Non-Conference Schedule Reaction

Finally! The non-conference schedule has dropped, so we have reactions!

First thing is first, it is obviously not ideal to both have 12 instead of the maximum 13 allowed non-conference games and the fact that one of those 12 games is against a non-D1 opponent just adds injury to insult. That said, there are many challenges to crafting a non-conference schedule and unfortunate things happen. With that disclaimer behind us, let’s just into the actual games on the schedule!

Davidson will open with three games in six days. The opener will be November 7th against non-D1 Guilford, then the Cats will travel to Ohio to play Wright State two days later, and finally VMI comes to Belk on Sunday the 13th. Wright State has been a stellar small-major program for about a half decade now. Since 2015/16 they have made the NCAA Tournament twice and won about 67% of their total games. Long story short, that game will be a tough road test for a Davidson team that will integrating a lot of new faces and asking more than a few guys to step into new, larger roles. VMI on the other hand has not had a very successful last half decade but they have had two straight winning seasons, significant growth for the program. On paper @Wright State is the much scarier game but both games should and really need to be wins.

After VMI Davidson will head down to Charleston for the 2022 Charleston Classic for 3 games in 4 days. The first game will be against old SoCon rival College of Charleston. Davidson’s next opponent will then either be South Carolina or Colorado State. The rest of the MTE’s field includes Virginia Tech, Penn State, Old Dominion, and Furman. As is evident, there are a lot of solid programs in this field without any one standing out as a surefire top-25 team. We will have more on this tournament as we get closer, but it is pivotal that Davidson beats CofC in order to get the best quality opponents for their next two games.

The Cats then get San Francisco and Charlotte at home starting on the 25th before going on the road to play Delaware and then play Western Carolina at home on December 7th before finals begin. Last year’s Davidson-San Francisco game ended up being an unexpected matchup of two of the best mid-major teams in the country but both teams lose a lot from last year’s teams. In fact, both teams will have new head coaches and lose a large chunk of their best players but Foster Loyer and Khalil Shabazz both return and will headline a fascinating battle of the guards. Charlotte has made a lot of progress, going 17-14 and 10-8 in C-USA last season, but Davidson would do well to avoid any ugly, bad losses like the ones the Cats fell victim to in 2019 and 2020 (those games made many question if we should even still be playing this rivalry). A road game at Delaware, an ascending mid-major, should be another interesting test that will be far from a gimme. In a perfect world we get a carbon copy of last year’s dominating opener, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Finally, Western Carolina is simply not a good basketball program at the moment. The Catamounts went 11-21 last year under first year head coach Justin Gray and are led by multiple upperclassmen.

Now comes the big one: Davidson will take on Purdue Saturday, December 17th in Indianapolis. This will be Davidson’s shot at a top-25, resume-defining win such as last year’s game against Alabama was. Purdue was really good last year and should be really good again led by Zach Edey and this game will not be easy in the slightest. After Purdue Davidson will finish the non-con off with Northeastern on December 21st. Under current head coach Bill Coen, Northeastern has been consistently solid and often even better than that but last season was a bit of a drop off as the Huskies went just 9-22. I wouldn’t expect Coen’s program to stay down for long though.

Overall, I personally like Davidson’s schedule. We will see how The Charleston Classic shakes out, but that MTE coupled with Purdue in Indianapolis gives Davidson multiple chances at high-quality wins. Additionally, there are multiple good mid-major and small-major programs, some of which the Cats will play on the road, on the schedule that should give Davidson tough games but still games that Davidson will be expected to win. While the schedule may not jump out immediately as challenging, a deeper dive shows that Davidson is not just playing cupcakes. This formula worked last season and allowed a Davidson team that had quite a few question marks entering the season to get up to speed and find its rhythm. Davidson’s non-con performance last season set the table for a surprising A10-title winning campaign; hopefully this non-conference slate can offer a similar launching pad.