Real pattern of success for Davidson hoops

[TOK]

The success Davidson has experienced in the McKillop era pre-Steph was a bid to the dance very 4 years. Steph allowed for that mold to be broken when the 2066 Dance invitation was followed by Steph led teams making the Dance in 2007 and 2008.

Recruiting picked up relative to the rest of the SoCon as a result of what might be called the "Steph effect" and that allowed for the next once in 4 year appearance in 2012 to be immediately followed with a Dance invitation for 2013.

In the A-10, Davidson has gone Dancing in 2015, 2018 and 2022.

The norm with Bob McKillop as coach was to make the dance about every 3 to 4 years.

If the cats go Dancing in either 2025 or 2026, the pattern under McKillop the elder will have been repeated under Matt.

The standard has never been to go to the Dance every year or even every other year. Missing two years in a row is the not unusual, it is the norm.

Once Skogman was out for the rest of the season, this became a very young team. Next season will be the last with lots of 5 year players on rosters around the country. For the 2026 season, it will be 4 year players, unless someone red-shirted, so the playing field will be leveled to a degree for Davidson. I really look at the last two seasons as the equivalent of the first two post Steph seasons. I believe that things will really look a lot better over the next two seasons as the core of this young team develops and matures. This season the team couldn't finish games, but stayed competitive in conference without Skogman. I think this young core will learn how to finish games.

Pass me the Kool-Aide, next year is going to be fun watching these guys improve.

[stevelee]

+1

[mccabemi]

Hard to argue how this year fits into a preexisting pattern.

[TOK]

overall Conference tournament
23-24 season 15-17 5-13 lost "play in" game
22-23 season 16-16 8-10 won first round game, lost quarterfinals

2010-2011 18-15 10-8 lost first round game of SoCon tournament, was 1-1 in CBI
2009-2010 16-15 11-7 lost first round game in SoCon tournament

I see a lot of similarity between the first two seasons after Steph and the last two seasons for the Cats.

The 2010-2011 team started out the SoCon portion of the schedule 2-7, before rallying to win 8 of the last 9 games. The Cats couldn't even win a first round game in the SoCon tournament either season. The core of the 2010-2011 season team was very young went on to win consecutive SoCon regular season and tournament championships. Without Skogman, this season's team was very young. Had David not been injured, the Cat's would have won more games this year.

Yes the A-10 is tougher, but i do think that, overall, Davidson has been recruiting more athletic players for the A-10 than it got in the SoCon.

I expect significantly better results for the Cats over the next two seasons. I see a glass half full, and that's because I already drank some of the Kool-Aide. Go Cats.

[Wildcat92]

Except that, at great expense and no small level of challenge for non-revenue sports, Davidson entered the A-10 in order to get into a conference with more than one bid so that this pattern would change. The A-10 is not exactly what it was then, unfortunately, and a 3-4 year gap in post-season play is deadly in the NIL and portal era.

[Acorn]

Is/was the team young?

Based on what I can find online, it looks like Skogman is 23. Huffman is 22, and will be 23 in July. Kochera graduated high school in 2020 and has played four years of college basketball. Bailey is a sophomore but turned 21 before the season began. Brizzi is 22. Moss graduated high school in 2021 and has played three years of college basketball. Ghedini will be 22 next week. Spadone is 20 (his birthday is in August). Loughnane took a post-grad year, didn’t he?

Some of the younger guys: Logan is 19 and will turn 20 before next season. Durkin turned 19 in January. Adam is 19 and will turn 20 in the late summer. Schulte is 19, but turns 20 in June.

All in all, that doesn’t strike me as an especially young college basketball team. Especially when weighted for playing time.

[stevelee]

Young compared to the opponents who are 3–5 years older and in their 5th–7th year of college.

Young in terms of the amount of time they have played together.

[Acorn]

Young compared to the opponents who are 3–5 years older and in their 5th–7th year of college.

Young in terms of the amount of time they have played together.

I was unaware that Davidson played a lot of opponents who were 26 to 28 years old. Do you have some actual stats on the average age of opposing teams? I haven’t seen them.

[stevelee]

Young compared to the opponents who are 3–5 years older and in their 5th–7th year of college.

Young in terms of the amount of time they have played together.

I was unaware that Davidson played a lot of opponents who were 26 to 28 years old. Do you have some actual stats on the average age of opposing teams? I haven’t seen them.

I don’t think that is an average, and I might be engaging in just a bit of hyperbole. I just take note when someone points out players who have been around a while. We have 19 year olds, so it is not that unusual for them to be facing players who are 24, so my numbers are not completely off the wall.

[Ursa Midmajor]

Pretty risky move for a so-so D1 player unless a real grad degree. You wind up four years behind in the job market,even though you may be pocketing NIL money. How many Ford F150s can one sell working for Bubba Alumnus after you finish your eight years of college? And if you were only at the school one year, Bubba doesn’t give a hoot about you and has two freshmen under NIL deals. You are heading for a term life insurance career.