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Lucas: Davidson and Old Pro's Kid got game

Mike Lucas  —  3/24/2008 6:50 am

One starter is from Carignan, Quebec. Another is from Benin City, Nigeria. One reserve is from Paris, France. Another is from Istanbul, Turkey. The Coach's Kid doesn't play much. The Old Pro's Kid does. In fact, he's the face of the team, the Davidson College men's basketball team that will take on the University of Wisconsin in the Sweet 16.

Gonzaga tried to shut down the Old Pro's Kid with every imagineable defense. But he zigged when they zagged against their traditional man-to-man and a variety of trick defenses, ranging from a matchup zone, a triangle-and-two, a box-and-one and a Neil Diamond-and-one.

Hands, touchin' hands

Reachin' out

Touchin' me

Touchin' you

After the Old Pro's Kid scored 40 points against the Zags -- lifting the Davidson Wildcats to their first NCAA tournament victory in 39 years -- he repeated his magic Sunday against Georgetown. Helping rally the Wildcats from a 17-point deficit, the Old Pro's Kid was virtually unstoppable over the final 15 minutes of the 74-70 upset.

In the end, Davidson survived, advanced and sang.

Sweet Caroline

Good times never seemed so good; I've been inclined to believe they never would.

. . .

Neil Diamond is not an alumnus of Davidson College (located in Davidson, N.C., 20 miles north of Charlotte). But his forever popular "Sweet Caroline" has become the anthem for the 1,700 undergrads, most notably the 14 players wearing the school colors (red and black) for head basketball coach Bob McKillop, 57, a New York native who has won 339 games during his 19 seasons.

Michigan coach John Beilein offered this testimonial to McKillop in the Davidson media guide: "Many times you only hear about the coaches in the power conferences being great coaches. Bob McKillop is equal or better than any other coach that I know and I've coached against most of the best in the country."

The Coach's Kid -- freshman guard Brendan McKillop -- didn't get off the bench against Georgetown, though he hasn't been a complete afterthought, appearing in 18 of the Wildcats' 34 games. Junior guard Cam Civi, who hails from Istanbul, didn't play, either. But leading rebounder Boris Meno, a 6-foot-8 senior who was raised in Paris, saw 11 minutes of action in the first half because of foul trouble to a handful of Davidson starters.

That included Andrew Lovedale, a Nigerian who was schooled in England and answers to the nickname the "Big Cat." Meanwhile, one of three starting guards, Jason Richards, who leads the nation in assists, had 12 points in the half to pick up his backcourt partners: the Canadian-bred Max Paulhus Gosselin, who was scoreless, and the Old Pro's Kid, who had made only two of his first eight shots.

It was just a matter of time, though, before the latter -- Stephen Curry, the son of Dell Curry -- would find his shooting touch and range. You may remember the old man, the Old Pro, for the one season (1997-98) that he spent with the Milwaukee Bucks. Overcoming age (mid-30s) and some back problems, Dell Curry shot a league-high 47 percent from beyond the 3-point arc and averaged 10 points.

The Old Pro's decision to leave Milwaukee -- to sign as a free agent with the Toronto Raptors -- was not received well by Bucks general manager Bob Weinhauer, who felt like Curry had reneged on a verbal commitment to re-up. A few days later, Weinhauer was sent packing, too, as the Bucks elected to move in another direction (Ernie Grunfeld). Not that the Old Pro's kid will bring any cross to bear in a matchup with the Badgers and stopper Michael Flowers.

Not that the Hoyas found a way to stop Stephen Curry, a 6-3, 185-pound sophomore who scored 25 in the second half Sunday against multiple defenders, including Jeremiah Rivers, the son of Glenn "Doc" Rivers. "He (Curry) is too good to say you're going to stop him," said Georgetown coach John Thompson, the son of another famous dad. "He has not been stopped all year."

Davidson took on all-comers at the beginning of the year, too. In a 72-68 loss to North Carolina, the Old Pro's kid had 24 points. In a 79-73 loss to Duke, he had 20. And in a 75-63 loss to UCLA, he had a modest 15, extending his string of double-figure scoring games to 35. He hasn't scored less than 12 since then. The Old Pro's kid is averaging 25.7 per game and he's shooting 44 percent from beyond the 3-point line (152-of-342).

"He's a special player and he's the focal point of everything they do," Thompson told the Washington Post on the eve of Sunday's game against Davidson. "The kid makes contested shots with guys draped all over him and he doesn't need any time to get a shot off and, most importantly, his teammates do a terrific job in the screening and the passing. We just hope he misses, but we haven't seen too many games where he's missed."

As such, the Badgers are hoping to turn Sweet Caroline into a Song Sung Blue. Assuming they can get him to miss.

Mike Lucas  —  3/24/2008 6:50 am