What has raised the stakes is if my prediction of this Davidson team reaching the Sweet 16 appears in reality, I will be granted a bleacher report shirt. Oh, what could I want more than a T-shirt from the website that I write out of my own time for. But, hey, it's free, so you gotta love it.
My choice for the Cinderella award this year goes to the Davidson Wildcats, for those of you who had not already seen my notion above. Davidson is an excellent team with a star at shooting guard, Mr. Stephen Curry, pictured above. You got to love this guy, averaging 25.1 points a game and shooting 43.8 percent from the arc.
Last year, they lost a tough game to 4th seed Maryland, which I heavily enjoyed since I am, indeed, a terrapin. This year they're back and ready to prove themselves against Gonzaga.
Let's breakdown Davidson for a second. They went 26-6 overall, which is somewhat impressive. They also went 20-0 in the Southern Conference, including winning the conference championship. What has attracted my eye is their non- conference strength of schedule. The three main teams they played in that category included North Carolina, UCLA, and Duke.
In playing North Carolina, they lost 72-68 after leading at halftime. They took an 18-point lead against UCLA before they lost 75-63 and kept it close, but came out short in a losing effort against Duke 79-73.
These losses have given me an innuendo of such. I see that Davidson plays great against better opponents, but they tend to not finish. And I know all about teams that can't finish as I will be watching my Terps attempt to win the NIT, which is the definition of desperate.
I can definitely see Davidson beating out the Zags. The Wildcats are probably feeling invincible since they haven't lost in over two months or so. Gonzaga just got off a loss to San Diego in the WAC Finals. This just might affect the Bulldogs play come this Friday. Gonzaga should be the least of their worries, because if Davidson does win, which they haven't done in an NCAA Tournament since Lefty Driesell was the coach back in 1969, they will have to face the winner of the Georgetown-UMBC match up.
Now, Georgetown is an excellent team, but the fact of the matter is I don't believe you can win the NCAA Championship with a slow-paced Princeton style offense. I know I'm preparing for the potential No. 10 and No. 2 seed match-up, but I don't care right now.
What might upset Georgetown is Davidson's ability to shoot three-pointers. They're very similar to Duke in their offensive style. If Davidson does get up by a good amount of points, I don't see Georgetown making a comeback with their offense.
However, if this match-up becomes reality, I think it will be a pretty close game. Also, don't forget that they're playing in Raleigh, North Carolina for both games, so this will practically be a home game for Stephen Curry and company.
What Davidson needs to do in order to win both games is keep Curry in the game. He needs, as bad as it sounds, to be scoring most, if not all, of the points. He's one of the best individual players in the country and he shows it every game.
It is also essential to keep him out of foul trouble. When they lost to Maryland last year, the reason the did lose was due to Curry fouling out towards the end of the second half. They need to keep him out on the court. The other players like Jason Richards and Thomas Sander need to be on target. If they can substitute their height disadvantage with their excellence in shooting, Davidson might just win both games.
So, let's see if Davidson can pull of a few wins and Trey, get that shirt ready for me in a size XL.
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