The Davidson Wildcats and Stephen Curry have been a disappointment this season, relatively speaking. Curry is leading the nation in scoring, which is quite impressive, but the Wildcats don't seem nearly as dangerous this year as they did in 2008.
Part of that could be that they no longer retain "sleeper" status. Or part of it could be that they no longer have the heavily underrated Jason Richards manning point for them. Or maybe they just have three losses to nationally-ranked teams. Either way though, they'll be playing the highly-ranked Butler Bulldogs on February 21 in the headlining game of ESPN's Bracket Busters.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Today, we have enlisted me, The Sportz Assassin, of FanHouse and SportzAssassin.com, to break down the Davidson Wildcats.
We all remember last season. Davidson began the season taking on top programs like North Carolina, UCLA and Duke, rolling through the Southern Conference schedule and then getting to the Elite Eight. Along the way, the Wildcats popped Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin and nearly beat eventual champion Kansas.
Stephen Curry became a superstar. Head coach Bob McKillop was finally getting his national recognition. The little school just outside of Charlotte is now big time.
Despite getting knocked out by Kansas in the Elite Eight, the one player that defined the 2008 NCAA Tournament is Davidson's Stephen Curry. Curry tore up this tournament ... averaging 32 points in beating Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin before losing to the Jayhawks by two.
After Kansas ended Davidson's dream run in the NCAA tournament on Sunday, Curry said that he will return to school for his junior season.
That's great because Curry and the Davidson Wildcats really electrified this tournament. A tournament that had seen a ton of blowouts needed something to get us excited about.
Thursday had very, very limited upsets. The first session of Friday games have already seen one, kinda. #10 Davidson beat #7 Gonzaga, 82-76.
Davidson's Stephen Curry was insane, hitting 8-of-11 from three and dumping 40 points on the Zags. After Gonzaga's defense spent the first half chasing Curry around (he scored just 9 points at the break), they seemed tired towards the end of the game. Curry went off for 31 in the second half, Andrew Lovedale was all over the boards and the Zags' own shots weren't falling.
Seeding-wise, it was an upset though many people had Davidson pegged for this one. Curry is an All-American and Davidson is about a two-hour drive from Raleigh, site of the game. Gonzaga had to fly across the country -- and this game was played at 9:30 a.m. their time.
Davidson takes their 23-game winning streak ... which is the longest in the nation ... into the 2nd round against the winner of Georgetown-UMBC. The Wildcats' last loss was on December 21st against NC State on the same floor they are playing on now.
Every year Cinderella captures our hearts in the NCAA Tournament. They begin fittings for their glass slippers in November, though. They Do Not Come From Nowhere introduces you to the teams that will be busting brackets nationwide come March.
If you were building an unsung team that has the makings of a March surprise it would have experience on the court and on the sideline, play good defense and have a superstar capable of taking over a game on the offensive end. In other words, it would look like Davidson and that's why they almost knocked off North Carolina in Charlotte last night.
Davidson returns every scholarship player from last year's 29-win team, a team that was considered too young to challenge for the Southern Conference title. Jason Richards is a heady point guard whose 7-plus assists a game were attained with a sparkling 2.35 assist/turnover ratio. Forwards Thomas Sander and Boris Meno combined for nearly 25 points and 15 rebounds a game and with Andrew Lovedale created a frontline that helped the Wildcats outrebound their opponents by a wide margin.
Bracket Busters 2009 matchups have been announced. FanHouse has the skinny.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Every year Cinderella captures our hearts in the NCAA Tournament. They begin fittings for their glass slippers in November, though. 
