Davidson set for more madness?

As Davidson prepares to run through its “Midnight Madness” session Friday night in Belk Arena, you can’t help but remember last season’s stunning Wildcats’ run to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight, when the team finished a basket shy of the Final Four.

Which brings up an interesting statistic, with a big $.

Davidson’s college book store had been averaging $1,700 in daily sales prior to Sunday, March 23, according to the Davidson Journal, an alumni publication. On Wednesday, March 26, the first day that “Sweet Sixteen” T-shirts were available, the store did $35,000 worth of business.

Not only that, after the win over Georgetown, the phrase “Davidson College” was No.1 on Googletrends’ list of most-searched words. It’s “hotness trend” was “volcanic.”

One player said that he received 1,800 Facebook “friend” requests.

And finally, after the heartbreaking loss to Kansas, the team arrived home at 3 a.m., Monday, March 31. All 15 players made it to their first class that day.
—Stan Olson

Winthrop set for 'challenging' schedule

Beat a few teams you’re not expected to and scheduling becomes that much harder. Just check out the interesting names on Winthrop’s non-conference schedule this season, particularly on the road.

The Eagles play at Florida, Davidson, Charlotte, South Carolina, N.C. State, Old Dominion and Akron. They have home games out of the league with East Carolina and the College of Charleston.

“The schedule is very challenging, but it’s also the result of winning 21 games a year for the last 10 years,” coach Randy Peele said at Tuesday’s Big South Conference media day. “It’s somewhat difficult to get games.

“I like playing a tough schedule. I think your weaknesses become exposed early, so you that you know how to develop your team, and the bottom line is three days in March (the conference tournament).

"So we’re going to compete to be the regular-season champion in this league and the tournament champion as well.”

Winthrop opens the regular season Nov.14, with a home game against North Greenville.

- Stan Olson

Winthrop men, women top picks in polls

After a one-year hiatus, Winthrop men’s basketball team and Liberty women’s basketball squads were chosen first in the Big South Conference’s annual preseason poll, as voted by the league's head coaches and media panel. The announcements were made today at the Embassy Suites hotel in Concord as part of the 2008-09 Basketball Tip-Off Media Luncheon.

Winthrop, which won its fourth consecutive Big South championship last season, received nine first-place votes and 202 total points to finish first in the 10-team race in 2008-09. The Eagles have won 20 games in each of the last four seasons, and return six letterwinners and two starters from last year’s club. The men’s preseason balloting was highly contested, as seven squads received at least one first-place vote.

Radford, which finished seventh in 2007-08, is predicted second this year after receiving seven first-place votes and 189 total points. It is the Highlanders’ highest placing in the preseason poll since being predicted second in 2001-02. New Big South member Gardner-Webb was third in the voting with 188 points (three first-place votes), ahead of No. 4 Liberty (two first-place votes and 148 points).

High Point received the fifth spot in the poll with 132 points and one first-place vote, while Charleston Southern was predicted sixth with 128 points (one first-place vote). VMI received the remaining first-place vote from the panel and finished seventh with 110 points, just ahead of No. 8 Coastal Carolina (107 points).

UNC Asheville, which was the Big South’s co-regular-season champion in 2007-08, was predicted to finish ninth with 83 points. New member Presbyterian, which is eligible for the men’s basketball regular-season title, received the 10th and final spot in the poll with 33 points.

On the women’s side, Liberty received 17 of the 19 first-place votes cast and finished with 169 total points to repeat as champion in 2008-09. The Lady Flames welcome back eight letterwinners and three starters from last year’s NCAA tournament squad.

Winthrop, which is coming off a school Division I record for wins (20), was picked second behind Liberty with 143 points (one first-place vote) – the Eagles’ highest spot ever in the preseason poll. The previous best was third in 1996 and 1997.

High Point finished third in the voting with 129 points, while Radford received the remaining first-place vote and placed fourth with 116 points. UNC Asheville is predicted to finish fifth (75 points), while Coastal Carolina and new Conference member Gardner-Webb tied for the sixth spot with 73 points each.

Charleston Southern finished eighth (55 points) and new League member Presbyterian, which is eligible for the women’s basketball regular-season title, rounds out the preseason poll in ninth-place with 22 points from the panel.

Davidson adds Guilford to its schedule

Davidson has added a game to its basketball schedule. The Wildcats, who are expected to contend for another Southern Conference title this season, will play Guilford Nov. 14 at 9 p.m. in the Wildcats' Belk Arena. The late start is because the school has a women's volleyball game with Wofford scheduled for 7, creating an athletic doubleheader.

Guilford is a member of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, an NCAA Division III league. The Quakers were 24-5 last season.--STAN OLSON

Curry, Davidson's Madness to be on ESPNU

ESPNU will feature Davidson in its expanded Midnight Madness coverage on Oct. 17. Also involved in the four hours of coverage will be Kansas, Georgetown, Gonzaga and Indiana, among others.

The network's coverage will begin at 9 p.m.

Davidson, though, will be one of the five schools -- all of whom played in last year's NCAA Tournament--whose sessions will be most prominently featured. There will be practice coverage, analysis, and courtside interviews with the head coach and key players from each team.

Coach Bob McKillop's Wildcats, led by junior guard Stephen Curry (right), are coming off of a trip the tournament's Elite Eight, where they lost a tight game to Kansas.

--Stan Olson

Tar Heels' Ginyard out 8 weeks

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina forward Marcus Ginyard will be sidelined for at least eight weeks after having surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left foot Wednesday, the school announced.

Doctors inserted a screw in his fifth left metatarsal, according to the news release.

Ginyard, the starting small forward, averaged 6.9 points and 4.5 rebounds last season and has been named the team's Defensive Player of the Year each of the past two seasons. He also contributes a key leadership role, and played most of last season despite hobbling around in a walking boot on his left foot because of a nagging injury to his left toe. The injuries are related, a team spokesman confirmed.

"You hate this for Marcus because he has worked so hard to get ready for his senior season, but he decided it was better to have the surgery now and be ready sometime in December, than risk a more substantial injury that would knock him of of action later in the season,'' UNC coach Roy Williams said in a prepared statement. "We will miss his play on both ends of the floor as well as his leadership with the young players. I am hopeful others will step forward to fill those roles. Marcus has been a joy to coach and I look forward to his return."

With Ginyard sidelined, senior Danny Green — one of the top sixth men in the country last season — will likely slide into the starting slot. The Tar Heels begin practice Oct. 17.

North Carolina, a Final Four favorite again after losing in the national semifinals last season, will still boast one of the deepest teams in the country. They return their seven of their top eight players — including consensus National Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough — and add a four-man freshman class.

-- Robbi Pickeral

Duke to hold open practice Oct. 17

DURHAM — Eager to see if Miles Plumlee really is the answer to Duke's inside game? You can watch the Blue Devils stage their first official practice of the 2008-09 season on Oct. 17.

Cameron Indoor Stadium will open at 4 p.m. Practice begins at 5 p.m. Fans will be allowed to sit in the upper level and should enter the building at the South entrance. Duke's Blue-White Scrimmage will be played on Oct. 18.

Starters Greg Paulus (right), Jon Scheyer, Gerald Henderson and Kyle Singler return from last season's 28-6 team that lost to West Virginia in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

-- Luciana Chavez

McKillop to be special guest at Jimmy V event

Davidson's stirring run to the NCAA basketball tournament's Elite Eight last spring is still gaining the team national attention.

The school announced today that Wildcats coach Bob McKillop will be a special guest at the 2008 Jimmy V Dinner Auction, which is presented in partnership with Madison Square Garden and ESPN.

The charity event is Oct. 14 at Pier Sixty in New York City.

The special guests are traditionally the coaches of the teams that will participate in the Jimmy V Basketball Classic. Davidson was invited this year, so McKillop will be honored along with Rick Barnes of Texas, Jay Wright of Villanova and Bob Huggins of West Virginia.

The event honors the memory of the late coach Jim Valvano of N.C. State, and his brother Bob will also be featured.

Proceeds from this event will fund cancer research projects through The V Foundation. For more information about the 2008 Jimmy V Basketball Classic New York Dinner Auction, contact The V Foundation for Cancer Research at 1-800-4JimmyV or log onto www.jimmyv.org.

Davidson will play West Virginia Dec. 9 in New York's Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy V Classic.

- Stan Olson

Davidson announces 2008-09 schedule

Davidson released its 2008-2009 basketball schedule today, and a challenging nonconference portion will force the Wildcats to start fast.

Coach Bob McKillop's team, which reached the NCAA tournament's Elite Eight last season, opens the season in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament. The Wildcats will play James Madison in the first round Nov. 17 in Norman, Okla.

The way the tournament is now aligned, Davidson will play four games no matter the outcome. The Wildcats will face either Oklahoma or Mississippi Valley State on Nov. 18, with two as-yet-to-be determined contests the following weekend.

Davidson will also meet Winthrop in its home opener at Belk Arena on Nov. 21.

The Wildcats will play host to N.C. State at Time Warner Cable Arena on Dec.
6, and will travel to New York for the Jimmy V Basketball Classic, where it will meet West Virginia in the first round on Dec. 9. The Wildcats also play in the Wooden Tradition in Indianapolis, meeting.

"The challenges of last year’s schedule were instrumental in preparing us for our magical run at the end of the season," McKillop said in a statement that coincided with the schedule's release. "Our aim in creating this year’s schedule was to present ourselves with similar challenges, and I think we have accomplished that."

The Wildcats will open Southern Conference play with a home game against Chattanooga on Dec. 13. Davidson returns 11 lettermen, including four of its top six scorers from last season.

- Stan Olson

Are tri-captains good for Duke basketball?

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski announced this morning that he has named senior Greg Paulus and juniors Jon Scheyer and Gerald Henderson as team captains for 2008-09. The move came just a year after Krzyzewski said he'd learned how using so many captains can dilute the abiility of those captains to lead.

That was the reason then lone-senior DeMarcus Nelson served as the lone team captain last season. Using multiple captains is a tough thing to make work but, this season, the coaching staff had no way around it.

Scheyer and Henderson must take charge of the 2008-09 Duke team. They made that clear after the way they played during the 2008 NCAA Tournament against Belmont and West Virginia with Nelson struggling during the postseason of his senior year.

Henderson took the ball and saved the game going coast to coast in the final seconds against Belmont. The play had Henderson's skill, athleticism and ability to complete a huge play came wrapped up in one neat package. That physical ability to seize a moment is something Duke has been missing for awhile.

Also, Scheyer, who physically faded down the stretch of a good freshman season, put together a strong, consistent sophomore season coming off the bench but playing all the hard minutes and making more than his share of heady plays.

It got sticky for the staff because Paulus is now a senior. Paulus essentially took a demotion as a junior when he wasn't named a captain after serving with Nelson and Josh McRoberts, as a sophomore.

Paulus, the team's best 3-point threat the past two seasons, deserved the gig this season on the strength of time served alone. He's also an athlete who has had that responisbility before as a longtime quarterback and point guard. At Duke, however, even with that kind of experience and a willingness to take his lumps, he hasn't always been a good fit in that role.

We'll see how it works on the court. Assuming freshman Elliot Williams lives up to his billing, sophomore Nolan Smith gets enough time on the court to get comfortable, and redshirt junior Marty Pocius actually is healthy enough to earn minutes, the Duke backcourt will again be crowded. The three captains and the three guys likely to come off the bench will have to earn what they get.