Davidson Wildcats

1. The High School Band. With 1,700 students, Davidson is one of the smallest coed Division I schools in the country. So small that they don t even have a pep band. In comes the band from a local high school, undoubtedly honored to be in a hallowed college gym. The band does its best to get under the opponent s skin, yelling things during their player introductions like, "Who cares!" and "Daddy s girl!" OK, so it s not quite the Cameron Crazies. But when you don t even have your own band, hey, you can t really complain.

2. Mark McGuire. So he didn t spell his name McGwire. But he still was a big (6-10), slow, white guy from St. Louis. Occassionally, he d do something so spectacular, like dunk on 6-11 future ex-76er Sharone Wright, that you d think he could be the team s savior. Then he d go back to playing like you expect a philosophy major to play. We hear Mark went on to teach in Japan and get a Ph.D. in Asian religions - which is not something we heard McGwire did, but nobody ever found any andro in his locker.

3. Pecan Pie. It s a southern favorite and coach Bob McKillop, a native Long Islander, must be a convert. Way back when — OK, in 1996, when Davidson had its best record ever in 16 years under McKillop (25-5, 14-0 conference) and actually was considered for an at-large NCAA bid — McKillop came across a couple dorky looking college kids who were stumbling around the team hotel during the conference tournament. Probably knowing they were penniless and starving, he directed them to the hospitality suite and, in that beauiful Long Island accent, offered them some pecan pie AND Cokes.

Unfortunately, McKillop s hospitality continued the next day when Davidson folded in the conference title game against Western Carolina. Seeing as how those college kids had pretty much put all their hopes and dreams into that team s season as a crowning achievement for their time in school, that loss made for a very miserable overnight drive to the Florida keys to kick off spring break. — Matt Pitzer