In Game: vs. Richmond

[MrMac]

Some of those warm feelings that I have for out players may be lessened in a world where they are more likely to transfer out after a year or two. It is passing strange to me that the NBA may actually have more control over player movement than the NCAA does at this point. Chaos.

[ScootCat]

I personally hate what NIL is doing to college sports, however, it is with us and is likely to stay. CJ Stroud, rookie sensation QB for the Houston Texans, just announced a significant donation to Ohio State’s NIL collective today. I think we need Steph to do the same. The money and the publicity would do wonders for our beloved Wildcat program. It would also make Matt’s job a lot easier.

[wildforthecats]

I personally hate what NIL is doing to college sports, however, it is with us and is likely to stay. CJ Stroud, rookie sensation QB for the Houston Texans, just announced a significant donation to Ohio State’s NIL collective today. I think we need Steph to do the same. The money and the publicity would do wonders for our beloved Wildcat program. It would also make Matt’s job a lot easier.

Makes sense to me.

[Acorn]

Steph can do what he wants with his money, but I can think of a lot of things that would have a (much) higher expected value for good in the world.

[wildforthecats]

Steph can do what he wants with his money, but I can think of a lot of things that would have a (much) higher expected value for good in the world.

I’m sure Steph will continue to do more life changing ventures.

[MrMac]

I personally hate what NIL is doing to college sports, however, it is with us and is likely to stay. CJ Stroud, rookie sensation QB for the Houston Texans, just announced a significant donation to Ohio State’s NIL collective today. I think we need Steph to do the same. The money and the publicity would do wonders for our beloved Wildcat program. It would also make Matt’s job a lot easier.

OK. Who wants to call him?

[jamesdhogan]

Dear Formerly Freehold: relaxing admission standards is not the answer to high quality bb for several reasons. Foremost among them is the immutable fact that DC is not a business. Moreover, are you advocating a less rigorous academic program for those admitted pursuant to this two tiered admissions process? Finally, do you announce this special athletics admissions to thereby stigmatize the recipients thereof, or do you conduct it on a wholly confidential basis. Any one of these three admission tenets disqualify us as being Camelot. All three together would make Larry Brown still our head coach. Davidson exists to educate young minds for humane lives of leadership and service, not to facilitate basketball players to get to the NBA.

This was exactly the reply I was hoping for--thank you. I don't think it's helpful for me (of all people) to tie myself to Davidson's mission among you all, but so long as places like Davidson exist, I am hopeful they frequently remember why they exist and what they're there to do.

We're clearly not having this discussion about NFL-level players for Davidson's football program. And for good reason. Somehow it still seems on the verge of sanity to consider Davidson knocking off power conference opponents in men's basketball, but I worry such an idea won't be plausible much longer. And I hate that.

I have no need to chase down any rabbit holes, but right now higher education needs colleges and universities to figure out what really matters and stick to those guns. The modern funny business of revenue generating sports programs is weakening any cogent argument that higher education is necessary or worth paying for.

[Wildcat92]

Got to reach higher than that. We haven't won an NCAA tournament game since 2008. The talent level of the last 15 years hasn't been enough to accomplish that goal. We have to find better players.

We have had the opportunity to win NCAA games and had more than enough talent. The game against M******** and the game against Mich State could have gone our way easily.

[i77cat]

But they didn't. We were good enough to barely lose. That's not good enough. In my 50 years of fanhood, we've won NCAA tournament games in a single span of 10 days. And put two players into the NBA. Both have championship rings, so that's pretty cool.

[TiredCat88]

Okay then, what are these several admission tiers - male, female and non-binary?

I don't know exactly what CC was referring to, but my guess is that it was regarding athletes, etc. It would be crazy to assume we don't tier athletically. We know that athletes are admitted with different academic standards than the rest of the student body. I'm sure basketball student-athletes at Davidson are viewed differently during the admission process than others. Most likely true for all of our athletic teams. This is probably true for minorities as well.

Assuming they all fall in a window that provides the opportunity to graduate on time with the same academic rigor as their classmates, I am fine with this. To think that if these same student-athletes and other groups would be admitted with a blind admission process would be crazy. So yes, Davidson has a tiered admission process.

[85Wildcatsky]

I personally hate what NIL is doing to college sports, however, it is with us and is likely to stay. CJ Stroud, rookie sensation QB for the Houston Texans, just announced a significant donation to Ohio State’s NIL collective today. I think we need Steph to do the same. The money and the publicity would do wonders for our beloved Wildcat program. It would also make Matt’s job a lot easier.

Makes sense to me.

Not to me. I would prefer Davidson to sit out of this current "Athletic monetary feeding frenzy" I can't see NIL money to be a sustainable option for college sports. Likewise, I don't see legitimate academic institutions embracing this model either. The super conferences are going to force members to eventually pay a ridiculous amount of money per roster or many teams are going to settle for a parity like results. NCAA basketball and football could become horrible extensions of NFL and NBA leagues with an unwatchable regular season and borish playoffs with too many average teams.

I personally have no desire to hook my interest on players who play for 3 teams in five years. I see no student-athlete relationship with a DB who goes out on the portal to get 1.5 million while a number of students are working 2 jobs to help pay tuition. If current conditions remain the same I would be more interested in Davidson, the Ivies, and other high Academic schools to break away from this level of athletics and drop the facade of competing at this top level.

The guard who just beat us from Richmond has played for 3 teams in the last couple of years. What tie does he have to Richmond or are we now just forming glorified YMCA pickup teams?

[ScootCat]

You certainly make some good points. One of the reasons I've loved following Davidson basketball so much is because of the player continuity. I have really enjoyed watching players develop over their four years in the program. However, I doubt I will enjoy it as much if we become mediocre or worse. Regarding joining a conference with Ivy League-type schools that more or less stiff-arm NIL, I'd be open to that. Under such a scenario, I believe we'd have a real shot at earning an NCAA bid on a pretty consistent basis. GO CATS!

[MLC67]

I don’t believe that there is any kind of rigid tier system that singles out athletes for admission despite not meeting academic admission standards. The reason for this belief is that our school does not have a single bright line test of an A average in high school or 1500 SAT score. Instead, Davidson evaluates the applicant’s entire portfolio to evaluate his or her merits within the framework of prior academic achievement. For example, I was admitted in 1967 with three non-academic characteristics that I believe carried the day on an academic record below many others. First, I lived in New Jersey giving the college a non-southern student. Next, I was the President of the Student Council, and thirdly, I was given a glowing recommendation from the Presbyterian minister of my church. So while I was not a tuba player or a basketball recruit (as you all know I walked on for 45 minutes), my attributes as a whole person allowed me to make the cut. And that road taken by Camelot has made all the difference.

[bagelcat]

Getting back to Richmond, I just watched the replay of the second half.

I will watch overtime later, but I know how that turned out.

Skogman makes a three to put us three ahead, I think with about 1:30 left. Then we give up an immediate three to Bigelow, not ten seconds later.
Durkin did not make a good close out.

Brizzi drives to put us ahead, one of two great drives Brizzi made (yes, the missed FTs and the critical turnover in OT with Durkin standing open the corner to tie the game). We get a stop. The Grant layup on the left side of the rim was IN THE BASKET. As was the Skogman tip. Then Grant makes a bad foul on King, who makes two (good call, btw). Grant played great but had one reckless drive (he's allowed) and one bad turnover when he threw a bounce pass off the end line.

The Hunter shot with 1.2 secs left was not as close as I thought. Squarely off the back rim.

So on consecuitve Saturdays we lost games in which we were up 3 with the ball with 40 secs left and up 2 with the ball with 40 secs left. Just crushing. I hope the players are more resililient than I am. I trust that they are.

Skogman was great v. Richmond. He deserved better.

[MrMac]

Excellent Bagel-nalysis.