Week 1 Stock Report

(Credit to DavidsonWildcats.com and Dani Gariglio for the photograph of Bobby Durkin shooting a 3 against Maryland)

Davidson had a busier first week than most, as the Cats opened on Monday night against DIII Washington & Lee and then journeyed to Asheville for their annual MTE (albeit a little earlier than usual). The headline is that the Cats opened up 2-1 with a blowout win over W&L and then fought two Power Conference and KenPom Top 50 teams to the wire, winning one by 3 and losing the other by 3. Let’s dive in and breakdown how you should feel about those results!

Washington & Lee

Opening against a DIII opponent can feel like a tad lose-lose, if you win by a lot it’s a DIII opponent and you can’t take much away from the game, and if the game is close then the sky is in danger of falling. Well, in the first half against the Generals (an objectively good DIII squad) Davidson struggled. The defense was kind of a mess and the offense was settling for way too many 3s and missing them. This unfortunate concoction of ingredients resulted in Davidson trailing at the half 37-38. The only reason the score was not worse was because Bobby Durkin started the game off hot from 3. That is the bad news.

The good news is that the team came out MUCH better in the 2nd half. Brizzi got hot and spearheaded a dominant all-around performance that saw the Cats ultimately outscore the Generals 49-25, exactly what you expect and want to see in this type of matchup. Ultimately there were many positives to pick out, all 13 scholarship players saw action, Bobby Durkin began his Davidson career on a high note, and generally the team got its act together so they could feel good heading into Asheville.

Maryland

This was a big one in many respects. Maryland entered the game 30th on KenPom as well as being a popular choice for 3rd in preseason Big Ten polls. The Terps have size, experience, and talent, exactly what you’d expect from a team picked to finish towards the top of the Big Ten. Immediately the Terps jumped on Davidson on defense and tried to assert their physicality which led to a sloppy offensive evening for the Cats, but Davidson more than met the challenge and responded with their own physicality on defense. The game was very close throughout, but Davidson held a narrow lead for almost the entire game before Bobby Durkin took over late, hitting two clutch free throws to put Davidson up 3, then hitting a go ahead 3 with under 13 seconds to go, and finally punching the ball away on an inbound pass to seal the Cats upset victory 61-64.

While Durkin ultimately stole the show late and led the Cats with 16 points this was an all-around team victory. 5 players scored between 7 and 10 points, including Sean Logan who knocked down both of his 3-point attempts, and the Cats held the Terps to just 35% shooting from the field. In fact, this game was won on the defensive end. Every single Davidson player who touched the floor grinded on that end, defended intensely, dove for loose balls, fought on the boards and gang rebounded, and maintained laser focus awareness and positioning. Matt McKillop also had a great game as well. He deployed a 9-man rotation, trusted his young players the entire way, and threw different defensive looks at the Terps (including full court pressure, a 1-3-1 zone, and a 2-3 zone in addition to straight up man-to-man). His young cats paid his effort back tenfold and guys like Brizzi (who had 6 steals) and Logan really shined brightly. Huffman and Brizzi also did a great job bossing the game as if they were a seasoned central midfield pair in a Premier League game. Huffman in particular played under control and with his trademark toughness on both ends.

Clemson

The Cats started this one off hot and ran out to a 19-2 lead over the Tigers on the strength of their cutting and ball movement. Unfortunately the lead would not last. Clemson cut the deficit to a single possession by the end of the half and ultimately led by 9 with just under 6 minutes left in the 2nd half. At this point the mood in Davidson Country was sour, it looked like the Cats were going to get blown out in a game they led by 17 but luckily the guys on this squad showed their mental toughness. Just when the game felt over the Cats PUSHED and got it to within 1 twice in the final moments. Unfortunately a bad call on what looked like a clean Brizzi steal in the waning moments led to Clemson taking a 3-point lead and the Cats would miss 3 opportunities to tie the game on the ensuing possession.

Obviously it’s never a good feeling to blow a 17-point lead but the way in which the Cats fought back when the game was seemingly over took a lot of the bad taste out of my mouth. We know this team is in a transitional year, so seeing a young team get punched in the mouth and get back up and fight was mightily impressive and bodes well for the future. Still, there are a lot of mistakes to clean up, as the Cats need to hit their 3s more consistently and they left way too many Clemson shooters open from beyond the arc in the 2nd half. One big positive from this game was Hunter Adam, who went 3-4 from 3 and was a big part of Davidson staying in it when things were going south in the 2nd half.

Overall Takeaways:

Again, with the caveat that its never fun to lose when you were leading by double digits, I feel much better about the Cats leaving Asheville than I did entering the beautiful mountain City. Taking two KenPom top 50 teams down to the last possession in 2 straight games is a lot of evidence that these Cats will be a tough out in the A10 this season. In particular, I was really impressed by Davidson’s defense. It’s early but it feels like Matt and the staff have coached these guys up really, really well on that end and defense may be this team’s strong suit! Furthermore, the offense, while sloppy at times and still not hitting 3s at the volume we want, looks a lot more like we are used to. The ball is moving and guys are cutting much better than they did last season and that’s very refreshing to watch.

Another big takeaway for me was just how good the young guys looked. Skogman, Huffman, and Kochera all look solid in their roles, but we expected that as each is entering their 4th year in college basketball. What’s really exciting is seeing Brizzi looking like a seasoned guard even though his shots haven’t fallen to start the season, Durkin looks like a carbon copy of Michael Jones, Sean Logan looks to have clearly taken a step and can now be trusted for 20 or more minutes a game, and even Hunter Adam joined the fun with his defense and timely 3-point shooting against Clemson. Spadone too has looked his usual self on defense and seems to have transformed himself physically (to the point where many of us didn’t even recognize him at first). I would also preach patience with Reed Bailey on offense, as we haven’t gotten the offensive breakout we were hoping for just yet, but on defense and the boards he’s availed himself quite well and he looks much stronger than last season. If those 5 guys, all Sophomores or younger, can keep it up and build on their early performances (and Bailey can get it going on the offensive end) then you’re looking at a deep, exciting, and young Davidson squad that can outperform expectations this season.

Overall, I’ve seen enough to say that my preseason prediction that the Cats will finish in the pillow fight will probably be wrong. This is a tough, gritty team that plays tough, gritty defense and plays offense like a McKillop coached Davidson team should. At the very least that should be good enough to challenge for the top 100 in KenPom and a mid-table finish in the A10 (which would be an awesome result with this young of a roster). Whether the squad can push for more and have a REALLY good season will depend on whether the Cats can start hitting a higher volume of 3s more consistently. All in all it was a successful first week, and the Cats’ stock is decidedly UP (evidenced by the jump from 150 in KenPom preseason to 107 as of November 13th). Go Cats!