Davidson Basketball is perennial contenders in the Atlantic 10, and that doesn’t look to change this season. Here is a look at the 2019-20 Wildcats.
Despite finishing the regular season 23-8 and second in the Atlantic 10 at 14-4, Davidson Basketball finished the season on a bit of a down note, falling to St. Louis in the conference semifinals and then to Lipscomb in the first round of the NIT. Even though last season didn’t end how fans of the Wildcats would have hoped, there is excitement entering head coach Bob McKillop’s 31st season, that this might be his most talented team since the days of Steph Curry.
One key aspect to last year’s team that can get lost when talking about Davidson’s 2018-19 campaign is how young the team was. They return nine of their top ten scorers from last season, only three of them were juniors, meaning six of them were in their first or second year in the program. That inexperience could be seen as part of the reason that half of the team’s 10 losses, including three of their four league losses were by four points or less.
That youth is now another year experienced and McKillop has laid the foundation of high expectations at Davidson over the previous 30 seasons, so much so that the 2018-19 campaign was considered disappointing by some standards. This season those expectations remain high for a team with aspirations of returning to the NCAA Tournament. There are a lot of factors that will ultimately decide whether or not that happens, but Davidson is hungry to make this season better than the last and wreak havoc on the Atlantic 10.