We had hoped that the opening loss to Penn would mark the lowest point in this season for Davidson’s basketball team.  Unfortunately, a horrid music city massacre at Vanderbilt followed by a listless home defeat at the hands of Appalachian State have us mired in the winter blues. 

Despite the recent downturn, a few developments continue to give us hope.  The breakout performances of Chris Czerapowicz against St. Joseph’s (ME) and Vanderbilt gave us the impression that this team has more young talent than we’d even realized.  And Frank Ben-Eze, a player whose consistent dominance has been long-awaited, is finally showing signs of clicking in McKillop’s system. 

And then there’s that constant truth of Socon play: the regular season is essentially meaningless (at least as far as the results go).  For many teams, of course, success during the regular season should translate into post-season success.  But for this Davidson team, comprised mainly of freshman and sophomores, achieving consistent success will take time.  As Coach said after the App. State disappointment, this team needs to learn how to win. It could take a season of ups and downs before that occurs.

It is hard to imagine this team finishing with a worse outcome than last season (16-15, opening round Socon tournament loss to Elon).  We expect a rapid “tune-up” as the Socon slog continues on.  We’ll weather a few more ugly defeats, as long as it leads to growth in the long-term.  Ultimately, we’d love to see this team peak in March.  A little bit of spring success could do wonders for this young team’s confidence in years to come.

4th Watts