Up-and-down Davidson basketball team hosts Rhode Island: Three things to know

The hot-and-cold Davidson Wildcats return to Belk Arena on Saturday for an Atlantic 10 game against Rhode Island. Here’s three things to know about the game between the Wildcats (13-12, 7-6 A-10) and Rams (19-6, 11-2):

1. Which Davidson team will show up against Rhode Island (which won the teams’ earlier matchup 69-58 in January in Kingston, R.I.)? The Wildcats have been wildly inconsistent, especially recently. Davidson had won six of eight games (including successive victories against Fordham and St. Bonaventure by an average of 29.5 points). Then, after leading by as many as 21 in the first half against lowly Saint Joseph’s on Tuesday, they were beaten 73-72 on a last-second 3-pointer by the Hawks (who were without leading scorer Ryan Daly).

2. This will be a matchup of two of the top backcourts in the league. Rhode Island’s Fatts Russell is second in the A-10 in scoring (20.2) and backcourt mates Jeff Dowtin and Tyrese Martin average 14.0 and 12.5, respectively. They’ll go against Davidson’s Kellan Grady (16.4), Jon Axel Gudmundsson (who has been rounding into the form recently that won him league player-of-the-year honors last season) and Carter Collins.

3. The status of Davidson redshirt freshman guard Mike Jones is uncertain for Saturday’s game. Jones, the A-10’s leading 3-point shooter (43.0 percent), missed the Saint Joseph’s game, sitting on the bench with his arm in a brace.

Rhode Island at Davidson

When: 5:30 p.m., Saturday

Where: Belk Arena, Davidson

Watch: CBS Sports Network

Listen: Davidson radio network