One year ago today Davidson came back from 17 down to beat UNCG and Steph got his then-career high of 41 and Jason’s eye was bleeding and Lindsay and I plus the sixty? seventy? people who’d gathered around the tv (they didn’t use the 900 Room back then) jumped and whooped and screamed like we’d just won the national championship. I was on that high for at least 48 hours.
And yet we had no idea.
A good thing to remember.
The Elite Eight. Going for win No. 20 with nine regular-season games left on the schedule. Dick Vitale coming to town. The most beloved college basketball player in America -- a student at Davidson College. A decade ago, in my reporting for the old book, I had sort of a stock question for the men who played for Davidson in the glory days in the ‘60s and those who tried to keep them up or get them back.Comments?
Can it happen again?
Some people thought yes.
More people thought no.
These interviews happened in 1998 and 1999. It’s interesting, given what’s happened since, especially these last few years, to re-read their words now.
Charlie Marcon ’65, Dec. 18, 1998, Bethlehem, Pa.: “It’s a delusion. I think it’s very naïve to think Davidson could ever do it again.”
Danny Carrell ’63, Oct. 15, 1998, Richmond, Va.: “Davidson can never do it again.”
Tom Franz ’84, Oct. 15, 1998, Richmond, Va.: “Absolutely not. It’ll never happen. It would be an absolute stroke of luck for it to happen. I just don’t think Davidson is going to get the kind of kids necessary to maintain that caliber. You might get one – but not enough. And that’s okay.”
Bill Jarman ’63, November 1998, Gastonia: “I don’t think so. Because now the emphasis on basketball is a total commitment – and the academics at Davidson aren’t going to allow that.”
Bill Beermann ’64, Feb. 17, 1999, on the phone from Jacksonville, Fla.: “I don’t think they can get the kind of players the bigger schools can get – guys who think they can be NBA players. Lefty was in an era when he could find these guys and recruit these guys. He was way ahead of a lot of other coaches in recruiting. That just doesn’t happen today. I don’t think it’s possible for a school of Davidson’s size to appeal to enough of those high-quality players.”
Davis Liles ’70, Nov. 16, 1998, Charlotte: “Now I think kids look at where they can go to get the most exposure and sign a big contract in the NBA two years later. That kid’s not coming to Davidson.”
Pepper Bego ’86, Feb. 10, 1999, Charlotte: “What hurts Davidson is its conference. Kids nowadays want to get exposure. The top 50 high school kids want the short stop to the NBA. And the academics, they’re uncompromising – at Davidson, you’ve got unrelenting academic pressures.”
Terry Holland, Oct. 29, 1998, Charlottesville, Va.: “It’s driven by the conferences today. TV is the whole game. That may not be true in two years, six years, 20 years from now. But Davidson has no control over that.”
Jerry Kroll ‘70, April 15, 1999, on the phone from Houston: “The game has moved on. I certainly think it’s possible – but highly unlikely.”
Ace Tanner ’87, Jan. 19, 1999, Charlotte: “I think the scene of college basketball has changed too much. Revenue generation has become the primary motivation. Big-time programs – their coaches are getting a million dollars from Nike and half a million from merchandising. It’s very hard to compete with that for a small liberal arts school like Davidson.”
Dick Snyder ’66, Nov. 15, 1998, Paradise Valley, Ariz.: “Never say never. The thing about basketball is, it’s still conceivable because you only need a couple of guys with a good supporting cast. I think it’s still possible. But I think it’s much harder than it used to be.”
Tim Bowker ’80, Dec. 15, 1998, Delran, N.J.: “I think they could get in the rankings every once in a while. That’s possible. But to expect that every year is unfair. You’re just not playing from the same gene pool. If Davidson is worried about maintaining its academic standards – and I think it should be – it should be very satisfied with having a competitive program.”
Mike Dickens ’69, October 1998, Bethesda, Md.: “You can build a program with one great player a year. But the thing that probably makes it difficult today is the TV contract is so critical. Not being a member of a conference with a TV package is a major drawback. Kids today want to play in a conference that gets a lot of publicity. … But top 64 year in and year out can be done. And every two, three or four years, when the stars are aligned right, you could win a game or two. I don’t see why Davidson couldn’t get to the Sweet 16. The goal should be to be in the tournament every year.”
John Gerdy ’79, Dec. 18, 1998, Conestoga, Pa.: “The basketball program is right where it needs to be. Challenge for the Southern Conference championship every year, win 20 games, go to the NCAAs every few years – that’s perfect.”
Wayne Huckel ’69, Nov. 5, 1998, Charlotte: “It depends on McKillop’s ability to get one or two players who can make the program. He could do it. But I think it’s unlikely. That’s not a knock. It’s just a fact of life.”
Doug Cook ’70, Dec. 16, 1998, Montclair, N.J.: “You don’t need a lot of basketball players to have a really good program. You need one or two great players and a supporting cast.”
Todd Haynes ’81, Feb. 18, on the phone from Bloomington, Ill.: “I think it can get back into the top 25. With basketball, if you get one or two really good players to come in, I can see them getting into the top 25. Coach McKillop has come close. He’s been maybe just one franchise player away from being there.”
Tony Orsbon ’69, Nov. 12, 1998, Charlotte: “What Bob McKillop needs most is that one guy who is an All-American. This team that Davidson has right now could go fairly deep into the NCAAs if they had what they don’t have right now – that one All-American. Davidson can get him. It’s possible. But it would take some extraordinary effort.”
Larry Horowitz ’75, November 1998, Charlotte: “It only takes one player.”
Pinky Hatcher ’68, October 1998, Atlanta: “It’s a great dream. You just need one kid.”
Games are so much fun. I feel old at them now, being a junior and all, with only one class above me. It’s so strange that the freshmen never knew Jason or Thomas or Boris. And they didn’t know Steph when he wasn’t famous. I love standing with my group that has re-worked and re-formed itself, always a bit fluid even (especially?) three years on.
WE BEAT NC STATE!!
FINALLY! 72-67
(44 for Steph.)
King James was there, and so was JRich! But I wasn't.
But Becca and I screamed and then Elizabeth and Michele called on Skype with Chris, and we all sang Sweet Caroline, from Italy and Switzerland to England. Hahahahaha I love us.
7 days. AHHHH!
Stephen. He had more turnovers than he should have, and more than he will have, you can be sure of that, but I think watching him with the ball in his hands is just going to take some getting used to. Not just because he’s on the ball more now, or was against LRC, but because in that slot he brings such a different look than we’re used to. By we I mean those of us who’ve watched Davidson basketball for longer than like the last 15 minutes. Davidson basketball? On the ball is an Alpert, or an Ali, or even a Jason.
Not a guy who scores 41 points on 19 shots.
One thing I was reminded of tonight: Some of his jumpers, his threes in particular, tend to be what I’ll call “separaters” -- shots that make a 9-point lead a 12-point lead, or a 13-point lead a 16-point lead, etc. I don’t know if those numbers were the numbers from tonight, or any other night, but I’m just talking in generalities here. His shots seem to make leads bulge. It’s like: Stephen shot, Stephen shot, and -- boom -- the Davidson lead is all of a sudden some kind of comfy.
What I loved:
Feeling closer to my Davidson brethren than ever before as we chanted “We Believe!” in the latter stages of the Kansas game.
Seeing the Georgetown game with my dad next to me in the student section (you’d have to know us, but that was one of the best days of my life).
Realizing that my cries of jubilation were silent after my voice disappeared in the wake of the Gonzaga win.
Watching perhaps the most well-grounded student athlete in the country constantly deflect praise onto his oft-overlooked teammates.
That the actions of a few classy young men were able to engender goodwill and joy across a community.
That the toll takers on the West Virginia Turnpike congratulated us on our run.
That the team exuded confidence, but never cockiness.
That we went for the win.
That I cared enough to sob uncontrollably after J-Rich missed.
And finally, that I really believe that these feelings could never be reproduced anywhere else.
My lasting impression from this season, thanks to these gutsy kids, is the feeling I had when that shot left Jason’s hand. Joy. Anticipation. Hope. What happened next is irrelevant.
As the Davidson band played "Sweet Caroline" during Sunday's game against Georgetown, I looked around the RBC Center. Davidson fans, students, parents, alumni -- and even former basketball great, Hobby Cobb -- were on their feet singing enthusiastically. One journalist later labeled this display "corny." But as I scanned the stadium to measure the reaction of the thousands of North Carolina fans in attendance, it seemed to me that they thought it was anything but corny. In fact, I think they were somewhat envious and thought it was pretty cool.
That is what makes Davidson special and unique. Sure, we don't have the same facilities and resources that many of the bigger schools have: we don't have 17 practice courts, or charter planes, or obscene amounts of shoes and apparel. But that is not for everyone. What we do have is players that know our fans and students by name and are proud that we have an anthem to sing (however irrelevant it may be).
Despite being a former player and coach, I was not prepared for how proud I would feel after this weekend. After the Gonzaga game on Friday I raced to the hotel to meet the team. I hugged some of the guys and told them that they had no idea how much the win meant to former players. The older guys -- Boris, Thomas, and Jason -- might have understood a little bit. The freshmen said, "Great, Larry," and went looking for their girlfriends.
As cliche as it sounds, why did this team's success mean so much to me, someone who graduated eight years ago? Why was I tearing up when the final buzzer sounded against Georgetown? I will do my best to articulate it: in January, with many players gathered for Davidson basketball's 100 year anniversary, Coach McKillop talked about dreaming big. He spoke about how he believes Davidson can get back to the heights it reached in the 1960s. While many may think that is impossible, the people at Davidson do not. Therefore, we work very hard: we lift, we run, we play, we fight, and we compete every day of the year -- all while simultaneously working hard in the classroom. While struggling through the rigors of the Davidson academic workload, and playing for Coach McKillop, one is not inclined to make excuses. Home from Georgia Southern at 4 a.m.? So what -- get to class at at 8:30. Up all night studying for a test? Too bad -- practice hard for two and a half hours. Nasty dead-leg to the thigh? Get tougher. We welcome these experiences because we see that goal in the distance: getting back on the national stage. We know that all the hard work -- all the early morning workouts, all the frustrations, all the long, tough practices -- will one day be worth it. But when? We made a small step in 1998 by making the NCAA tourney. Almost had Ohio State in 2002. Gave the Buckeyes another run for their money in 2006. Gave Maryland all they could handle in 2007. Great progress, but still not where we wanted to be. Everyone associated with Davidson basketball --players, coaches, fans, students -- still wanted to take the next step and make some real noise.
So would all the hard work over the years ever be worth it? Would tiny Davidson ever really be able to touch the national scene? Well, I can now tell you that the answer is yes to both questions. This year's team may never fully understand it, but what they have accomplished this year (so far) is a gift to anyone who has ever been involved with Davidson basketball: fans, students, coaches, and players. We all know that Davidson is a special school in a special town and, despite its size and seeming limitations, we have always felt that it can have a very special basketball team.
This is where the feeling of pride came from on Sunday. That is why, when I felt myself tearing up, I did not know if I could articulate my thoughts to anyone. Luckily, I was sitting next to my former teammate and roommate (and soon to be former Davidson career assist leader), Ali Ton, and when I saw the emotion on his face, I knew that he did not need an explanation. When I left my seat and went out into the hallways of the RBC Center and saw the students and fans cheering, high-fiving, chest-bumping, and singing the fight song, I again realized that no explanation was necessary. The Davidson people understood it: against long odds our team accomplished a near miracle.
So as Davidson heads to the Sweet Sixteen and maybe (gasp!) the Final Four, my pride will not dissipate. And if I find myself being envious of other schools' resources, facilities, or the size of their fan base, I will think back to this weekend and remember that I would rather be singing "Sweet Caroline" with Hobby Cobb any day of the week.
What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Curry. No, my fair cousin:
If we are marked to die, we are enow
To do our Wildcat Nation loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will, I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for just a first round win,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It ernes me not if men my Curry jersey wear;
Such outward things well not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet a trip to San Antonio,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from Davidson, North Carolina;
God's peace, I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more long range three.
Rather proclaim it presently through my host at the RBC Center,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let the Hoyas depart. His passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into John Thompson's purse:
We would not die in Georgetown's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the Feast of Curry:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a-tiptoe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Curry.
He that shall see this day and live t'old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his Tar Heel neighbours,
And say "Tomorrow is Saint Curry's Day":
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars
And say "These wounds I had on Curry's day."
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in Billy Packer's mouth as household words
J-Rich the Warrior, Sander the General,
Lovedale the Nigerian Nightmare, Gosselin and Archambault,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Curry's Curriness shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered;
We few, we Lunatic Fringe, we band of Wildcat;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my Wildcat brother, be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in Davidson now abed
Shall they think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Curry's day.
For Bob McKillop, this story goes back 19 years.
"He eats, sleeps, breathes, lives Davidson basketball," Steph tells the press room, much to the delight of Richards, who is looking very comfortable at the podium tonight.
Tens of questions later, leaving the press conference to rejoin his team's locker room celebration, the winning coach smiles, free of all monkeys, and offers, "I've never done that before."
Indeed, this year's NCAA CD will be full of smiling press conference photos.For Davidson College, the story goes back much, much farther. We've all heard that story.
And today, we got our own.
Dear America,
It was, up until now, a hopeful but hypothetical conversation. We’ve had it over beers in bars. We’ve had it on cell phones from Boston to San Francisco, from New York to Atlanta, from Charlotte to Tampa. We’ve had it in the fall and in the winter, and in the spring and summer, too. We’ve had it for years.
What if?
What if we won in the tournament?
It’s SUCH a good story, we said to each other -- little school, big dreams, cute town, smart kids. People, we kept saying, WANT to tell this story. They just needed a reason. They needed us to win.
This tournament is a series of finite 40-minute windows of opportunity. Seize one and you earn another. Win and you get another two days of news cycle. Win and you get to tell your story.
You have to understand something about us and our school. I don’t know if it’s Southern gentility or Presbyterian humility, but we’ve always been institutionally reluctant to say, Hey, look, look at us. It’s just not what we’ve done and so it’s not what we do.
But we want so badly for people to know.
So we’ve looked to Bob McKillop and his basketball team.
He went 4-24 in his first season at Davidson. That was 19 years ago. He has taken us from the Southern Conference tournament to the NIT to the NCAAs and now to a win in the NCAAs. He built this. He didn’t leave us when he could have. He has raised his family in a house across the street from campus. His oldest son played for him. His youngest son plays for him now. His daughter went to Davidson and is engaged to a Davidson man. He tears up when he talks about this.
His team went to the NIT in ’94.
His team lost in the conference finals in ’96 after going undefeated in league play. Another NIT. In ’98, a conference tournament title, a trip to the NCAAs. It seems so, so long ago, but not really, and we were giddy. That felt like this feels. Really it did.
Finally.
There were trips back, in ’02, in ’06, in ’07.
Close, close, close. But never that win.
Now THIS.
Make no mistake: We beat a good team today. This was not about the bounces or the breaks. No. We beat a really good team that played really well because WE played really well.
Because we got a ballsy gutsy late three from Max.
Because we got 13 rebounds from Andrew.
Because we got two huge buckets late from Rossiter.
Because we got nine assists and 15 points from Jason.
And also, of course, because we got 40 from Steph. Not just any 40. An 8-for-10-from-three 40. A 14-for-22 40. A five-steals 40. A first-round-record-setting-40. A forever 40.
But this whole thing is less about how it happened and more about what it means. After the game, Joey Beeler, the men’s basketball media relations guy, was looking frazzled. His life just got crazy. He said his phone started going off right as the buzzer sounded. Let it be told. We are one of the smallest schools in Division I.
We are 1,700 students in Davidson, N.C., just north of Charlotte, that’s it, all undergrad.
We are NOT Davidson University.
We are ranked ninth in the U.S. News and World Report and 23rd in the AP poll.
We keep in touch with our professors after we graduate.
We watch basketball games on grainy Web video from wherever we live.
A couple weeks ago, at the Southern Conference tournament championship game, there was a man with a sign, and the sign said:
YOU
MAKE
US
PROUD
And they do, and in a way that’s much, much more intimate than most other Division I program, and certainly most other programs that are playing this weekend for a spot in the Sweet 16. This program, our program, is now big enough to matter but still small enough to touch.
After the game on Friday, in the locker room, there were the lights, the mics, the pens and the pads, the bigness, and there was Steph, surrounded by a scrum three- and four-deep, saying what he said, tired, happy, the faintest of facial hair, as always, on his chin and his upper lip.
We saw in the peach-fuzzed face of this pretty kid from Charlotte the potential of what happened today.
The hypothetical is no longer hypothetical.
He helped make our conversation real.
Sincerely,
Michael Kruse
Davidson College
Class of 2000
Full disclosure right up front: This is coming from the bar downstairs at the Sheraton, otherwise known as Brickhouse South, where it’s crowded, where it’s going to be more crowded, hopefully for a good long while. Anyway. Ready. Set. Drink. I mean blog.
So the Wildcats played 23 Southern Conference games this year and won all 23 of them and won their three tournament games by a combined 79 points. But tonight was HARD. Hard hard hard. Scratches on the arms hard.
But know what? It’s SUPPOSED to be hard.
Question. Real question. Legitimate question. How did that team lose 11 games in the league?
Cheering from the lobby. The bus has arrived.
Teams playing Davidson must feel like they dodge bullets when Steph misses looks that are anything close to open. But then he doesn’t stop shooting. He never stops shooting. He shoots with what I’d called earned audacity.
But his biggest play tonight? THE biggest play tonight? That rebound he got with just under three minutes to go. Up nine, had just been FIVE, and the ball comes off the rim and Steph has two taller guys all over him and somehow HE is the guy who comes away with the ball. And he ripped it away. With a sneer. Steph Curry, sophomore sensation, star shooter -- getting the biggest damn rebound of a Southern Conference championship game.
Will Bryan’s now at the bar and has a relay from McKillop’s speech out in the lobby. “He comes in and talks about family. Talks about how important everyone here is to the way they’ve done this. Talks about the importance of seeing all the players and their extended families here with them. And then he said I want everybody to say a little prayer for us. We’re blessed. We’re blessed with the opportunities we’ve had. God doesn’t stand over the rim and knock some balls in and some balls out. He just gives us opportunities. I know there’s pressure right now. But we’re not crawling on our bellies in Ramadi or Fallujah. I want you to pray that we continue to do this the right way. We represent something here.”
Will: “I need to get me a drink.”
Me, too, by the way.
At the end of the first half Jason found Andrew for a layup and the ball went through the hoop to give the Wildcats an eight-point lead and there was still like 2-point-something seconds left and Rossiter (oopsy) kicked (daisy) kicked (was that me?) the ball out of bounds and the last couple of seconds ticked off and the Wildcats ran off the floor.
Little things.
Little things.
Little things.
Text from Bro Krift up in Pittsburgh: “Never in doubt. Just kidding. FYI we will win in the NCAA tourney. At least once.”
Another text from Bro: “We are good. George Mason good. Gonzaga good. Stan Heath Kent State good.”
The boys are going to be in class tomorrow I’m told. Nice.
Team is out in the lobby. Steph’s signing backs of shirts. Jason’s got the net around his neck. Barr’s talking to some ladies.
This poor bartender.
Matheny is in the house.
According to Matheny, the Southern Conference tournament has been going on for 75 years, and over the last three days the Wildcats set a heck of a record: fewest field allowed in the history of the event.
God, I can't believe it went so fast! WOW. WOW. Now -- #27 in the country, longest winning streak in the country, #4 shooter in the country, #1 leader in assists... 22-6. 18-0 since January 3. And so much joy. I want so badly to be able to write beautifully about the bond that this team and these people make me feel but it's so hard... I can't explain that it's the whole thing -- especially tonight, with Boris's mom here and we screamed "THANK YOU SENIORS!" and I stood with my '08 friends for the last time in this section. As Steph ran the point for the last 20 seconds and we rose to honor those 3 young men that I don't know and yet I do.
One other thing. When the team ran off the court, the last two guys leaving were JRich and Steph. As they approached the tunnel, both turned back toward the Davidson section at the other end of the building and pointed to it. JRich then did the thing where you hold up your jersey to show off the team name. For some reason, I really loved that, and wish the cameras had been on him for it.
We are who we thought we’d be … it just took at bit longer than we hoped. This team is now what many of hoped we would see this year. Steph is fantastic, Jason is wonderful, our bigs have been very, very good, but the Canadians have become what they were not, whether because of health or psyche, back in December. If Max and Will were where they are now, we win UNC and Duke. Let alone WMU and UNCC. That is why we are such a threat now to do damage in the tourney and why next year will be a very good year as well.
The stars were aligned for Davidson to lose tonight. Greensboro had been underperforming... Davidson had been blowing people out... Sander was on the bench. The Spartans scorched the nets shooting 9-12 from three in the first half. Their intensity and home crowd helped ignite a first half blitz that found Greensboro sitting right below their average offensive output of the last week: at halftime. But Davidson won by five. Their defiance of the basketball gods tonight was extraordinary to say the least.
The heart of this team literally came spilling out on the court tonight. Richards' eyebrow was split open in an ugly way, bleeding all over everything... yet he came back to make the game-winning drive and free throw. Max Paulhus Gosselin recovered from endless "air ball" jeering to make the game-saving steal leading to Richards' drive. Andrew Lovedale overcame foul trouble to bring down the rebound with a scream after Greensboro's late attempt to tie the game. Thomas Sander did not let his sidelining keep him from supporting the team... he was the first one on the court at every timeout and was never quiet on the sidelines even when the Wildcats trailed big. And then, of course, there was Stephen Curry.
Davidson's attitude in the second half was definitely one of a team finally kicking it into overdrive. The several hundred fans in attendance got into a shouting match with Spartan supporters while Davidson was not unwilling to show a ton of emotion on the court. This was probably the first time I have seen Davidson win a game and have the team run out to celebrate in a very long time. It felt like a game one more time.
