the game. I love the fact that he can shoot from mid-range and play multiple wing positions. He’s a guy, ultimately, who will end his career underrated because he was always a really good player on really good teams but wasn’t a guy who needed the spotlight.”

Davidson 61, Furman 58

Saturday afternoon at Belk:

DAVIDSON -- Jake Cohen scored 14 points and Davidson defeated Furman 61-58 on Saturday.

The Wildcats (14-13, 9-6 Southern Conference) led 57-55 with 1:24 to go, and the Paladins missed a shot and had another blocked by Cohen with 9 seconds left. Cohen was quickly fouled and made both free throws for a 59-55 advantage.

Justin Dehm then hit a 3-pointer with 4 seconds left to pull the Paladins (12-15, 6-10) within 59-58. They then fouled Cohen again, who made both shots for the final margin.

Davidson led 53-41 with 5:50 remaining, but Furman went on a 16-2 run to pull within 57-55 on Bryan Barnes' 3 with 1:24 left.

Will Archambault scored 12 points, and the Wildcats scored 22 points off 19 turnovers.

Observer: Cohen was relieved to make the four late free throws. He’s still bothered by two key foul shots he missed in a loss against Cornell at Madison Square Garden earlier this season, helping the Big Red tie the game in regulation and eventually win in overtime. “That was a bad experience,” said Cohen. “I wanted to make sure I made them when it counted this time.” DavidsonWildcats.com: Archambault and Bryant Barr each became the school’s all-time leader in games played with 131.

‘An odd kind of compliment’

The Observer: It’s taken 21 seasons -- since 1989, when he came aboard -- for a McKillop-coached Wildcats team to lose a Southern Conference game by more than 20 points.

Thursday night in Boone

One reason to feel, ahem, “hoop-ful,” the Observer says.

Davidson 67, The Citadel 63

AP:

DAVIDSON -- Jake Cohen scored 18 points and Brendan McKillop had 17 as Davidson overcame an early 15-point deficit to beat The Citadel 67-63 in overtime on Saturday night.

The Wildcats (11-11, 6-4 Southern Conference) trailed 27-12 with 8:05 left in the first half, then used a 21-6 run, capped by a McKillop 3-pointer, to tie the game at 33 at the break.

The second half went back and forth, with the Bulldogs (10-12, 4-6) leading by six and Davidson by four. A McKillop layup with 58 seconds left was the last score in regulation.

The Observer: Whenever time grew short Saturday, point guard Brendan McKillop was there for Davidson’s Wildcats. For starters, McKillop hit Davidson’s go-ahead basket -- a 3-pointer with 55 seconds left in overtime -- in the Wildcats’ 67-63 Southern Conference victory against The Citadel. Ed Conroy: “Brendan McKillop is a heck of a shooter,” Conroy said. “Of his four 3-pointers, three of them were really clutch.” DavidsonWildcats.com: The ‘Cats have won nine of their last 13 games. DavidsonNews.net: Will Archambault, who had a big night last Thursday against College of Charleston, had 8 points and 8 rebounds on Saturday night. His point total brought within 13 points of 1,000 for his 4-year career as a Wildcats. Still: The Wildcats entered the game as the Southern Conference’s home attendance leaders, averaging 3,917 in the 5,223 arena.

Up to Exit 30

Jordan: “He said I can come in and make a great impact my freshman year. Definitely.”

A couple things

Here are the third and fourth paragraphs of the Observer’s game story off last night.

“When you’re having fun, it’s the result of the brain sending signals to the rest of your body,” McKillop said. “It’s emitting chemicals to allow your body to be relaxed. I talk to my guys about stuff like that.”

Of course he does. The question is whether that’s true. Really? Having fun makes your brain send signals which then allow your body to emit chemicals that make you more relaxed? I kind of hope it’s true. It’s time for some Googlin’.

It’s been a season of some fun and some, well, unease for the Wildcats (10-11, 5-4 Southern), who won for a second straight time and are still struggling to find themselves as they enter the second half of the conference season. They avenged an early season loss against North Division leader Charleston, which dropped to 10-11, 8-2.

Charleston is the leader of the South Division. And those guys aren’t 10-11. They’re 13-8. Mistakes are made. The good news, though, is that in the Internet era, or whatever you want to call it, they don’t have to stay there, and shouldn’t.

On Stephen’s passing

The Observer’s Rick Bonnell:

Casual fans viewed Stephen as Dell’s clone, but NBA execs knew better. As good a shooter as Stephen was, he might have been the best passer in college basketball last season.

That’s what former Indiana coach Bob Knight said ...

No. It’s not. What Bob Knight said, on ESPN last year, was that Stephen was “as good a passer as has ever played college basketball.”

The Observer asks ...

This question:

Curry’s absence good for the Southern Conference?

Says Cremins: “Our conference is more balanced now.”

Says McKillop: “With Stephen last year, we had ESPN and Dick Vitale doing the game. That quite clearly was something that was good for college basketball, the Davidson community and our conference as a whole. There are two sides of that coin. You can have balance and parity, but also a team that’s the king of the hill. There’s an argument for both sides.”

Davidson 91, Georgia Southern 87

AP:

STATESBORO, Ga. -- JP Kuhlman scored 18 points as all five Davidson starters scored in double figures in a 91-87 win over Georgia Southern on Saturday.

Steve Rossiter and Brendan McKillop each added 15 points for the Wildcats (9-11, 4-4 Southern Conference). Will Archambault had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, Jake Cohen added 11 points and Ben Allison came off the bench to score 12 for the Wildcats.

Davidson led by nine points at halftime and built a 21-point lead at 82-61 on a 3-pointer by Archambault with 6:46 remaining.

The guys shot 59 percent from the floor and 58 percent from three, which is great, and 55 percent from the free throw line, which is not. First double-double for Will in his career. Brendan was really good today. JP had 18 points on seven shots. Observer. Savannah: “We knew going into the game that 45 percent of their shots are from 3-point range.” DavidsonWildcats.com: Rossiter became the 30th player in school history to record over 500 career points and rebounds.

Western 77, Davidson 67

AP:

DAVIDSON -- Jake Robinson came off the bench to score 20 points, including 4-for-5 on 3-pointers, as Western Carolina hung on to beat Davidson 77-67 Wednesday night after losing most of a 24-point lead.

The Catamounts (15-3, 5-1 Southern Conference), who had lost their last five games against the Wildcats (8-11, 3-4), led 44-22 after a first half in which they shot 63 percent (17-for-27) to Davidson’s 14.8 percent (4-for-27).

The game changed in the second half, when Brendan McKillop scored all 13 of his points to lead the Wildcats’ comeback.

DavidsonNews.net: Davidson dug itself a big hole in the first half, trailing 44-22 at the break. But they battled back in the second half, coming as close as 4 points (60-56) with 5:43 left. But they couldn’t get any closer. DavidsonWildcats.com: Down 48-24 1:49 into the second half, Davidson used a 16-2 run to cut the lead to 10 by the 14:11 mark. Western Carolina maintained the double-digit cushion, taking a 60-47 lead after Robinson sank a 3-pointer with 7:36 to go until Davidson went on a 9-0 spurt to cut the lead to just four with 5:43 remaining. That was as close as the ‘Cats would come as they turned the ball over four times in the final three minutes of play. Asheville: WCU regrouped and won for just the third time against Davidson since 2001. More. Western’s Jake Robinson: “Coach walked by us in the pre-game warm-ups and said, 'Huh, 21-point margin the last three years.’ He has a way of delivering a message.”

Wofford 68, Davidson 62

AP:

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Noah Dahlman scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half and Wofford defeated Davidson 68-62 on Saturday night.

The Terriers (12-7, 4-2 Southern Conference) trailed 50-48 with 8:07 remaining before going on an 8-1 run. Wofford led 56-51 on Noah Dahlman’s three-point play with 5:46 to go.

The Wildcats (7-10, 2-3) tied the score for the seventh time on JP Kuhlman’s three-point play with 1:36 left. But Jamar Diggs hit a free throw and Dahlman had a steal and a layup to make it 63-60 with 1:07 left as Wofford pulled away.

Physical? McKillop: “Yes. They shot 44 free throws and we shot 22.” Spartanburg Herald Journal: The Terriers, down nine points in the second half when Young was slapped with a technical for arguing with an official about a call, went on a 14-0 run Saturday night and held on to beat Davidson in the Benjamin Johnson Arena. Wofford (12-7, 4-2 Southern Conference) has won eight of its last nine games. The Terriers had lost seven straight to Davidson (8-10, 3-3) and 11 of 12. Blog: Happy Stephen’s gone.

Little look at Jake

Ron Green Jr.:

In some ways, the long-term effects of Davidson’s storybook run in the 2008 NCAA men’s basketball tournament are difficult to measure.

In other ways, it’s simple.

Jake Cohen stands 6-foot-10 and weighs 220 pounds. A freshman center from Berwyn, Pa., he leads the Wildcats (7-8, 2-1 in Southern) in scoring, averaging 13.4 points.

Jake: “It hasn’t been anything like what I expected. I wasn’t expecting much.”

Interesting

The Observer: Davidson coach Bob McKillop brought his team to watch Hopewell recruit Jordan Downing and the Titans play Mooresville this week. Downing had 14 points, nine rebounds and six assists in the win. Bryant: Jordan Downing is gonna look really good in that Davidson uniform next year.