Men's Hoops Season Starts Saturday at Penn

Davidson Wildcats (0-0) vs. Penn Quakers (0-0))
Date: Nov. 13, 2010
Time: 7 p.m.
Site: The Palestra (8,722 capacity) - Philadelphia, Pa.
Audio: John Kilgo calls the action on the Davidson Radio Network (95.7 FM, 1450 AM, 1350 AM and online at www.DavidsonWildcats.com)
Video: Available at PennAthletics.com
Web sites: Davidson (DavidsonWildcats.com), Penn (PennAthletics.com)

Full game notes (PDF)

Layup Line
• Davidson opens its 103rd season of basketball against Penn in one of college basketball's most historic buildings, The Palestra in Philadelphia.
• The Wildcats play their first five and 10 of their first 13 games away from home. It's the most games away from home to start a season in coach Bob McKillop's 22 years at Davidson.
• Today's game will be a homecoming for Wildcat sophomore forward Jake Cohen, who is from Berwyn, Pa., just over 22 miles from Philly.
• The Wildcats are 4-2 in their last six season openers and fell 73-62 at No. 10 Butler in the 2009-10 opening contest.
• Davidsons opens on the road for the second straight campaign. Before last year, the 'Cats had not opened on the road since 2005.
• Davidson returns eight lettermen and three starters from last year's squad, which posted a 16-15 record and an 11-7 mark in the Southern Conference South Division, good for third place. Four of the Wildcats' top six scorers are back.
• The Wildcats have 10 underclassman on the team (six freshman, four sophomores) and feature just one senior and four juniors.
• The 'Cats are coming off a 65-61 exhibition victory over Lenoir-Rhyne last Saturday afternoon.
• Davidson was picked to finish third in the SoCon South Division again this season, while Penn was picked fourth in the Ivy League.
• Penn returns three All-Ivy players, including junior guard Zack Rosen, who was a unanimous first-team selection a year ago. Jack Eggleston was a second-team All-Ivy pick in 2009-10, while Tyler Bernardini returns to action after missing almost all of last year to injury. He was an honorable mention All-Ivy pick in 2008-09 and the Ivy League and Philadelphia Big 5 Rookie of the Year in 2007-08.
• Davidson coach Bob McKillop is 17 wins shy of his 400th career victory.
Series History
• Davidson leads the series, which began in 1956, 5-4 after defeating Penn 79-50 at home last season.
• The Wildcats have won the last three contests, two of which have gone into overtime.
• Three of the last four games in the series have been decided by four points or less.
• Brendan McKillop netted a career-high 19 points to lead four Wildcats in double figures in last year's contest.
• McKillop was 6-for-9 from the floor, hit 5 3-pointers and tallied four assists and two steals. Jake Cohen scored 10 points, and Ben Allison collected 10 points and six rebounds.
• Zack Rosen was the only scorer in double figures for the Quakers with 14 points to go along with four assists. Jack Eggleston posted nine points and eight rebounds.

Season Openers
• Davidson holds a 67-30 (.691) record in season openers. Its first win to start a year came against Guilford during the 1908-09 season, and the last was a 107-83 victory over Guilford in 2008.
• Under head coach Bob McKillop, the Wildcats hold a mark of 9-12 in season openers.
• Eight of Davidson's season-opening losses during McKillop's tenure have come at the hand of teams from either the ACC, SEC, A-10 or Big 12, and five have been against ranked opponents.

SoCon Preseason Polls
• Davidson was picked third in the SoCon South Division in both the coaches and media preseason polls.
• Both JP?Kuhlman and Jake Cohen were named preseason all-conference by the league's coaches.
• Appalachian State was picked to win the North, and Wofford was picked to win the South. College of Charleston was also picked ahead of Davidson in the South Division.

Youth Movement
• Davidson features 10 underclassmen (four sophomores, six freshman) on its roster.
• The team's lone senior is Brendan McKillop, and two of the juniors are walk-ons (Will Reigel, AJ Atkinson).
• The Wildcats have just 11 total years of Division I experience in their rotation. Only 25 teams in the country have less experience than Davidson.
• One senior, three sophomores and a freshman are slated to start tonight's game.

McKillop Nominated for Lowe's Senior CLASS Award
• Brendan McKillop has been named a candidate for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. He is one of 30 candidates selected from all Division I men's basketball schools in the country.
• To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition.
• The candidate class will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.
• McKillop was one of two Wildcats to start all 31 games last season. He ranked first in the league and 10th nationally in assist to turnover ratio, dishing out 124 assists with just 46 turnovers, while averaging 10.2 points a game and canning a team-high 80 3-pointers.

Tough Schedule
• Davidson has another tough schedule again in 2010-11.
• Seven teams that finished the 2009-10 season with RPIs in the top-100 in the country, including two in the top-30, are on the Wildcats' slate, according to the NCAA's RPI ratings.
• Davidson will play two of those teams, Wofford (73) and College of Charleston (85) twice in conference action.
• The Wildcats have games against two teams from the Big East, one from the SEC, two from the Atlantic 10 and the possibility of playing one from the Big 10 and one from the Big 12.

Upcoming Events

Related News

Related Videos

Footer