In Game: at Loyola Chicago

[Waitress]

The drive up to Chicago was uneventful. Lake Shore Drive had little traffic and we parked in a garage less than a 5-minute walk from the Gentile Center. My wife (Jewish) found the arena's name amusing. She looked very smart in the black Davidson sweatshirt Bagel gave me about 15 years ago. Lots more seatbacks since the pre-COVID game that Davidson won. The Chicago/Davidson folks were placed off the corner of the home bench. Connor's Crew (I heard he needed 90 tickets) were behind the Davidson bench. I stood and applauded on Bobby's backdoor cut-and-basket. It was one of the few off-ball highlights. We generate a meager number of looks out of our stagnant motion. Does Matt not see that?

Took a photo with classmate Jim McConkey at halftime. The team could have used him. My wife and I wandered around the arena at halftime, finding ourselves at the Davidson locker room door as the team returned to the court. I urged them on by name ("How do you know all their names?" my wife asked), slapping five with several as they ran by, bumping fists with Jack Gibbs as he and Will Riegel walked by.

I counted four airballs on 3-point attempts. The home crowd must have felt sorry for the visitors as they chanted only half-heartedly on the fourth airball. Des exorted the crowd when he subbed out with about 5 minutes to play. I think Loyola had rambled out to a double digit lead. He played pretty well. The transfer has worked out well for him.

My wife grew up on the Hudson River and loves the water. No trip to Chicago is complete for us without a walk along Lake Michigan. In the summer, amenities abound along the lake, but in the winter, no concessions or bathrooms are open, so desperate for relief, I peed on a tree in a bird sanctuary, about four miles into our walk. Not long after, we stumbled upon a group of birdwatchers (recognizable by their hushed tones and enormous zoom lenses). After walking in the midwinter sun, it took a few minutes to adjust our eyes to the dim light of the thicket, but we spotted the birdwatchers' quarry: a long eared owl, sitting quietly, blinking back at us as we peered at this mysterious creature, whispering so as not to annoy it while we admired it.

Our next quarry was the elusive urban park portapotty, which was proving to be rarer that long eared owls. We set off for the masts of boats we could see in the distance. The boats were in drydock, each wrapped in glossy white plastic, their masts like a collection of church spires, their hulls like a huge pod of beached whales. The marina indeed had a portapotty, which my wife was quite happy I had found. She deferred to a Russian woman who arrived at about the same time. They joked about the state of the toilet and agreed it beat the alternative.

The walk back to the car a bit chilly, with a slight breeze in our face and the sun setting behind the high-rises But I handle most challenges better on an empty bladder. It's easy to imagine that the expanse of water stretching to the horizon is an ocean. For a moment, I'm not in Illinois, but in Pawley's Island, Kitty Hawk, or Cape Cod. Waves undulate and lap the shore. As we walk along the sea wall, water smacks against it, like a Davidson guard vainly hurling himself into the lane, over and over.

[Waitress]

I watched the Loyola game today. I'm surprised that no one is talking about the most surprising aspect of Davidson's team. There are no black players or coaches, except maybe one guy on the bench who never got into the game. Apparently, the modern Davidson team either does not or can't recruit black players. I was joking that they should be known as the Davidson Confederates. How you try to have a good A10 team looking like the 1957 Kentucky Wildcats is beyond me, other than knowing it won't work. Loyola is an average to slightly above average team. But they ran circles around those plodding guys with the bristle-cuts. How did the team that gave us Steph Curry come to this?

Ouch! Jarvis Moss played 5 minutes. I'd like to see him more.

Please amend your incorrect statement about the coaching roster.

https://davidsonwildcats.com/sports/men ... ll/coaches

[WildCock]

I watched the Loyola game today. I'm surprised that no one is talking about the most surprising aspect of Davidson's team. There are no black players or coaches, except maybe one guy on the bench who never got into the game. Apparently, the modern Davidson team either does not or can't recruit black players. I was joking that they should be known as the Davidson Confederates. How you try to have a good A10 team looking like the 1957 Kentucky Wildcats is beyond me, other than knowing it won't work. Loyola is an average to slightly above average team. But they ran circles around those plodding guys with the bristle-cuts. How did the team that gave us Steph Curry come to this?

Kentucky was all-white for another decade after '57. Or were you talling about haircuts, too?

[Ursa Midmajor]

Wandering in the wilderness. The question is: For how long?

The last seismic shift in college athletics was Title IX. Took the two major sports at Davidson 25* and 50 years to figure it out. I’m too old for this cycle if it takes that long.

*one might ask what did basketball’s demise have to do with Title IX? There is no question athletics was deemphasized in the early 70s. Not hard to put 2 and 2 together.

[85Wildcatsky]

I watched the Loyola game today. I'm surprised that no one is talking about the most surprising aspect of Davidson's team. There are no black players or coaches, except maybe one guy on the bench who never got into the game. Apparently, the modern Davidson team either does not or can't recruit black players. I was joking that they should be known as the Davidson Confederates. How you try to have a good A10 team looking like the 1957 Kentucky Wildcats is beyond me, other than knowing it won't work. Loyola is an average to slightly above average team. But they ran circles around those plodding guys with the bristle-cuts. How did the team that gave us Steph Curry come to this?

Great post and and time to discuss "the elephant in the room" I am also perplexed how a team in the wake of Steph Curry's amazing success has not done better in this area. I would like to see a decreased effort in Europe and a double down effort to get some solid US African American players. So many big schools are now just swapping 5 star recruits in the portal. I would think there would be some strong available freshmen that would love to play at a smaller school with a great education and the possibility of still playing in the pros like Steph.

Add a tall African American big man coach as well. We need someone to improve the strength, talent, and footwork of our bigs. These skills are lacking.
We were abused several times yesterday and simply pushed out of the way or out maneuvered underneath the hoop. 6' 10 players should not be shooting lean in AAU type of shots.

I thought when we landed Kellan, the "Curry" effect of landing many top players was just in the beginning. We have seemed to have stalled and lost all momentum.

[bagelcat]

Aside from the post disappearing Jarvis Moss and Jack Gibbs.

But yeah, we've all noticed. And it has to change.

I would prefer to say we need a good big man coach and leave it at that.

[collegecoach8502]

Some of the most racist comments I have heard on this board in a long time.

[stevelee]

Some of the most racist comments I have heard on this board in a long time.

Trying to catch up with other boards.

I keep being reminded of a 1992 film that Roger Ebert said was "not simply a basketball movie."

[graveline]

If we are wandering in the wilderness shouldn’t we be looking for more Jewish players?
Or would Moses Malone kill two serpents with one stone?

[citycat]

Wandering in the wilderness. The question is: For how long?

The last seismic shift in college athletics was Title IX. Took the two major sports at Davidson 25* and 50 years to figure it out. I’m too old for this cycle if it takes that long.

*one might ask what did basketball’s demise have to do with Title IX? There is no question athletics was deemphasized in the early 70s. Not hard to put 2 and 2 together.

Actually, Dr. Spencer tried to cut the athletic budget 10% in 1971 when Davidson was all male. He had some toadies in the Student Senate introduce a Bill (whatever they're called in the Student Senate) cutting the budget 10%. That provoked some opposition from those present.

Before a vote was taken, some Spencer ally explained football and basketball were exempt from the cuts. People then questioned what was the point of cutting the meager budgets of the other sports. The matter was tabled.

I was researching something else when I ran across that story and did not read subsequent issues of the Davidsonian to see what happened.

That was before Title IX was enacted in 1972 and the first class of freshwoman/person coeds in 1973.

No College took Title IX to mean women should have proportional teams, facilities, or scholarships in the 1970s. Davidson had no basketball scholarships for women until the 1980s. UNC-Chapel Hill did not have a women's intercollegiate team until January 1975, despite having one of the best woman players, Marsha Mann, in school from 1971-1975. (She is Shea Ralph's mother.)

An unusual fact about our men's basketball team is we have not signed a white American male player from a NC public school since the Hussey or Brickels eras. Trent Westmoreland played for a year when Hussey was coach, but he may have been a walk on. Preston "Rock" Powers was a freshman scholarship player in '74-'75.

We try to recruit white public school guys about once in a decade, Will Johnson and Hunter Tyson are two examples, but they go to ACC programs. It might make sense to recruit a guy we can sign and have him be successful on the court at Davidson. It would make signing the next one easier.

Among the guys we looked at and passed on were John Fitch from South Meck, who went to Appalachian and hit several buzzer beaters against us, and David Dupont of Greensboro Page, who went to James Madison and helped them play in the NCAA Tournament twice.

Davidson recruits many regular students and athletes in other sports from South Meck, Myers Park, Page, and Grimsley and other NC public schools.

PS. Before someone mentions Martin Ides '02, he was an Austrian who was planted at East Burke High School.

[JerseyLawyer]

I never want to criticize our teams, because these are real college students competing at a high level without relaxation of academic standards. But yesterday, except for Grant (who was a pissed off warrior), no one showed up to play. That was evident on the first three possessions. And uncharacteristic. Watching Des make five 3's (where the f*** was that when he was on our team. . . ) added insult to injury.

I'm counting on this team waking up and realizing they are way better than this.

[MLC67]

Let me join CollegeCoach in expressing some serious discomfort at the factually inaccurate post by hodeho, whomever that troll might be. Could this person be a booster for another A-10 rival trying to poison the well on our ongoing recruiting? Nonetheless, this factually inaccurate libel regarding the racial makeup of our coaching staff pales in comparison to the shameful assertion that we are not intentionally recruiting African Americans. Cleverly written as a question, the claim when coupled with the allegation that it would be accurate to call us the Davidson Confederates demonstrates the poster’s racist denigration of our basketball program. Usually, not a fan of censorship on this Board, but in this case, I will appreciate deletion of such a false and malicious post.

[Airball50]

I resent and dispute any and all implications in this thread that Davidson has some plan to recruit only white players and not to recruit black players. Players ultimately choose where they play. Some recruits, black or white, may decline a Davidson offer for a variety of reasons.

[85Wildcatsky]

Some of the most racist comments I have heard on this board in a long time.

Ridiculous. 70% of the NBA is African American and most likely 70% or more of the top 20 in the NCAA currenty. There is nothing racist about making a better effort to get top players. Most diversity managers in business would look at our roster and question our efforts if we were a major business. The program that has had greats like Maloy, Rucker, Gibbs, Wilson, Grady, Curry, etc should be able to do better.

So is it racist to say the Cats would have done better with Des Watson on our roster on Sunday?


PS Joshua Heyliger is also on our coaching staff.

[CatsUpNorth]

Impossible to watch the game yesterday or this whole season and not think Des made the right decision to transfer. We need to quickly adjust and make it so we’re a place where we can maximize guys talents and play a fun brand of basketball again. I love Davidson basketball, but right now it does not seem like a fun place to play, unlike two years ago and the prior decades (basketball is a lot more fun when shots are going in, so having shooters as has been previously pointed out by many would make a big difference).

This is not a shot at our players, and I do not think our effort has been a question this year, but it just does not seem like a fun brand of basketball to play at the moment. I’m still rooting for this team this season, but the adjustments (and willingness to make adjustments) our staff and team make this offseason will shape how excited I am about our program moving forward.