A shot in the Air to Advance to Final 4

If I were an NCAA coach and someone offered me a chance each season to have one of my two best players get a good look at a last second shot in the NCAA Regional finals, giving me a chance to advance to the Final 4 if the shot fell? I would take that every year, every day of the week.

Here's to the Davidson Wildcats. The best sports story of 2008.

Some cool stats from Davidson's official website:

#1 – Place of “Davidson College” on Googletrends’ list of most-searched words Sunday night (“hotness trend: volcanic”)
#4 –Googletrends’ Sunday night ranking of the search term “Davidson University”
#10—Googletrends’ Sunday night ranking of search term “Davidson Wildcats”
#11—Googletrends Sunday night ranking of search term “Stephen Curry”

Teams with bulldog mascots that have been beaten by Davidson in the NCAA tournament: 2

Bulldog toys stuffed into the mouth of the Wildcat statue on the Davidson campus: 1

Number of consecutive games Davidson has won to date: 24 (longest winning streak in the country)

Players on Davidson’s team: 14
Players who come from countries outside the U.S.: 6
Players who speak French fluently: At least 4

Years Bob McKillop has coached at Davidson: 19
Percentage of McKillop’s four-year players who have graduated in that period: 100

Percentage increase in transfer inquiries received by Davidson’s Admission Office since Sunday’s win over Georgetown: 1,200 percent
Since Sunday, calls to the Admission Office inquiring about Davidson’s application deadline (which has already passed): 10
Unsolicited applications received since Sunday, even though Davidson’s deadline has passed: 1

Reported number of Facebook “friend” requests received by one member of the Davidson basketball team after Sunday’s victory: 1,800

Miles from the Davidson campus in Davidson, N.C. to Ford Field in Detroit, Mich. (the arena hosting Davidson’s “Sweet 16” game against Wisconsin): 648.65
Buses secured by the college to transport interested students to the game (Davidson’s Board of Trustees created a fund to cover the cost): 7
Students making the trip by bus: Approximately 350
Seating capacity of Ford Field for the NCAA Tournament: 72,000

Students, faculty, staff, alumni, townspeople and others who rallied to wave goodbye to the team when the Wildcats’ bus left campus Wednesday, March 26: Perhaps 1,000

Doughnuts consumed at the on-campus “pep rally” broadcast during the CBS Early Show Thursday, March 27: 600
Times the Pep Band led pep rally guests in rousing versions of “Sweet Caroline”: 2

Year in which Davidson last made it into the "Sweet Sixteen": 1969

Days that Tom Ross ’72 has been Davidson’s president (he counts):

Here's to my favorite coach and and a life-long friend, Bob McKillop

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