Davidson vs. George Mason basketball game: How to watch and betting odds

Steve Lyttle
·3 min read
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Davidson men’s basketball coach Bob McKillop says his team will be back on solid footing Friday, when the Wildcats open the bid for an NCAA Tournament berth in the Atlantic 10 conference tournament.

The Wildcats (12-7), the No. 4 seed in the 14-team tournament, received a bye through the first two rounds.

They will play at 5:30 p.m. Friday, in Richmond University’s Robins Center against sixth-seeded George Mason, which beat 11th seed George Washington 73-59 on Thursday night.

The game will air on NBC Sports Network.

A-10 semifinals are Saturday in Richmond, and then the finalists will get a week off before meeting for the title on Sunday, March 14, in Dayton.

Several A-10 teams are considered possibilities for at-large NCAA berths, but Davidson would have to win the A-10 tournament to get into the 68-team field.

That possibility seems more attainable now than it did two weeks ago.

The Wildcats were coming off a four-week pause in their program, due to COVID-19 cases and other protocols. They returned to A-10 action Feb. 21 at St. Bonaventure and lost 69-58.

“Clearly, we struggled when we stepped on the floor,” McKillop said in his weekly radio show earlier this week. “Everything had been hampered by our 30-day pause. We were missing all the little things.”

But, McKillop said, his team looked light-years better three days later in a 56-53 loss to St. Bonaventure.

“I think we had improved immeasurably,” he said.

And then came last Saturday’s 65-57 victory over VCU, the A-10’s second seed and one of those teams considered as a likely NCAA at-large contender.

“The dreams we had back in June are still in front of us,” McKillop said. “We can still access those dreams.”

Any other season, McKillop and his coaching staff would be able to prepare for Friday’s game by reviewing video of how the Wildcats fared against their tournament opponent during the regular season. But this wasn’t “any other season.” Scheduling changes, due to COVID-19, meant that Davidson never played against either George Mason or George Washington.

It makes no difference, McKillop said.

“Top to bottom, any team can win this,” he said. “You can see the logjam of records.”

He said his team has been helped by everything that happened this season.

“Our guys were denied an opportunity to go to Maui, and then we lost two last-second games,” he said.

He was referring to Davidson’s scheduled appearance last Thanksgiving in the Maui Invitational, but because of COVID-19, the tournament was moved from Hawaii to Asheville. There, the Wildcats lost one-possession games to nationally ranked Texas and Providence.

“Our guys have dealt with all kinds of adversity,” he said. “They have grown from that.”

DAVIDSON VS. GEORGE MASON: A-10 Tournament

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle