Yeah, it's good to be a Wildcat

A couple of Davidson-related news stories that are definitely worth your time. First, Sportsline's Gary Parrish reports from the LeBron James Camp in Cleveland, where America's best college basketball players are spending a week in games and clinics led by LeBron and Chris Paul. For those of you doubting that Davidson can adjust to not having current NBA summer league player Jason Richards running the point, you can stop doubting:

The Davidson star has obviously already established himself as a high-level shooter and scorer, but skeptics have wondered whether he can move over and handle the ball. Note to skeptics: Stop wondering. Curry seems comfortable in every drill and looks like not only the best guard in the camp but also the best overall player.

Players at the camp include Kyle Singler (Duke), Terrence Williams (Lousiville), Hasheen Thabeet (UConn), DaJuan Summers (Georgetown), Austin Daye (Gonzaga), and Tyreke Evans (Memphis), among others, and Steph is "not only the best guard in the camp" while running the point, but also "the best overall player" . . .

{long pause}

OK. I'm back now. {long pull on cigarette} Whew. Ahem. Ok.

Put that news on top of the arrival of 6'10" behemoth freshman Frank Ben-Eze to Davidson's front line, and you might be forgiven for buying tickets to Detroit in early April 2009. Me? Not yet, but I will do everything possible to get tickets to the Duke game in Cameron this upcoming season. It's been a long time since we beat the University of New Jersey at its Durham campus...

In even better news, the Southern Conference announced the Conference Academic Honor Roll yesterday. Over 1,600 student athletes in the conference posted a 3.0 or better while playing a varsity sport and taking at least 24 hours of classes over two semesters. Of the 1,600 student athletes from the 11 member institutions (some of them huge state universities), 233 are from Davidson. That's over 12% of the total. There are only about 1,800 STUDENTS at Davidson.

I know from experience that maintaining a 3.0 at Davidson while doing little more extracurricular activity than drinking beer at the Sig Ep house is difficult, so what these kids have done is impressive. Here is the list of Davidson athletes on the Honor Roll, which includes cagers Bryant "the White Lobster" Barr, Aaron Bond and Max Paul Gosselin, who maintained over 3.0 while spending all of March entertaining the country.

A special note of awe and wonderment must be directed to Senior tennis player Philip Compeau and CoSIDA All District track standout Brenna Burns, who maintained 4.0 GPAs in MATHEMATICS and Psychology, respectively.

Way to go, Cats.