Old foes settle to battle in Seattle

IOWA CITY — When it comes to strategy this week against Davidson, Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery might want to dust off an old scouting report or find that Microsoft Word file saved from 10 years ago.

Of course the names and statistics at Davidson have changed from when McCaffery coached at North Carolina-Greensboro. But the game plan might remain relevant from McCaffery's previous match-ups with Davidson's Bob McKillop. While McCaffery has moved on his second team post-Greensboro, McKillop remains with Davidson. And they had some battles in the early 2000s.

McKillop, the nation's seventh-longest tenured coach, has guided Davidson for 26 years. He has 496 wins and the court at the Baker Sports Complex bears his name. The Wildcats were picked for 12th entering their first year in the Atlantic-10 Conference. Davidson instead won the league's regular-season crown. Eight times McKillop has led Davidson to the NCAA tournament. In 2008, McKillop (and current Golden State Warriors sharpshooter Stephen Curry) took the Wildcats to the Elite Eight. Ten seasons McKillop has won top coaching honors from his peers.

McCaffery has coached against Davidson 13 times and won six. It's an easy recall in tactics for the Hawkeyes' fifth-year coach, but that doesn't make the task his NCAA tournament task Friday easy at all.

'There are certain characteristics that are consistent and his teams can be different from year to year, obviously,' McCaffery said. 'They're going to shoot 3s, they're going to shoot it well, they don't turn it over. They really compete, they play hard defensively, on the glass. They typically play fast, they score the ball. They move it down the floor.

'They're going to try to score the ball via both the fast break and shooting a lot of 3s. But I have a lot of respect for him. I coached against him a lot of times.'

Davidson, which gained entry for the first time as an at-large, ranks third nationally in 3-point attempts (849), 3-pointers (337), assists per game (17.2) and 13th in 3-point percentage (39.7). The Wildcats averaged 79.9 points a game and 1.18 points per possession, sixth-best nationally. Davidson is efficient offensively, averaging just under 68 possessions per game.

Iowa players knew little about Davidson once their bracket was unveiled Sunday. McCaffery described Davidson as a team like Wisconsin or Northern Iowa, which has players who can shoot 3-pointers from any position.

'Lot of shooters, play the same type of defense as those guys (Wisconsin and UNI) so it's good to have a little bit of background on them,' Iowa senior Aaron White said. 'But at the same we'll know a lot more after we watch film on them.'

See Also:

NCAA Facts, TV Information for Iowa's three squads

Hawkeyes excited to learn seed, face Davidson

UNI gets 5th seed, buoyed by strong support

No. 3 seed Cyclones open NCAA tourney against 14th-seed UAB

Senior guard Tyler Kalinski (6-foot-4) was named the Atlantic-10 Player of the Year after ranking third in the league in scoring (17.0) and assists (4.1) plus making the most 3-pointers (91). Guards Jack Gibbs (6-0) and Brian Sullivan (5-11) were second-team selections after averaging 16.3 and 12.8 points a game, respectively. Freshman forward Peyton Aldridge (6-7) was named to the A-10's all-rookie squad after scoring 9.3 points and grabbing a team-best 6.0 rebounds.

McCaffery and McKillop engaged in several big games in the Southern Conference, perhaps none bigger than in 2005 when McCaffery's squad stunned the Wildcats 73-68 in the conference tournament. McKillop's team was 16-0 in regular-season play but was denied an at-large spot in the NCAA tournament.

'It was a tough loss for them,' McCaffery said. 'They ran the table and were undefeated in the regular season and we beat them in the conference tournament. But for a stretch there, they had to go through us to go to the tournament and we had to go through them. We went and they went. So that's where the respect comes in.

'When it's all said and done, I think we probably lost a few more times, but we won a bunch, too.'