March 9, 2009

Kruse on 16point8.blogspot.com:

There are always reasons.

Antwaine Wiggins made Stephen work hard, and struggle, and that was not a surprise. He’s done it before.

Charleston beat Davidson on the offensive glass, and that wasn’t a surprise, either. Some of those offensive rebounds came late in the game, and made a big, big difference.

All sorts of other things, too, are right there in the box score – Will and Bryant a combined 1-for-14? – but I’m not a big box score man anyway.

If you’ve watched this team, not just on the TV or the web feed, if you’ve been to Belk, if you’ve been around Davidson, if you’ve been around this group, and if you’ve watched and felt how this season has developed, and how these guys have developed – and how they haven’t – you sort of saw this coming. Easy to say now. But you did.

This has been a fun year, at least at times, and even here and there a really fun year, but mostly – mostly it’s been a long year. I don’t mean season. I mean year. Last March to this March.

There was no off-season this year.

What happened with Davidson basketball over these last 12 months, for the coaches and for the kids and for the program and for the institution they represent, was totally unprecedented. There was no blueprint.

It’s going to take some time, maybe, to sort this out, but something interesting was at work ever since Jason took that shot.

I’ve listened to enough fans the last few months say that the wins this year didn’t feel as good as they once did and that the losses felt worse than they ever had.

Fans are tired.

The guys on the team? They’re not robots. They’re not pros. They’re very serious about their basketball, yes, but – they’re college kids, they’re students.

I think they’re exhausted.

And I’m not even talking about physically.

Cremins, in the press conference after the game last night, unprompted, said this:

“Maybe they’re tired from what they did last year. They might be tired. They might be a little tired.”

McKillop, back at the hotel, in the lobby, with people packed in around him in a large, open room, and with people leaning over railings from the balconies above, said this:

“I don’t know if you understand the pressure that’s been on our guys since last April.”

It’s tough to measure pressure. Expectations. Exhaustion. There’s no box score for stuff like that. But those things, and anybody who’s been paying attention knows this – those things, all season long, were thick in the air around this team.

One final thing from last night: When the buzzer sounded, the TV cameras, I’d imagine, did something they haven’t done in a while. They shifted away from Stephen Curry. Charleston was jumping and hollering and TV cameras love winners.

So there was a moment there, perhaps, however small, when Stephen was, for the first time in quite some time, relatively unwatched.

He walked over to the bench. He stood at the rear of the line of his teammates as they started to walk up the sideline to shake the hands of their opponents. He looked down for not long and then looked back up. He seemed to take a deep breath.

And then he did what he’s always done. He tapped his chest, quick, with his right hand, and he pointed up high.

He turns 21 on Saturday.

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Feb. 8, 2009

Me after the Charleston loss:

A few thoughts:

*** It’s okay to rely heavily on the production of one of the best players in the country. It’s real nice to have him on your team. But you also have to be willing to accept the consequences when for whatever reason he’s not at his best.

*** This was the West Virginia game without the shots from No. 30 at the end.

*** Stephen in the second half last night looked as exhausted as I’ve seen him since the second half of the Kansas game. Maybe ever. He looked … haggard. His actions are usually markedly quick and crisp. Last night, in the second half, and it seemed to happen all of a sudden, they were more slow, more dull.

*** Antwaine Wiggins, by the way, had something to do with that. Kid’s rangy. Kid’s long. That’s not new. He’s given Stephen difficulties before. Remember last year’s game at Charleston? Check out the box score.

*** But the biggest play(s) of the game? Max’s second foul with 59 seconds to go in the first half. Max’s third foul with 38 seconds to go in the first half. That made his early foul in the second half, of course, his fourth foul, and that basically made him a non-factor the rest of the way. So what this game became in the last 20 minutes was in a sense Davidson’s worst-case scenario: The team played a second half not only without Stephen’s offense but without Max’s defense. With Max’s defense, and the stops that come with it, I’m thinking that 14-point lead becomes a 20-point lead and Charleston rolls over. No?

*** There’s no rule that says Davidson can’t lose a Southern Conference game. It’s okay.

*** Davidson has played 58 games league games the last three years and has won 56 of them. Not too bad.

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Feb. 7, 2009

Claire after the Charleston loss:

I have stuff to say.

I don’t know if I can say it though – or say it well at least.

I mean, it was always gonna happen. I just didn’t ever think that it would be today, this game.

I hate it.

Because of espn2, because of Vitale, because of the shirt (because you don’t lose a Blackout game!!), because of the streak, because Joe was here, because JRich was here, because we were louder than we’ve ever been, because we had it goddammit (forgive me Lord, the syllables just work well) and then we lost it.

Because it has been seven hundred and forty-seven days since I last walked out of that beloved building with that feeling in my stomach.

And so much has happened in those last seven hundred and forty-seven days to make me feel like this day just couldn’t come.

We clapped. We screamed our heads off – because even with 2.2 seconds we effing believe. Steph’s last shot was blocked. The buzzer sounded and we all let out this moan of anger and disbelief and just – no. No. It just doesn’t work like that, it just –

I felt kind of numb all over. We sat there for a minute. Pep band played the fight song again. I clapped. I stood outside those glass doors and waited, exchanged looks and eye rolls and much-needed hugs. Asked Joe how much he was gonna drink tonight (because if I was more of a drinker, I’d be getting hammered – and unfortunately that is going on right outside my door. Argh).

Walked to the Union. Andrew slapped my hand, saxophone slung over his shoulder, said “It’s always a great day to be a Wildcat.” David and I put our orders in, sat on the couch and didn’t say anything.

Hush now.

And as I sat there in the midst of the low murmurs I thought. I thought about the framed newspaper that hangs above the water fountain, two faces beaming with resurrection (little r) miracle. I thought about the yellowing article on the bulletin board by the printer, red jerseys sitting in wooden booths. I thought about all that I have heard and seen in the last two and a half years because of this team, the places I’ve been.

The people.

And … I don’t know, really. I’m not quite at a consensus yet.

I guess it has something to do with faith, hope, love, these three. Or skill. Or hard work. And a little bit of frustration. Nostalgia? Sure, throw that in there too (but not too much, move forward not back).

Whatever it is, it won’t let me give up on getting my seat back in that thunderous football stadium eleven hours up north.

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How we watch

Jan. 26, 2008

Another win in the Lowcountry:

Kevin Cary, the Observer’s conscientious tracker of the ‘Cats, pointed out on press row that Davidson has trailed in the second half of just one conference game so far this year -- that, of course, being the scrape up at Elon.

To which Steph said after this latest win: “We haven’t really done anything yet.

McKillop said he was happy with the post play. He said he wasn’t so happy with the so-so second half. Still, though, the boys got back on the bus and went home, a job well done down here.

A win is a win is a win, and in the league now that’s 11 and 0, 21 in a row, 35 of 36, etc., etc., etc.

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Charleston game last year