Wake signs its top 3 recruits

The signing of 6-foot-8 Al-Farouq Aminu, 6-10 Tony Woods and 7-foot Ty Walker this week was a huge development for Wake Forest and coach Dino Gaudio.

After coach Skip Prosser's sudden death in July, one of Gaudio's immediate challenges was to maintain the commitments of those three players to Wake Forest. When he did, a program that slipped in Prosser's last two seasons had the ACC's top-ranked recruiting class.

Along with promising freshmen James Johnson and Jeff Teague, the three signees will give the Deacons as good a young talent base as any other team in the ACC. After struggling for years defensively and on the boards, Wake Forest should be solid in those areas next season.

Wake Forest had a much more important reason to hire Gaudio, who was Prosser's top assistant. After the heartbroken Deacon players lost their head coach, it would have been cruel to rip the rest of the staff away from them and hire from outside the program.

Keeping Aminu, Woods and Walker in the fold got Gaudio off to an encouraging start less than a week after his opener as the Deacons' head coach. -- Ken Tysiac

Davidson gets needed break

Davidson earned a level of national respect with its 72-68 loss to North Carolina on Wednesday night, and now the Wildcats have another six days before they take the court again at Western Michigan. Until then, here are some notes from Wednesday’s game:

-- The six-day layoff will help, because the Wildcats are banged up. An underrated part of last season’s success was the team’s health, because Davidson players rarely played at less than 100 percent. But Wednesday night, Boris Meno (shoulder), Max Paulhus Gosselin (upper respiratory illness) and Stephen Curry (wrist) all weren’t at top speed because of injury. Curry (37 minutes) and point guard Jason Richards (39 minutes) also played heavy minutes, so they can use a bit of a break.

-- Meno’s injury impacted the Wildcats offense the most. Davidson coach Bob McKillop said Meno’s sore shoulder affected his missed dunk, and it might also have played into why he did not attempt a 3-point shot, which could have helped keep North Carolina’s interior players away from the basket.

-- McKillop called Stephen Rossiter one of the team’s most improved players before the season, and Rossiter gave Davidson a lift Wednesday. He might get more minutes against Western Michigan if Meno’s shoulder is still ailing.

-- At least one former NFL coach was impressed by the Wildcats. A co-worker told me that Marty Schottenheimer kept hearing about the Tar Heels during the game, but then pointed to the Davidson bench and said "that’s one (heck) of a team right there."

-- Reserve Bryant Barr played only two minutes against the Tar Heels, and the Wildcats could have used his outside shooting. Davidson had trouble getting shooters open looks all night with screens, and Barr hasn’t been able to create his own shot.

-- The Wildcats showed a lot of dedication Wednesday night, but they’ll have a hard time topping Davidson fan Mike Reed. Reed decided Wednesday morning to attend the game, so he left his job in Cartersville, Ga., to come to Charlotte. He made the 280-mile trip to make tip-off, and then made the trip home after the game. He’s done it before – Reed has season tickets – and he said he’ll be back for the Wildcats’ Dec. 1 game against Duke.

-- Kevin Cary

UNC coach Williams praises Davidson's Curry

North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams was extremely complimentary of Davidson sophomore Stephen Curry after the Tar Heels’ 72-68 win Wednesday night in Charlotte.

Williams used three defenders on Curry – Marcus Ginyard, Bobby Frasor and Wayne Ellington. Williams said he was pleased with the trio’s defense – particularly Ginyard’s – even though Curry scored 24 points. Curry missed his first five shots, got hot during the middle of the game and then couldn’t hit in the final minutes. He finished 8-for-22 from the field but was only 2-for-12 from three-point range.

Said Williams of Curry: "He’s a load to try and guard. He’s got a quick release. He can shoot the dickens out of it. ...He scares you to death."

When asked what type of player Curry would have been in the ACC, Williams replied: "A very good player. He’s a very good player regardless of which league he’s in. He has a chance to play basketball for a living. He’s a kid where – the University of North Carolina included – we can say, ‘Hey, we missed that kid.’ That’s not to mean he wouldn’t have gone to Davidson anyway. Bob [McKillop] has done a great job utilizing him."

Of Curry’s shot, Williams said: "He cocks it back a little bit differently. But as soon as he lets it go, it’s exactly like (his father) Dell’s shot. Full, long extension. Quick release. Always has that perfect backspin."

On a different note, Williams said Wednesday night that he has a statistic that determines whether All-American Tyler Hansbrough gets enough shots. The coach wants to get Hansbrough 20 shots a game when you add his field-goal attempts to his free-throw attempts.

"We only got him 16 Wednesday," Williams said, "so we’ve got to do a better job of that."

Hansbrough had only six field-goal attempts – just one in the second half – as Davidson double-teamed him every time he touched the ball. He shot 10 free throws and finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds in the win.

- Scott Fowler

Extending bad hoops into March

We’re already seeing enough bad college basketball in November.

Now the same people who are bringing us Louisiana-Monroe against Michigan State in the CBE Classic tonight on ESPN-U are running a postseason tournament that will extend into April.

The Gazelle Group, a sports consulting company in Princeton, N.J., has created the College Basketball Invitational for teams left out of the 65-team NCAA tournament field. The 16-team CBI, which debuts March 18-19 of 2008, will be a single-elimination tournament until the finals, when a best-of-3 championship series will be held. All games will be held at on-campus sites.
That means 113 Division I men’s teams will play postseason basketball in 2008, up from 97 in 2007.

The most interesting thing about the new tournament is whether the CBI will try to compete with the NIT for the NCAA tournament’s leftovers. The 32-team NIT used to be the only option for teams that didn’t make the NCAA field.

Evan Olesh, a Gazelle Group spokesman, said event organizers aren’t commenting on the CBI’s selection process as it relates to the NIT. It’s a time-honored coaching truism that competition makes everybody better.

But if you’ve watched some of these November games, you know that’s not always the case. And if you’ve ever eaten leftovers, you know they’re sometimes best when served with an antacid.

– Ken Tysiac

Emory a good warm-up for Davidson

Leftover thoughts from Davidson's 120-56 rout against Emory Friday night.

• Davidson got new scoreboards this season, and the Wildcats will need them. Friday night's 120-point outburst probably won't be topped this season, but Davidson could score more than 100 another handful of times. That's because the Wildcat second team features strong outside shooters such as Brendan McKillop and Bryant Barr, who combined to score 28 points Friday night.
• Boris Meno had another dominant night Friday, with 12 points and 13 rebounds in 19 minutes. Most people will point to Stephen Curry as the key player heading into Wednesday's game at North Carolina, but Meno's matchup with Tyler Hansbrough will also be crucial.
• The Wildcats only had one newspaper reporter at Friday's game. That'll change Wednesday, because the school is issuing more than 50 media credentials.
• Coach Bob McKillop praised the Wildcat defense, especially Will Archambault, and also one play by Curry. McKillop and Thomas Sander both noted that the sophomore had a steal with his left hand, the one wrapped for the past two weeks.
• That wasn't the most surprising thing of the night for Curry. The 6-foot-3 sophomore led the team with three blocks.
  

-- Kevin Cary

King goes deep for Duke

There’s no special formula or set of ground rules at Duke for when Taylor King is allowed to shoot.
King, one of the most heralded perimeter shooters nationally in the freshman class, led Duke with five 3-pointers and 20 points Friday night in a 121-56 defeat of North Carolina Central in the season opener at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"I shoot when I’m open," King said. "That’s pretty much how I see it."
In Duke’s Blue-White game a couple of weeks ago, King said, he buried a 3-pointer from the "K" that’s written on "Coach K Court." That might be a slight exaggeration. That’s 33 feet from the basket.
He said he missed another 3-point attempt, then buried a second shot from the "K." He looked over at Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
"He was like, ‘Whatever, as long as you make them,’. " King said.
Krzyzewski said Friday that he doesn’t judge King’s shots by how far he is from the basket.
"For him the distance isn’t the main thing," Krzyzewski said. "It’s what pressure (is he facing) and are his feet set? And today I thought each shot he took was really good. And he passed up on two good ones to give his teammates two great ones."
If King keeps scoring from deep, comparisons with Duke’s most recent great 3-point shooter, J.J. Redick, are bound to follow. It’s far too soon for that, though, and King is a different kind of player anyway.
Duke is playing him at power forward, and at 6-foot-6 he is pulling opposing forwards far from the basket. Every time he hits a deep one, the driving lanes for his teammates get wider.
"When he can stretch the defense like that, it only helps our team," said teammate Lance Thomas. "He’s a zone buster. ... If he shoots it, I know it’s going in."
-- Ken Tysiac

Gardner-Webb's roots were in NAIA

Gardner-Webb, which shocked 20th-ranked Kentucky 84-68 in Lexington on Wednesday, has a sparkling basketball tradition of its own. But that tradition is more a result of the Bulldogs’ time as an NAIA and junior college power in the 1960s and ’70s than their recent move to college basketball’s big time -- otherwise known as NCAA Division I.

Still, it’s worth it to revisit the small-college roots of Gardner-Webb, as well as several other Carolinas colleges that took the same path as the Bulldogs.

Gardner-Webb, located in the Cleveland County town of Boiling Springs about 50 miles west of Charlotte, has been NCAA Division I since 2000, when it moved up from a brief stay in Division II.

Even before that, Gardner-Webb was a long-time power in the small-college NAIA, producing future NBA stars such as Artis Gilmore and John Drew in the ’60s and ’70s.

North Carolina was once divided into two NAIA districts. Gardner-Webb was one of several schools that made District 26 one of the country’s hotbeds of small-college basketball. Schools such as Pfeiffer, Catawba, Lenoir-Rhyne, Winston-Salem State and Guilford (which won the NAIA championship in 1973) were often national contenders.

Their annual goal -- a berth in the NAIA tournament in Kansas City, Mo. - was cherished as much as Final Four is for Division I teams.

Things are different now.

North Carolina has just one school (Montreat) in the NAIA today. Gardner-Webb, Elon, UNC Asheville and High Point are Division I. The state had another NAIA district (29), that included schools such as Campbell and UNC Wilmington, both of which are Division I now. Most of the others are in NCAA Division II leagues such as the South Atlantic, Conference Carolinas or CIAA. Guilford is NCAA Division III.

Barton (formerly Atlantic Christian), located in Rocky Mount and a former District 29 school, won last season’s NCAA Division II title.

South Carolina’s District 6 included schools such as Winthrop and Wofford - both long established at the Division I level now.

-- David Scott

Davidson a step slow in win

Davidson coach Bob McKillop said his team's slow start in its 82-58 win against Lenoir-Rhyne Wednesday night was a case of "cement feet."

That's a good description, because the Wildcats were a step slow at every turn. Stephen Curry missed a dunk, the Wildcats had three 3-point attempts either graze the rim or miss it entirely, and Davidson struggled to stop Lenoir-Rhyne's penetration.

"Our guys were hesitating instead of going after them," McKillop said.

-- Curry said his sprained wrist was the result of a weightlifting accident two weeks ago, and said he's not sure how long he'll keep it wrapped.
"It hurts pretty bad sometimes," he said. "It just depends on the day. But I'm getting more comfortable with the wrap, so I am O.K."
Curry said he doesn't remember a specific lift that caused the accident, only that he woke up sore the next day.

-- Junior guard Will Archambault impressed McKillop by driving to the basket often. Archambault might have to do that more this season, because McKillop said he might put the junior inside more often. Archambault is 6-foot-6, and strong enough to make shots after receiving hard fouls.

-- Jason Richards might be the most underappreciated Wildcat, and his stat line Wednesday night showed that. He had 16 points, nine assists and nine rebounds, and added two steals. But McKillop knows how valuable he is. Richards played 34 minutes but no other Wildcat had more than 25 minutes on the court. Kevin Cary

Pack goes big - real big

The most intriguing lineup option for an N.C. State team with excellent frontcourt depth puts four players 6-foot-8 or taller on the floor at the same time.

"It reminds me of the old UConn teams," said Gavin Grant, a senior forward from Big East country in the Bronx. "It’s kind of intimidating."

N.C. State used the big lineup for a brief stretch during Tuesday night’s 76-41 defeat of UNC Pembroke at the RBC Center. Grant, who’s 6-8, was playing shooting guard with 6-9 Brandon Costner at small forward, 6-9 J.J. Hickson at power forward and 6-10 Ben McCauley at center.

Costner, who led N.C. State with 61 3-pointers last season, is the key to the lineup. As long as Costner is not required to chase a very small player all over the floor, coach Sidney Lowe said he can handle the small forward position.

"It’s going to help us on the boards," Lowe said, "and we don’t lose anything on the perimeter (with Costner). ... We don’t drop off when we play him at the three."

And if opposing teams elect to play man-to-man against that lineup, somebody for N.C. State will be able to park in the post and use his height to score over a smaller defender.

-- Ken Tysiac

Davidson's season through crystal ball

Just how good will Davidson be this season?

The first 10 games of the Wildcats’ schedule should help provide the answer. The Wildcats face four ranked teams and also face pivotal nonconference games against Charlotte and Western Michigan. That could make last season’s school-record 29 wins hard to match.

But here’s one guess at the early season, and how the Wildcats will end up this season.

Nov. 9 Emory: Uh, let’s just say Davidson puts up its first (of many) 100-point games this season.

Nov. 14 North Carolina (Bobcats Arena): Remember when Winthrop took on the Tar Heels there last season? Expect a similar result – the mid-major team losing late.

Nov. 21 at Western Michigan: Tougher game than you might expect. Western Michigan is one of the best teams in the Mid-American conference and will edge Davidson in the final minute.

Nov. 24 N.C. Central: The Davidson second unit might be able to win this game.

Nov. 26 at Appalachian State: The Mountaineers gave Davidson its only conference loss last season, but Davidson won’t let a repeat happen.

Dec. 1 Duke (Bobcats Arena): Duke has routinely given Davidson 30-point beatings in recent years, but this year should be different. The arena will help Davidson (Tar Heels fans will come to pull against the Blue Devils), and the Wildcats will get a marquee win that should help their NCAA at-large chances.

Dec. 5 at Charlotte: The hangover from the Duke win might create a slow start, but Davidson will get its first win in Halton Arena in overtime.

Dec. 8 vs. UCLA (at Anaheim): This will be the only game that Davidson is overmatched all season. Expect a big win by the Bruins.

Dec. 13 The Citadel: Davidson will bounce back with a win of at least 40 points.

Dec. 21 at N.C. State: The Wolfpack has improved and has the size to give Davidson trouble. Another loss comes here.

That leaves Davidson at 6-4, including two conference wins. The rest of the schedule will probably include two other losses, likely at UNC Greensboro and at College of Charleston. If that plays out, Davidson will be 23-6 overall, and 18-2 in the Southern Conference. Davidson will win the Southern Conference tournament, and then one NCAA tournament game.

So, the guess here is a 27-7 season – not as many wins as last season but a better result overall.

What do you think?

-- Kevin Cary