WRAL Sports Fan

WRALSportsFan

Cinderella Davidson Dancing With Wisconsin

Mar 28, 2008

Detroit — The Davidson College run through the NCAA Tournament has been breathtaking.

Wisconsin will look to leave the Wildcats breathless in a Midwest Regional semifinal Friday night in Detroit. At the half, they were tied at 36-all.

Davidson, a school with only 1,700 students located 20 miles north of Charlotte, swept through the sub-regional in Raleigh last week with wins over Gonzaga and Georgetown. Sophomore guard Stephen Curry scored 40 points in the 82-76 victory over Gonzaga and 30 in the 74-70 win over Georgetown.

Curry is the son of a former Charlotte Hornets star, Dell Curry, but he wasn’t recruited by ACC schools. Even Virginia Tech, where his father’s No. 30 is retired, only offered him a chance to walk on.

Now, though, the only ACC team remaining in the field is North Carolina, and Davidson has emerged as one of the great stories of the tournament.

"It's been one of the greatest weeks of my life," Stephen Curry said. "It's just been crazy for us."

Curry’s brilliant shooting and a team with remarkable balance has gained the Wildcats national attention and created wild enthusiasm on campus. The school’s Board of Trustees decided this week to pay for bus transportation, two nights' lodging and tickets for any Davidson student who wanted to attend the Wisconsin game.

"The sense of intimacy that exists on our campus is unparalleled in NCAA Division I basketball," coach Bob McKillop said Thursday. "But when the Board of Trustees votes in a meeting on Tuesday to go into their personal pockets and put out the money so that every student can go to this game with a free bus ride, free hotel room and free game ticket, that reaches a level that's unprecedented.

"I'm stunned by it, thrilled by it.”

About 300 students boarded buses on campus at about 5 a.m. Friday for the 11-hour trip to Detroit.

"I think there is going to be a huge show of support up there. We're also getting support from off-campus," said Stacey Schmeidel, Davidson's director of communications.

The rock band REM has posted well wishes for the team on its Web site, and astronauts on the International Space Station are pulling for the Wildcats, Schmeidel said. The daughter of Space Shuttle Endeavour Commander Dominic Gorie is a junior at Davidson.

Davidson is 28-6 this season, and its record includes close losses to Duke, UCLA, North Carolina and N.C. State. So the Wildcats had played tough competition before sweeping to the Southern Conference title and a berth in NCAA play.

The Wildcats, the 10th seed in the Midwest Regional, face a formidable team in Wisconsin. The third-seeded Badgers (31-4) play a tough, disciplined style and feature a relentless defender in 6-foot-2 Michael Flowers. Flowers, a senior, is expected to guard Curry.

Curry is averaging 25.5 points per game, but Flowers didn’t sound concerned earlier in the week.

"At the end of the game, I want him to be breathless and remember what team he played against and how hard he worked," Flowers said.