On Davidson men’s basketball’s Senior Night, Wildcats are reminded what could’ve been

The under-eight timeout whistle blew, and Davidson’s David Skogman wheeled out near the paint, just outside his team’s huddle.

The redshirt senior wore a Davidson basketball polo instead of a jersey. Black pants instead of home white shorts. His left foot wore a white Under Armour sneaker with yellow accents, while his right was weighed down by a huge black boot, which rested on the padding of one of those scooters that help injured athletes get around.

It was Senior Night inside John M. Belk Arena, but the 6-foot-10 transfer big man couldn’t play, out with a foot injury he suffered sometime around the turn of the new year. Skogman was the team’s leading scorer when he was shut down for good — still is, technically, at 13.3 points per game in 17 games played — and the team has grown and adapted and found an identity without him.

But with 7:49 to play Wednesday night, in the closing minutes of a night when you’re supposed to be celebrating how far the team’s seniors have come, Davidson was instead reminded of what the team could’ve been.

“When you look at some of the offensive numbers, you know what he does for us from an offensive standpoint,” Davidson coach Matt McKillop said after Davidson’s 69-59 loss to Loyola Chicago.

“The first time we played (Loyola), the head coach (Drew Valentine) said before the game, ‘If David Skogman’s out, it allows us to defend them a completely different way.’ He’s a five man who shoots the ball. We play him with four guards, our offense is very different.”

That question — what could’ve been? — is a difficult one to shake for Davidson (15-15, 5-12 Atlantic 10). The Wildcats began the season overlooked but with real potential. Take some of their non-conference games as proof: a 64-61 win over Maryland, a 68-65 loss to ACC power Clemson, an 85-81 win over then-surging Charlotte.

But just as Davidson was set to enter non-conference play, Skogman hurt his foot. He missed the game against nationally ranked Dayton. He then rehabbed it to play a few conference games including his last at Saint Louis (where he scored 14 points on 3-of-5 3s in 24 minutes). But then, after that, he didn’t play again.

In most cases, it’s difficult to discern the impact of one player on the wins and losses total. In Davidson’s case, though, it’s pretty straightforward. The Wildcats came into Tuesday leading the nation in most games decided by five points or less and most losses by five points or less, their analytically inclined head coach pointed out postgame.

Most of those close wins came before Skogman’s injury.

And most of those close losses came after. And it’s not a short list. The teams the Wildcats fell to by five or less in conference play alone: George Washington, Richmond, VCU, George Mason, St. Bonaventure, Richmond (again), Massachusetts.

“Our leading scorer, our leading rebounder, our best 3-point shooter — we lost him in January, and our offense has really struggled without him,” McKillop said. “Defended well enough, but we don’t have that guy to get us over the hump when we need it.”

McKillop, too, pointed out how young the Wildcats are. And it’s true. They typically start a 6-foot-10 sophomore in Reed Bailey, a 6-foot-10 sophomore in Sean Logan and a sharp-shooting freshman in Bobby Durkin — so the program’s near-future is bright.

But that doesn’t change the 2023-24 year being replete with “what ifs” — including for Skogman himself.

“I’ve been out for a while now, so I’ve had time to process all of that,” said Skogman, who also contributed 4.9 rebounds a game while shooting 47% from the 3-point arc in his limited action this year. “Obviously it’s really hard. I feel bad for me, but I also feel bad for (fellow seniors) Grant (Huffman) and Sos (Chris Sosnik) that I’m not out there. It hurts me that I can’t be there at this point in time with the team, at least in a playing sense.”

Grant Huffman, the only senior contributor who played all four years at Davidson at a time when that’s increasingly rare, scored 11 points Tuesday. He’s been a leader of the team for years and has poured his heart and soul into Davidson, his head coach and Skogman said. (He and Skogman each have a year of eligibility left and could theoretically spend it at Davidson. Those decisions haven’t yet been made.)

But even still, Huffman acknowledged he was missing something — some-one — Tuesday night.

“Obviously we miss him,” Huffman said. “And you can see our offense, our team isn’t the same without him. And that’s been evident. It would’ve been awesome to play our last game together. But, you know, still got a couple more months, and we’ll be friends for a long time.”

Davidson finishes out its regular season at St. Joseph’s on Saturday and then the Atlantic 10 tournament begins after that. They’re hoping to finish strong.

“Tough loss for us today,” McKillop said Wednesday night, his words relating to the game but also applicable to the whole season. “Not easy to focus on the next thing with a loss like this. We just gotta find a way to do it.”