Davidson comes calling on Friday, and while that still brings up memories of Stephen Curry, the only Curry in this game will be Seth while Stephen has jokingly tweeted that he'll be there but not sure who to pull for.
Davidson has been an average team since he left, but they are a superbly coached team and full of intelligent players. It's not a bad combo really.
They have size in Jake Cohen (6-10) and Frank Ben-Eze (also 6-10), who you may remember almost played for Tommy Amaker at Harvard. He's had injury problems at Davidson but who knows? He might have a bang-up year, although according to ESPN he hasn't played at all.
They have four guys averaging in double figures currently (De'Mon Brooks, Jake Cohen, Chris Czerapowicz and JP Kuhlman) and a solid eight-man rotation.
They also return 11 players from last season including four starters (Brendan McKillop, son of coach Bob McKillop, is the only one missing) and surprising size. Often when you see a Southern Conference team, they might have one big man; Davidson lists three, counting Ben-Eze. They have 10 midranged players between 6-7 and 6-4.
The coaching at this point is beyond question. For whatever his reasons, Bob McKillop has elected to remain at Davidson rather than taking a more prominent job, and Davidson has to be delighted that he has because really he's as good as anyone else in the country.
The question for Davidson is quite simple: can excellent coaching and a cohesive team effort overcome a significant talent gap and a team which is still seeking an identity?
They came as close as they have come in years to beating Duke when they had Curry, but Gerald Henderson squashed that upset bid, but pre and post-Curry, they've been a long way from that level.
Tonight it's entirely possible that they might catch Duke emotionally flat after the heavy emotions following the Michigan State game, but that's not typically Duke's M.O. Duke is famous for giving every team their best shot and we expect they'll do that here as well. If Duke basketball was a boxer, it'd be young Mike Tyson, sans robe, entering the ring on purely business terms, ready to throw a knockout punch as soon as possible.
If they're not, if they're emotionally spent after a big night in the Garden, an upset is definitely possible.
|
DBR Auctions!
|
| New T-Shirts! |
 |
| The DBR App! |
| DBR Is On Twitter!(DBRTweetz) |