2008 ncca tournament bracket
2008 ncca tournament schedule
NCAA tournament bracket
Raise your hand if you had Davidson facing Wisconsin in the Sweet 16. Didn't think so.
Well, the third-seeded Badgers (31-4) do face the 10th-seeded Wildcats (28-6) in the Midwest Regional semifinals at Ford Field in Detroit on Friday night, with Wisconsin 4.5-point betting favorites at WagerWeb.com, and it's Davidson that is the story of the NCAA Tournament thus far.
The Wildcats, who have the nation's longest winning streak at 24 games, are in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1969. And Stephen Curry has become a national name because of his scoring in the first two rounds.
Curry went for 40 against Gonzaga and 30 against Georgetown. He is shooting 51 percent in the tournament, including 52 percent from 3-point range. In second halves alone, he is averaging 27.5 points per game. Against the Hoyas, Davidson trailed by 11 at halftime and as many as 16 early in the second half but came storming back behind the shooting of Curry, who scored 25 of his 30 points after the break.
Curry's 70 points in two tournament games account for 45 percent of the Wildcats' scoring. He and point guard Jason Richards, the nation's assists leader, accounted for 105 of their team's 156 points in the opening weekend.
The Badgers will use a dogged man-to-man look that produced the nation's leading defense, which allows just 53.9 points per game, and third-toughest to shoot against, at 38 percent. Each of Wisconsin's past nine opponents has shot 42 percent or less from the field.
"They work as five fingers on a hand," Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. "That is what makes them so effective. They can put tremendous pressure on the ball with an individual knowing that they have great support with four other guys."Michael Flowers, regarded as one of the nation's best defensive players, will be the primary defender on Curry.
"If he beats me making one move, make sure he doesn't beat me with the same move twice," Flowers said of his strategy. "If he has a go-to move, then try to take that go-to move away and make him beat me on his own.
"You know, he's going to get his points, and all my life my mom told me that people are going to score on you and what not, but you just have to make them work for it. At the end of the game, no matter if he has eight points or 12 or 34, I will want him to say that he had to work for every point he got."
The Wisconsin defense held Cal State Fullerton to 56 points in Round 1 and K-State to 55 to reach the Sweet 16. KSU, in fact, missed on all 13 of its 3-point attempts against the Badgers.
Offensively, the Badgers are balanced, making the most of their deliberate possessions in coach Bo Ryan's patented swing offense.
"The guys that are a part of the team and the experience we had last year, we knew numbers don't matter, we still have to go out and produce," Wisconsin forward Greg Stiemsma said. "We just try to control the things we have control over and that's preparation, execution. We've been doing a better job of that down the stretch this year."
Trevon Hughes was the star against K-State, pouring in a career-high-tying 25 points as he drilled 4 of 9 3-pointers. Six different Badgers overall have scored in double figures so far in the tourney.
Prediction: Davidson hadn't beaten a ranked opponent under Bob McKillop heading into the NCAA Tournament this year. But after two games in this year's tourney, the Wildcats are 2-for-2 against teams ranked in the Top 25. You would think that Davidson's rebounding troubles would finally catch up to it, however. It will: Wisconsin ends the Cinderella run and covers.
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