The tiny college of Davison has quickly become this year's trendy "upset special" in the NCAA tourney.  Well I have my seat booked on that bandwagon as well.  I love Davidson to get the Round 1 upset over the king of the mid-majors, Gonzaga.  I also wouldn't be surprised to see them knock out Georgetown in Round 2 (assuming Georgetown takes care of it's business over UMBC).  I don't personally have the Wildcats of Davidson pulling that kind of George Mason-like run, but I wouldn't exactly be stunned if it happened.

(Note:  Vegas says that #10 and #12 seed upset teams advance onto the Sweet 16 round half of the time, after getting their Round 1 upset.  In case you were looking to make a friendly wager, Davidson is a #10 seed.  Not that gambling is legal....or anything.)

Davidson gained the automatic bid to "The Big Dance" by winning the Southern Conference tourney, after toasting it with an undefeated (20-0) record.  The Wildcats finished with an overall record of 26-6.

The university is located in tiny Davidson, North Carolina and only has an enrollment of about 1,700.  Davidson, North Carolina is near Charlotte.  Want to take a guess where they are slotted to play Rounds 1 and 2?  Raleigh.  If you ever want to provide fuel for an upset, having a upstart mid-major play near their campus is like providing them with their own Shell station.

They average 78 pts. per game and shoot 47% from the field.  A large part of that is superstar shooting guard Stephen Curry, son of former NBA star Dell Curry.  Curry averages 25.1 ppg and 4.8 rpg.  Just like his old man, he is absolutely deadly with his jump shot, shooting 48% from the floor and 42% from behind-the-arc.  He's a matchup issue for anybody in the country and can't be held down for a full 40 minutes.  Let us just say that Gonzaga's 181st ranked defense will see way too much of Mr. Curry for their liking.

Davidson also takes care of the ball, which is key in winning tournament games.  They the turn the ball over on average of 12 times per game.  But they offset even their smallest amount of turnovers by getting 8 steals per game. 

However; the one achilles heel for the Wildcats, as it is with most mid-majors, is size.  They don't have a lot of it.  The top two leading rebounders (Meno and Lovedale) only go 6'8" and average only 5 rpg.  Compare that with their prospective Round 2 opponent, who have Roy Hibbert (7'2"), and you see why I don't have them getting out of the second round.

Lastly before you throw out that old argument against mid-majors:  their competition isn't as good.  The Wildcats are one of the exceptions.  They played a tremendous non-conference schedule that included ACC heavyweights UNC, Duke and North Carolina State.  They lost all three of those games by a combined 11pts.  Considering they had to play each of them on their court (God forbid that a major go play a mid-major in their gym) that's not too shabby.  Tells me that they aren't afraid, or intimidated by anyone.  Another good trait to have heading into the tourney.

Bandwagon giddy-up.