Schedule Update: Big Red vs. Wildcats in the Garden

Earlier this morning we posted the news of Cornell's participation in the ECAC Holiday Festival in Madison Square Garden. The Big Red open the two-day tournament in New York City on December 20 and face the Davidson Wildcats while St. John's faces Hofstra in the other doubleheader semifinal. Davidson issued a formal press release announcing the event.

The Davidson Press Release is as follows:

DAVIDSON, N.C. - Davidson basketball coach Bob McKillop announced today that the Wildcats will play in the 2009 Aeropostale Holiday Festival, the nation’s longest-running holiday tournament, Dec. 20-21, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Cornell, Hofstra and St. John’s join Davidson in the tournament.

“The last few years, our schedule has put us in a position to receive exposure on a national stage, and the competition has given us the opportunity to become a better program,” said McKillop. “Madison Square Garden is perhaps the greatest stage in the world, and this will provide a significant challenge for us as we continue to work towards being a consistently successful program.”

It will be Davidson’s second trip to The Garden in as many seasons as the Wildcats defeated West Virginia 68-65 in the Jimmy V Classic last season. Prior to that contest, their last appearance there was in 1972, when Davidson played Syracuse in the Postseason NIT.

It will be a homecoming for McKillop, who played high school basketball at Chaminade on Long Island and college basketball at Hofstra. He began is coaching career at Holy Trinity High School and coached at Long Island Lutheran before coming to Davidson in 1989.

The Wildcats own a 6-10 all-time mark against St. John’s with eight of those meetings on the road, and the schools have not met since 1989, when then 17th-ranked St. John’s defeated Davidson 83-65 in McKillop’s first season as the ‘Cats’ head coach. Two contests against the Red Storm have come in postseason play with the Wildcats defeating St. John’s in the 1968 and 1969 NCAA Tournaments.

The ‘Cats own a 2-1 record against Hofstra with the last meeting coming in the 1988-89 season. Davidson and Cornell have never met on the hardwood.

Davidson returns 10 letterwinners and two starters from the 2008-09 team, which posted a 27-8 record and advanced to the NIT second round.