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Having climbed into sole possession of first place in a crowded A-10, the Davidson Wildcats look to continue their winning ways when they travel to Amherst to take on Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon.
The game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. ET. While it won’t be broadcast nationally on television anywhere in the US, you can still watch a live stream of the game on your computer, phone, or streaming device via ESPN+, the new digital streaming service from ESPN (no cable required) that has exclusive coverage to dozens of college basketball games–and several other sports–every week.
You can start a free seven-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other compatible streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you can’t watch live, all games — including Davidson vs UMass — that are streamed on ESPN+ are also available to be watched afterwards on-demand via ESPN.com or the ESPN app.
Davidson vs UMass Preview
There are still eight teams in the Atlantic-10 with four conference losses or less, but Davidson has separated itself–albeit slightly–from the pack with five straight wins. The Wildcats are now 17-5 overall and 8-1 in the conference, which includes a key victory over VCU, the team closest to Davidson in the standings.
But not only have they established position atop the conference, the Wildcats are making a case for an at-large bid come March. They are still fairly low in the advanced analytic models (72nd in KenPom; 67th in Sagarin), and they don’t have any Quad 1 wins, but they are now a projected 12 seed–and the last at-large–according to BracketMatrix.com, an aggregation of all the different bracket predictions.
However, of Davidson’s nine remaining games, eight are against teams that are seventh or worse in the conference, and five are against the bottom four squads. That means that are more potential landmines than there are opportunities to impress the committee. In other words, Davidson just has to keep winning.
As for UMass, it doesn’t appear things can get much worse at the moment. They’re coming off an 85-67 blowout loss at home against a previously winless-in-the-A-10 Fordham team, dropping the Minuteman to last in the conference at 1-9 (8-15 overall).
“As a head coach I’ve never been a part of that disappointing of a performance,” Matt McCall said after his team’s loss. “We played like the worst team in the Atlantic 10, and that’s what we are right now.”
If the Minutemen continue to be without star point guard Luwane Pipkins, things could get ugly Saturday against a Davidson defense that is playing extremely well right now. In conference play, the Wildcats rank second in adjusted defensive efficiency (per KenPom), second in effective field-goal percentage defense and first in three-point percentage defense.
“I think our coaching staff, our assistant coaches, have really harped on disciplined defense, and put a very, very strong emphasis upon certain fundamentals,” said Davidson head coach Bob McKillop. “We haven’t changed at all. We have been doing the same things since Aug. 31, and it’s now habit. It’s becoming habit. There are mistakes, there are breakdowns, but the habits have really clicked. Our guys really respect that, and our guys work at it.”
And on the offensive end, Davidson is averaging 69.0 points on 62.6 possessions (110.2 offensive rating) during their five-game winning streak, knocking down 42.5 percent of their threes on a whopping 26.8 attempts per contest during that stretch. When they’re playing steady defense and putting up that kind of efficient offensive output and shooting, they can be really dangerous.
The Wildcats haven’t been all that convincing away from home this season, but with the way they’re playing, and with the way UMass is struggling, Davidson are five-point favorites on the road.