Davidson basketball is feeling the pressure of first place as NCAA tournament draws near

The pressure of being the target of every opponent seems to be taking a toll on the Davidson men’s basketball team.

Head coach Bob McKillop wants to change that.

McKillop said earlier this week that he and his assistant coaches are trying to get the Wildcats to play looser.

“We’re getting everyone’s best shot,” McKillop said.

The Wildcats (21-4, 11-2 Atlantic 10) resume action at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, hosting Saint Louis (18-8, 9-4) in a game televised on CBS Sports Network.

This season, McKillop’s team lost two of its first three games, then went on a 15-game winning streak. At one point, Davidson moved into the AP Top 25 rankings for a week. But since their 10-point victory over UMass on Jan. 8, the Wildcats have struggled to control games even though they’re 8-2 over their last 10 games.

They lost to VCU (at home) and Rhode Island, and they posted victories by margins of two points (once), three points (twice), and five points (twice). Another win, by six points, was in overtime.

In a nine-game stretch before Monday, Davidson shot 25 percent or worse from 3-point range four times. The 3-pointer had been among the Wildcats’ biggest weapons this season.

McKillop said the coaching staff tried to change things up Monday when they beat Duquesne by 11 points.

“We were playing to win, but not feel the pressure of first place,” he said.

“And we wanted to have fun,” he added. “We’ve had fun this season, but there were times when we didn’t.”

McKillop said that’s why the Wildcats used what they call the “Zoom Offense” in the early stages of the Duquesne game.

“It gives the guys a little more freedom,” he said. “We felt the need to do that, because we’ve been playing a little tight.”

The result: Davidson raced to a 20-4 lead and was up 47-30 in the second half before Duquesne managed to narrow the gap in the final minutes.

In mid-January, the Wildcats were on several lists of mid-major teams that might be strong enough to land an NCAA Tournament at-large berth. In recent weeks, however, many of those same analysts have said the Wildcats might need to win the A-10 tournament to land that berth.

Jerry Palm of CBS has Davidson in the NCAA field as a No. 10 seed — but as the A-10 tournament champion. He has no A-10 at-large teams in his field.

And ESPN’s Jerry Gasaway, in his Bubble Watch, said Davidson’s at-large chances might depend on winning Saturday and then on the road March 6 against Dayton, another possible bubble team.

McKillop says it’s important for his team to play the its kind of game, and not worry about opponents or possible NCAA tournament seeding.

“We want to be at our best when March comes around,” he said.

Wildcats sign 3 new players

McKillop this week announced the signing of three players for the 2022-23 season.

The signees are Reed Bailey, a 6-foot-11 forward from Brewster Academy in Harvard, Mass.; Riccardo Ghedeni, a 6-7 guard from Collegio San Carlo in Milano, Italy; and Sean Logan, a 6-10 forward from Westfield, Mass.

Ghedeni already has enrolled at Davidson and has practiced with the team. He is the latest in a series of international players signed by McKillop. The current roster has players from Austria, Denmark, England, Iceland, New Zealand and South Korea.

Bailey comes from an athletic family. A brother played at Charleston, and two sisters played college volleyball. His father, Nathan, played basketball at Navy and Pitt. And his mother, Linda, was a volleyball player at Pitt.

“They are terrific fits for our program,” McKillop said. “We were attracted to them because of their high character, outstanding work ethic, versatile skill level, and superb toughness.”