© 2008 NCSU Student Media
Senior forward Ben McCauley jams the ball in the Nov. 30 game UNC Greensboro.
The men’s basketball team’s strength of schedule gets a boost Saturday as it faces the No. 22 Davidson Wildcats in Charlotte.
The Wolfpack enters the game 4-0 after wins over New Orleans, High Point, Winthrop and UNC Greensboro. Davidson should prove to be a tougher opponent.
The Wildcats enter the game 5-1 with their only loss a 82-78 heartbreaker to No. 12 Oklahoma. In the 2007-08 season, Davidson rode a 25-game win streak all the way to the elite eight of the NCAA tournament before being knocked off 59-57 by Kansas, who would go on to win the national championship.
Davidson’s last regular season loss that year was a 66-65 loss to State in the RBC Center. Coach Sidney Lowe said the Wildcats will present a new challenge to this year’s team.
“It’s a different challenge,” Lowe said. “They have several guys that can shoot the basketball. Their bigs rebound, and defend, and set screens. So it’s a team that understands who they are, and that’s a challenge for us. We have to go down there and be who we are, and play our game and not get too caught up in what they’re doing but play our defense and focus on what we’re trying to accomplish.”
The wildcats are led by preseason All-American Stephen Curry. Only in his junior season, Curry is already the Davidson’s all-time leader for career three-pointers with 284 and ranks seventh on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,661 points.
Last season, he set an NCAA single-season record by knocking down 162 from behind the arc. Curry enters the game leading the Wildcats with 29.2 points, 7.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game.
“He’s a great player,” Lowe said. “Not only is he an excellent shooter, but he’s smart, and that’s a dagger when you have a guy that can shoot the basketball, but also is smart and understands how to play if you take it away.”
Lowe said his team is already aware of what Curry can do.
“Scouting him is not real difficult, because you know what he can do,” Lowe said. “The challenge is stopping him. That’s the challenge. He’s so unselfish, he’s going to make the pass too, and they have other guys that can score. We just have to be ready to play solid basketball as a team defensively, and then offensively execute our stuff and make some shots.”