Davidson Preview- A Special Season?

Each day from October 23-November 3, there will be a basketball blogger/fan previewing their team in this space. 

RETURNING PLAYERS

Davidson returns nearly 95% of the minutes played from last year. We say goodbye to AJ Atkinson, Frank Ben-Eze, and Will Reigel. Everyone else is back. The five starters last year (Brooks, Cohen, Cochran, Kuhlman, and Czerapowicz) averaged between 23 and 32 mpg, between 10.1 and 15.7 ppg, and they all shot at least 34% on 3-pointers. De'Mon Brooks earned one of the POY awards in the conference last year. He led the Wildcats in points, rebounds, and steals. He did that in just 22.8 mpg. As a junior this season, he'll probably be able to focus his enthusiasm a bit better and avoid some of the foul trouble that limited him last year. The other POY award went to Jake Cohen. He barely trailed Brooks in points and rebounds. He was the Southern Conference leader in blocked shots with 55. Jake played 24.8 mpg as a junior. Kuhlman and Cochran are senior guards. They led the Wildcats in mpg. Cochran played just under 30 mpg, had 10.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.6 apg, shot almost 89% at the line, and had an assist/TO ration over 2.1. Kuhlman played 31.9 mpg, scored 10.8 ppg, had 3.8 rpg, 2.9 apg, and had an assist/TO ratio of 1.86. The fifth starter last year was Chris Czerapowicz. He played 25.1 mpg, scored 10.1 ppg, and had 4.9 rpg. He had some surgery in the off-season and is expected to be at full strength soon. Clint Mann played in 31 games last year. He played his best basketball at the end of the season and is poised for a strong senior season. Tom Droney has often started for the Wildcats. He averaged 21.2 mpg last season. He is a large guard who handles the ball and rebounds well. He worked hard to improve his shooting this summer and looked very good at Davidson's recent scrimmage. Tyler Kalinoski had a solid freshman season. He played 17.4 mpg and scored 155 points. He's a well-rounded guard, posting impressive numbers of rebounds, assists, and steals. He'll give Cochran and Kuhlman another very capable backup. The other four returners are Mason Archie, Clay Tormey, Ali Mackay, and Youssef Mejri. They combined for just 77 minutes last year, but all are capable players. Ali Mackay is particularly intriguing to Davidson fans. He's 6'11, has played a good bit of international ball for Scotland and Great Britain, and has added significant muscle in his time on campus.

Read the entire preview here