Davidson basketball coach Bob McKillop going for career win No. 600 on Wednesday

Bob McKillop’s first crack at his 600th career victory comes against what’s possibly Davidson’s biggest test of the Atlantic 10 schedule Wednesday night when the Wildcats host conference preseason favorite Richmond.

The visiting Spiders (6-2, 0-0 A10) were ranked nationally earlier this season, have swept Davidson (5-3, 1-0) three of the past four years, and have won three of their last four games at Belk Arena.

All five Richmond starters were either named to the preseason all-conference team or have been A-10 players of the week so far this season.

It seems a bit early in the campaign for “big game” status, but Davidson could stamp itself as a conference title contender with a victory Wednesday. The Wildcats got some national attention in their last game, drubbing the SEC’s Vanderbilt, 85-65.

McKillop, in his 32nd season as Davidson’s head coach, ranks 17th among active head coaches in NCAA Division I victories.

He has been a fixture on the Davidson bench for more than three decades, but here are a few things you might not know about the Wildcats’ coach:

A more famous classmate?

It’s debatable as to whether McKillop is the best-known person from his homeroom at Chaminade High School on Long Island. He played baseball and basketball there, earning a scholarship to East Carolina, where he played for a season before transferring back home to Hofstra. One of his classmates made a name for himself as a reporter and commentator with CBS, ABC and Fox News — Bill O’Reilly.

Bob McKillop in the NBA?

After graduating from Hofstra, McKillop was signed to a free agent contract in 1972 by the Philadelphia 76ers, then cut. The 76ers went on to finish 9-73.

“I was cut from one of the worst teams in NBA history,” McKillop says now with a laugh.

He almost went back home.

In 1998, McKillop was interviewed for the head coaching job at St. John’s, after the Queens school parted ways with Fran Fraschilla. Fortunately for Davidson fans, St. John’s hired Mike Jarvis. McKillop has been rumored for other jobs in the years since but has built roots at Davidson.

The international connection

In recent years, McKillop has become one of the top recruiters of overseas talent. His 2016-17 team had seven players from outside the United States, and this year’s squad has players from Austria, Denmark, England, New Zealand and South Korea.

McKilltop told Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis in 2016 that it started when he was a coach at Long Island Lutheran High in the late 1970s and coached a Canadian transplant, Bill Wennington, who went on to a successful NBA career.

His educational curiosity

McKillop was a high school history teacher and remains fascinated with the world. He says that is part of the reason for his ability to recruit overseas. In 2018, he took his team to visit the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. In a Washington Post op-ed piece after that trip, McKillop said he hopes the trip would help build strong leaders of his players. “We need advocates for, and defenders of, human dignity,” he wrote.

Bob McKillop’s milestone victories

▪ No. 1: 70-69 over Erskine (Dec. 4, 1989). Davidson went 4-24 in McKillop’s first season, and the coach’s first victory was also the Wildcats’ first triumph in their then-new Belk Arena. Senior guard Edward Gaines scored the winning basket.

▪ No. 100: 92-77 over Marshall (March 2, 1996). It came in the Southern Conference tournament semifinals and was Davidson’s 19th straight victory in a 25-5 season. The Wildcats lost to South Carolina in the NIT’s first round.

▪ No. 250: 68-61 over Furman (Jan. 22, 2005). Brendan Winters and Jason Morton each scored 17 points in a game that included an appearance by reserve guard Matt McKillop, the coach’s son and now an assistant coach. Davidson started 5-7 that season but won 16 in a row for a 23-9 finish.

▪ No. 500: 83-70 over Denison (Nov. 28, 2015). Brian Sullivan scored 23 points as the Wildcats downed their Division III opponent. It was the fourth win in a 5-0 start for Davidson. The Wildcats finished 20-13 and appeared in the NIT.

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle