Five things to know as Davidson opens the Atlantic 10 tournament
The Davidson men’s basketball team begins its quest for its second-straight NCAA tournament bid on Tuesday, when the Atlantic 10 conference tournament commences at Barclays Center in New York.
The eighth-seeded Wildcats play ninth-seeded St. Bonaventure at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday with the winner advancing to meet top-seeded VCU at 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Both games will be televised on USA Network.
Here are five things to know about Davidson (15-15).
▪ This is the first conference tournament with Matt McKillop at the helm. The first-year head coach is the son and successor of Bob McKillop, the coach who announced his retirement this past offseason after a legendary career that spanned 33 years and included an Elite Eight run in 2008 — the same one powered by supernova and future NBA star Stephen Curry. Matt’s first season was always going to be a rebuilding one. The Wildcats returned only four contributors from a season ago. The Wildcats are in jeopardy of notching their first losing season since 2000-01.
▪ Davidson’s only path to the NCAA tournament, at this point, is through an automatic bid delivered by an Atlantic 10 conference championship. Davidson earned its first at-large bid in school history last season after dominating all season but losing in last year’s conference final to Richmond. The Wildcats were a 10 seed in last year’s NCAA appearance, which ended with a close loss to Michigan State. Per Joe Lunardi’s projection, VCU is the only team expected to represent the A10 in this year’s tournament — and the Rams are a 12 seed.
▪ If you’ve kept up with Davidson this season, you know about its coach on the floor. Foster Loyer is the team’s point guard and leading scorer who transferred to Davidson from Michigan State ahead of the 2021-22 season. The 6-foot guard is among the oldest players in the country and is averaging 16.6 points per game.
▪ Sam Mennenga is Davidson’s inside presence. The junior forward from New Zealand was an integral piece to last year’s tournament team, and is the team’s anchor. The 6-foot-9, 240-pound forward is averaging 15.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
▪ Davidson can still shoot it. The Wildcats on the season aren’t as great a shooting team as they have been in recent years, but their numbers are still commendable: As a team, the Wildcats are shooting 33.2% from 3-point range and 44.6% from the floor. It’s worth noting, too, that two of their best 3-point shooters are big men Mennenga (29-for-76, 38.2%) and David Skogman (24-for-65, 36.9%) — and the team is most dangerous when those two catch fire. Can they do it at the right time?
