Jim Murphy
Tom Ross

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Davidson coach Bob McKillop looked into the eyes of his team and saw no tears.

He saw heartbreak and disappointment, excitement and anger. The Wildcats came within one basket of advancing to the Final Four last March by knocking off the eventual champion.

“There was a determined look in our players’ eyes, a body language that said, ‘Resolve. Look how close we got,’” McKillop said.

The Wildcats could have been different. When teams from a one-bid league such as the Southern Conference win a single game in the NCAA tournament, they’re elated. Reach the Sweet 16 and they’re dubbed a Cinderella in the Big Dance.

Win again riding the touch of a smooth-shooting sophomore to reach the Elite Eight, and they become part of NCAA basketball history. Then earn national notoriety for the college and gain worldwide exposure for a community just north of Charlotte.

Davidson College will never be the same because of the success of its basketball team in the 2008 NCAA tournament.

“It gave us an opportunity to talk about Davidson College on a national level and tell our story on a national stage,” athletic director Jim Murphy said. “There’s no way, with any amount of money, that would allow us to do that. But basketball, athletics, allowed us to do that.”

George Mason University benefited from a 2006 appearance in the Final Four. Another school without a national name became known around the globe.

A report by GMU to examine the economic and social impact of its Final Four appearance estimated that the school received more than $677 million in free exposure.

“It’s impacted the whole university,” GMU athletic director Tom O’Connor said. “The biggest impact is giving us visibility on a global scale.”

GMU has an enrollment of more than 31,000 students. Davidson has fewer than 2,000 students on campus and had less of a national reputation than GMU before either basketball team became well known.

“For us, maybe it was $1 billion,” Davidson president Tom Ross said of the exposure. “Athletics are such a big part of American life, and the story of Davidson last year was such a special story that I think it would be hard to create such a positive feeling as was generated by the basketball team last year.”

The impact is felt all across campus. Ross said there has been an increase in campus visits from potential students, but it’s too early to count the actual applications because of a January deadline.

Davidson’s athletic department jumped on the success. It eliminated wooden bleachers from the south side of Belk Arena to install 1,200 comfortable chair-back seats for season-ticket holders.

They’re all sold.

“That success is something that doesn’t come along often, if ever,” Murphy said. “When it does, everybody takes advantage of it.”

Women’s basketball coach Annette Watts is one of the prime beneficiaries. For the first time in her seven-year tenure at Davidson, she has an administrative assistant, Terry Gilliland, to help handle some of the paperwork.

Having humble shooting star Stephen Curry on campus has helped as well. Watts has three verbal commitments for the 2009 class.

“I didn’t call one recruit who hadn’t heard of us, and the most popular question was, ‘If I come to Davidson, could I have a class with Steph Curry?’” Watts said during the Southern Conference media day. “When the recruits were coming in here on visits, and they’d see him, they’d absolutely melt. Steph is so great.”

Curry is king of the college, the most recognizable face on campus where students and faculty treat him as one of their own and almost like any other student. He and Stephen Rossiter helped freshmen move into housing before classes started.

“To see some of the parents’ faces when we were unloading their trucks, they were like, ‘Weren’t you on TV last year?’” Curry said. “Davidson is so small that everybody knew us before we blew up and made our run, so attention on campus is pretty much the same.”

The excitement at Davidson for the upcoming basketball season has never been higher. The Wildcats are scheduled to play nationally televised games on CBS and ESPN and were picked to win the conference again.

“To top what we did last year, we really can’t top it,” Curry said. “It’s untoppable.”