Brooks and Droney Make the Difference (Recap of Davidson v. Wofford)

When I last saw Davidson in person, it was a home game at the Belk Arena vs. Drexel on a relatively warm December Sunday afternoon.  In that game, the Wildcats were without their two best all around players, senior forward De'Mon Brooks and senior guard Tom Droney.  Both Brooks and Droney were out due to injuries. The Dragons won 72-58 as the Wildcats struggled on offense, as they shot a horrid three of twenty two from beyond the arc.

Entering Saturday night's game, Davidson had lost five in a row and their record was 4-10.  This is unusual for a Wildcats team that has made the NCAA Tournament each of the past two seasons, along with five of the past eight seasons and has not had a losing season since the 2000-01 season.  McKillop has had six NCAA Tournament teams, three NIT teams and a stunning 249-95 record in Southern Conference play since 1992.

However, losing streaks and early season records can be misleading.   In their last three losses, the Wildcats lost in overtime at #14 North Carolina, lost only by eleven at #10 Wichita State (and they were only down four with four minutes left) and lost to Charleston at home on New Year's Day after leading at halftime (a 19-5 second half run by the Cougars doomed the Wildcats).

Davidson always plays, what Matt Doherty once noted, as a "ridiculously tough non-conference schedule." Along with North Carolina and Wichita State, the Wildcats this season also played at Duke (lost 111-77), at Charlotte (won in overtime 87-78), neutral site games at New Mexico, Virginia, Clemson and Georgia (only win was over Georgia at the Charleston Classic).   McKillop has done this in part due to the Southern Conference's low overall RPI.  By playing a tough non conference schedule, Davidson's RPI will be much higher.  In fact, despite a 4-10 record, Davidson's current RPI, 157, is higher than 10-3 Mississippi State's RPI, 176.

Despite moving from the Southern Conference to the much tougher A-10 next season, McKillop's non conference schedule will be just as tough, as he has schedule Duke, North Carolina and Virginia for the next two season as well.  He noted in article in the the Charlotte Observer that "We’re going to be just as national and just as aggressive and understanding that, yes, the Atlantic 10 is going to be a significant challenge, but we’re still going to be very aggressive and national in scope,"

Playing such a tough non-conference schedule has worked out for Davidson in the past.  In the 2007-08 season, the Wildcats started 4-6 on the season, due to losses early on to nationally ranked teams such as #1 North Carolina, #7 Duke, and at #7 UCLA.  Davidson would respond with a twenty five game winning streak, including going undefeated in regular season and tournament play in the Southern Conference, then three wins in a row in the NCAA Tournament to make the Elite Eight.   The Wildcats were only a Jason Richards missed three at the buzzer from making the Final Four.

Wofford entered Saturday night's game having won three games in a row, including winning their first conference game, a 71-61 win over Samford.  This was also my second Terriers' game of the season, having seen them barely lose to William and Mary 63-60 at the Benjamin Johnson Arena.

As noted in the past eight seasons, Davidson has been the Southern Conference representative five times. Well Wofford is one of the two other schools that have made the NCAA Tournament during that period, having made the NCAA Tournament two years in a row in 2009-10 and 2010-11 under Young.  Chattanooga made the NCAA Tournament as the SoCon representative in 2008-09 after Steph Curry and Davidson was upset in the Southern Conference semifinals by the College of Charleston.

The Benjamin Johnson Arena is quickly becoming one of my favorite venues here in South Carolina.  As I noted in my previous article, it's really more a small gym enclosed in a nice Student Center with concessions, a coffee bar and comfortable lounge seating near the coffee bar.  As I got to the entrance to the student center, it noted that it was "Happy Hoops Year", as they had a women's home basketball game earlier in the day.

This was my first time sitting in the West Section of the arena.  On Saturday night, the ticket takers didn't have scanners.  So the ticket takers were taking tickets.  He took mine, then realized I was sitting in the reserved area in the front row.  As I noted to you all in my earlier Wofford article this season, it's worth the extra $2 to pay for the reserved seats that have the seat backs as opposed to the wooden bleachers.  He gave me back my tickets saying that I would need to show my ticket for where I was sitting, which was W5, Row A, Seat 1.

As I walked down the aisle, I realized where I would sitting for the evening, right behind the Wofford bench. I usually don't like to sit right behind a team's bench, because your view can be obstructed by bench players standing at times to support their teams.  But it also does allow you some insight, PA system permitting, to what the coach is saying to his team during timeouts.  Plus it was kind of cool seeing the starting Australian point guard for Wofford come out to "INDIANAAA FAITHFULL" during player introductions.

The game started out with the Terriers jumping out to an 8-4 lead at the under 16 media timeout.  Wofford's leading scorer on the season, the talented Spencer Collins, hit two baskets early on and Lee Skinner added a basket and an assist.  It's at the under 16 media timeout that Wofford holds it's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" promotion, where the cheerleaders handout/throw McDonald's cheeseburgers to fans while Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" plays on the PA system.  This was my third time at a Wofford game and now all three times, I have got a cheeseburger.  Awesome.

During the first four minutes, Brooks only had one touch for the Wildcats and that resulted in a traveling call. Well McKillop must have told his team during the media timeout to feed the big man, because Davidson came out rolling off a 13-0 run on Wofford.  Brooks was unstoppable during this nearly three and a half minute span, scoring nine of the thirteen points.   His jumper put Davidson up 17-8 with a little less than twelve and a half minutes remaining in the first half.

After a media timeout, where Terriers Head Coach Mike Young implored his team to "be aggressive", the rest of the first half saw Davidson and Wofford play evenly as far as points scored.  The Wildcats largest lead over the last twelve plus minutes was ten points.  The Terriers still had no answer to stopping Brooks, who scored another eight points the rest of the half to give him seventeen first half points, along with seven rebounds.  Collins and Skinner did the best they could to keep Wofford in the game, combining for seventeen first half points as Davidson maintained a nine point lead, 37-28 at halftime.

Davidson shot a scorching sixty percent from the field in the first twenty minutes, much of which came from Brooks, who was eight of eleven from the field in the first half.  Wofford only shot thirty nine percent in the first half.

What I always love about mid major schools are the halftime shows they put on.  Usually it's a local boys or girls basketball game.  But Wofford does something different.  At the William and Mary game, it was a step dancing group that played at halftime.   This time it was a local martial arts group, with a bunch of young kids showing off various martial arts techniques and simulated fights.  It made for good theater.

The second half picked up right where the first half led off, with Brooks scoring the first two baskets for Davidson, which extended their lead to eleven, 41-30.  Skinner and Collins continued to do their best to keep Wofford in the game, scoring the team's first three baskets.  Collins three pointer got the lead back down to nine, 44-35 with seventeen and a half minutes left in the game.

But that's as close as the Terriers would get the rest of the game.  Davidson went on a 13-4 run over the span of about four and a half minutes.  Brooks of course was heavily involved, scoring five points, including a three point play and added an assist.  Two Droney free throws put the Wildcats up eighteen, 57-39 with a little less than thirteen minutes left in the game.

During a timeout, Young begged his team to "keep fighting".  The Terriers responded, scoring six straight points to cut the lead to twelve, 57-45.  Skinner scored four of his team high twenty two points in that mini spurt.

But Davidson would not be denied this night.  Droney led the way on another Wildcats' charge, this time a
16-7 spurt, capped by a Brian Sullivan three pointer to put Davidson up 73-52 with a little less than six minutes left in the game.  Droney scored nine points in the run and assisted on another basket.

All that was left was for both teams to clear their benches with about ninety seconds to play.  Davidson would go on and win their first Southern conference game of the season, an impressive 78-63 win.  The Wildcats had finally broken their five game losing streak and in the process, broke Wofford's three game winning streak.

Brooks had a double double with twenty eight points and twelve rebounds, along with four assists and two steals as he shot twelve of sixteen on the game.  Droney added eighteen points, shooting six of seven from the field and a perfect four of four from the line. Tyler Kalinoski added nine points for the Wildcats as Davidson shot sixty one percent from the field on the evening (thirty of forty nine).

Skinner led the Terriers with twenty four points and nine rebounds. Collins added sixteen points for Wofford.  Skinner and Collins combined to shoot fifteen of twenty eight from the field. The rest of the team combined to shoot only eight of twenty seven from the field.

For at least one more evening, Davidson was the big bad team on the SoCon block.  Though it's sad to see a long time Southern Conference staple like the Wildcats leave the conference after this season, one wonders if other schools aren't happy to see Davidson leave the SoCon.

Till then, Davidson stills seems to be the team to beat in the SoCon this year.

Davidson Holds Off Wofford...Again

After the Georgia-South Carolina game, I got in my car and made the now familiar drive from the Gamecocks' campus to Huger Street then up to I-26. This time I was not getting off at the always crowded Harbison Boulevard exit. No, I was heading up to Spartanburg to see Wofford host Davidson.

It seems the magical time range for any of my basketball road trips so far is ninety minutes (I can make Charlotte in that time frame with my lead foot) to two and a half hours (Coastal Carolina). The trip from Columbia to Spartanburg is ninety minutes. I was debating whether to stop along the way for dinner or find a place near campus. To what I thought was my eventual chagrin, I chose the latter. Along the way though, I saw the exit for Presbyterian College, one of my eventual Big South Conference destinations.

The exit for Wofford College is Route 221, which brings you directly into the heart of Spartanburg. But as I got close to Wofford, I didn't see much in the way of restaurant choices. So I drove into the main entrance to Wofford and a nice campus safety guard showed me the direct way to get to the main parking lot for Johnson Arena.

To get to Johnson Arena, basically, you have to drive past the main Wofford College entrance and take the second right on Pearl Street. Then as the campus safety guard noted to me, once you see the pink house on the top of the hill, you bear right. Then you follow the winding road down behind a housing development (nice houses by the way), which then takes you down a narrow road that leads to the entrance of the main parking area. There an attendant directs you to park. I wouldn't have found this myself had it not been for the helpful campus security guard.

Once I got out of my car, it was a little after 5:30. I followed some Wofford fans to the entrance of the Campus Life Building where Johnson Arena is located. When you first walk into the Campus Life Building, you are greeted by a small statute of a Terrier. Then you walk into a quiet commons area with a coffee bar on the right hand side. But if you look in the right hand corner, you will see a student cafe. This cafe contains ample seating, flat screen TVs and a mini food court with a Chick Fil-a counter, a deli counter and another "Foods of the World" counter. In front of the entrance to the mini food court was a table with homemade baked desserts, cookies, cakes, cupcakes etc.

After striking up a conversation with the friendly attendant at the Chick Fila station where he made me a fresh grilled chicken sandwich, I grabbed some waffle fries, some desserts and grabbed a sweet tea. I managed to somehow hold onto all four items without a tray, paid the cashier and made my way to a set of tables that was right in front of the flat screen TV showing Northern Iowa and Wichita State (eventually won by the Panthers).

There was a nice mix of students and Wofford fans, many of them older fans. I could see why many people would come out for a nice Saturday night game. My reserved ticket cost twelve dollars, a bleacher seat costs ten dollars. Dinner was seven dollars. Think about it, for twenty bucks per person you can have a decent meal and watch a good basketball game. That's a good deal. Thanks Wofford!

After dinner, I made my way to my seat. There are two wings, the east and west wings, each of which has a separate entrance and outside of one hallway outside the arena, there is no connection to the wings once in the building. Not knowing this, It turns out I went to the wrong wing entrance. But the usher was kind enough to show me how to get there and I eventually made my way to the east wing section where my seat was located.

Now don't take this the wrong way Wofford fans, but when I got to my seat at Johnson Arena, I didn't consider it an arena. It's somewhat a very large gym with mostly wooden bleachers that had three sections of reserved comfortable chair back seating on each side in the front.. There is no club suite seating. The walls are your classic concrete gym walls.

However, there are two standout things you notice about Johnson Arena. First is the striking parquet floor, one of the few of its kind. Second, the gym holds noise well. Really well. In fact, in the second half, when Wofford made a run on Davidson, it started getting really loud and it was not packed (about 1500 was the attendance last night). Turns out, as I drove home, I turned on the post game show from the local Wofford station and they noted that half the students still haven't returned from break. Imagine the arena when Wofford had good teams that made the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and 2011. I bet it was the place was rocking.  Plus, the giant "Beware of Dog" sign behind the Wofford basket was a nice touch as well.

A local grade school choir did a wonderful job singing the national anthem. The students also were located in the bleacher level behind me, so when they made their way up to their seats, I made sure to tell the music choir director what a good job they did. It was the start to a very good evening of basketball and promotional events.

As the team introductions were made, I saw that Davidson's fans had basically taken up the entire section behind the Wildcats' bench. Yes, it helps to draw fans when you are 9-1 in conference. But considering Davidson's long storied history, I am not surprised by the large contingent they had for last night's game. I thought for sure that they were going to break out into "Sweet Caroline" late in the second half.

The Wildcats came out early scoring the first four points. Spencer Collins though would drill a three pointer, in what would be a reoccurring theme for the Terriers on the night. Through the first six minutes, it was a close affair, with Davidson maintaining an 8-6 lead.

But if you have watched enough of Davidson's basketball games on TV or in person, you can see that is so difficult to stop Bob McKillop's team on offense. The Wildcats' offensive sets are a thing of a beauty, both from a ball movement standpoint and a player movement standpoint. The Wildcats are constantly moving without the ball. This leads to multiple screens, backdoor cuts and a lot of open looks driving the lane. In the second half, with Davidson on my end of the court, it was truly a treat to watch their offensive set from my vantage point.

As a result, Davidson started pulling away from Wofford in the first half. First it was a 9-2 spurt on four consecutive layups, including a three point play by senior forward Jake Cohen. Davidson was up 17-8 and Wofford Coach Mike Young had to call timeout. It was a good timeout which resulted in an offensive set that got Karl Cochran open for a three pointer that he buried to cut the lead to 17-11.

Again Davidson responded with an 8-2 spurt with Tom Droney and Chris Czerpowicz each scoring four points. The Wildcats were now up 25-13 with nine minutes left in the half. It seemed that the Terriers had no answers to stopping Davidson on offense.

However, Wofford kept in the game in large part due to Collins (number 32 pictured here), who by himself would keep the Terriers in the game. Collins scored ten straight points for Wofford on a variety of shots, a three pointer, a layup and a couple of short jumpers. After being fouled in the act of shooting and missing his first attempt, Collins hit the second free throw to end his ten straight point outburst and cut the Davidson lead to ten 31-21.

Davidson's relentless offense would respond with another mini spurt, outscoring Wofford 7-2 over the last five minutes of the half. The Wildcats would enter halftime up 38-23. It was similar to their first matchup I saw when they played back in December at Belk Arena. Davidson was up big early, 31-10, before Wofford used a 12-0 run to cut the lead to nine at the half, 31-22. The Terriers would cut it to four late but the Wildcats would eventually hold onto win 63-56. I wondered if there would be a similar outcome.

Wofford has a lot of unique promotional events during media timeouts. Three stood out. Early in the first half during the first media timeout, they had a "Cheeseburger in Paradise" promotion where the Wofford cheerleaders toss out wrapped McDonald's cheeseburgers in plastic bags. Guess who got one?

In the second half, they had "Steal a Meal". One fan gets a meal - a drink, burger and fries. But another fan gets to try to steal the meal. If they hit the layup, they get the drink. If they hit the free throw, they get the chips.  And if they bury the three pointer, they get the burger. It was a couple and thankfully for the wife, the husband missed all three attempts. I would love to play that game with my son (are you reading this, Wofford? :-) ).

Finally, at halftime, to celebrate the 75th year of the NCAA Tournament, Wofford is putting on a series of "re-creations" of famous plays from the NCAA Tournament. In this case, they tried to "recreate" the famous Christian Laettner game winning shot vs. Kentucky. One fan played Grant Hill with the inbounds pass at one end of the court. Two girls each got an attempt to play Laettner in catching the pass and turning around and hitting the shot. They were not successful in any of the attempts, which shows how difficult that play was to make.

The start of the second half saw Davidson maintain its double digit lead as Cohen scored six points in the first seven minutes of the half. Wofford kept within striking distance due in large part to Cochran and Collins, who scored all but two of the first fifteen Terriers' points in the first seven and a half minutes of the second half.

But after two straight Czerapowicz baskets put Davidson up by thirteen with ten minutes left, it didn't seem like Wofford would be able to get any closer. Enter the Australian sophomore point guard with the striking name of Indiana Faithfull. Faithfull would have a hand in the Terriers' next three baskets by hitting two three pointers and assisting on a Cochran layup. His second three pointer cut the Wildcats' lead to seven, 54-47 with seven a half minutes left.

A little later, Collins would get the Terriers's closer with a three point play to cut Davidson's lead to six, 59-53 with a little less than five minutes. That's when the fans started making some noise and you could tell the potential of how loud Johnson Arena can be with a full, noisy crowd.

Wofford had two chances to cut the lead even closer. But their two leading scorers, Cochran and Collins each committed a critical turnover. And when Jake Cohen buried a NBA three pointer to put Davidson up 64-53 with 1:10 left, that was the ball game. The Wildcats would eventually win 68-57.

Davidson had a very balanced attack with four scorers in double figures. Cohen led the Wildcats with fifteen points, eight rebounds, three steals and three blocks. Czerapowicz also had fifteen points and six rebounds. De'Mon Brooks and Droney each had thirteen points. Davidson shot forty eight percent from the field and an impressive twenty four of twenty seven from the charity stripe. Davidson is now 15-7 overall and 10-1 in conference.

Collins led all scorers with twenty four points on ten of nineteen from the field. Cochran added fourteen points. And Faithfull, who played all forty minutes of the game, had eight points, nine assists and six rebounds. A truly solid all around performance for the Australian. Wofford is 8-15 overall and now 2-8 in conference.

As I left Wofford walking through the commons area, reveling in the good time I had last evening, I saw the coffee bar was still open. It was tempting, but I figured I would visit that the next time. The next time I am at Wofford, I hope to have my color analyst, aka my seven year old son Matthew with me. The thought of sitting with him in the commons after the game, going over the contest and watching another basketball game sounds really appealing. That is something that should be shared.

Still, I really enjoyed myself last night. Thanks Wofford for a fun experience.