The Hunt: No. 43, Davidson

The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here. Today, No. 43, Davidson.

Last year's record: 27-8 overall, 18-2 SoCon

2009-10's toughest games: at Butler, at Citadel, at Gonzaga, at UMass

Primary attraction: No longer Stephen Curry's show, Davidson is set for a serious fall from grace. But just how far?

1. Miss you, Stephen. For the past two years, you have known who Davidson's best player was, because this player's name was Stephen Curry, and his performance in the 2007-08 NCAA tournament made him an immediate college basketball legend. In 2009-10, Davidson's best player is (likely) named William Archambault, who you have not heard of, and who is (in case you'd like to know) who averaged 8.3 points last year. William happens to be Davidson's leading returning scorer. This is how bad things are going to get for Davidson this this winter. We'll all miss Stephen Curry as a collegiate basketball player, but Davidson fans, likely to watch their program recede into serious short-term irrelevance, will miss him much more than most.

2. Miss you, everyone else. The interesting thing about Davidson last year is that while Curry was clearly the team's best player, and one of the best at any school in the country, Davidson had its fair share of top-line talent to match him. That talent is now completely gone. Andrew Lovedale was the team's second-leading scorer behind Curry; he's peaced. Max Paulhaus was the SoCon defensive player of the year in 2008-09; he's done. The cupboard is almost entirely bare at Davidson, which is where three-star freshman recruit J.P. Kuhlman comes in. Kuhlman sounds like quite the long-range threat, which Davidson fans, having just lost the greatest long-range threat their school has even seen, will likely appreciate.

3. This one's for the gray hairs in the audience. Surprisingly enough, Davidson's history doesn't begin and end with Curry's rise to prominence in 2008. (I know, right? I totally thought it did!) In 1964-65, a Lefty Driesell-coached (before Driesell left to make his mark at Maryland, he coached Davidson for nine years, winning three SoCon titles in the process) Davidson team was ranked No. 1 overall by Sports Illustrated to begin the season. It featured forward Fred Hetzel, who averaged 25.7 points and 13.8 rebounds per game over his three-year career. Hetzel was picked No. 1 overall in the 1965 NBA draft. And somehow, despite losing only one game all year, Davidson didn't even make the NCAA tourney that season, thanks to an overtime loss to West Virginia in the SoCon tournament. Hey, at least we have at-large bids now.

Later in life, Driesell would tear up after watching Stephen Curry and the Davidson Bulldogs topple Georgetown in the NCAA tournament. See? It all comes back around.

Bonus: Stephen Curry highlight reel you had to know was coming.

Pretty self-explanatory, I'd imagine: