Ken Davis

Don’t tell me the NCAA Tournament is going to take place without Stephen Curry. I don’t want to hear it. Don’t you remember how exciting it was to watch Curry in the 2008 tournament?

And while you’re at it, don’t even suggest that we might have a tournament bracket that doesn’t include Butler. It couldn’t happen, could it? March belongs to teams like Butler just as much as the madness exists for North Carolina and UCLA and Duke and Kansas. They’re all part of the fabric.

We have reached the point in the season when the ESPN networks offer up BracketBusters, a two-day event matching NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other. For this, the seventh annual BracketBusters, teams were selected from a pool of 102 schools. It’s a chance for teams to play other top non-conference foes just three weeks before Selection Sunday.

We mention Stephen Curry because he plays for Davidson. And Davidson plays Butler Saturday in the most anticipated BracketBusters pairing. Push the rewind button and go back to October. Prognosticators who like to choose the NCAA Tournament field before the season starts likely would have had Davidson and Butler somewhere within their brackets.

Just weeks ago both teams still seemed to be locks for the Big Dance. But now their situations aren’t quite as clear. You might even say there’s a touch of the bubbly involved.

Curry, the magnificent guard whose shooting star carried Davidson to the Elite Eight in 2008, is averaging 29 points, 5.8 assists, and shooting 38.8 percent from three-point land this season. You want to watch him in the NCAA Tournament, unless he is paired against your favorite team and then he becomes Public Enemy No. 1. He can knock your team off the Road to the Final Four faster than a blowout at high speed.

Slideshow   Scoring machine Check out the nation's most prolific scorer, Stephen Curry of Davidson, in action. NBC Sports

But Curry, the nation’s leading scorer, sprained his ankle Saturday against Furman. He didn’t play Wednesday night and Davidson lost 64-46 to The Citadel. The last time The Citadel won a game at Davidson was 1990. That gives a little idea of how much Davidson missed Curry.

Now Davidson is 22-5 with an RPI falling into the mid-50’s. The Wildcats aren’t as talented as they were last season when they gave eventual national champion Kansas a better game in the NCAA Tournament than North Carolina did in the national semifinals. Davidson coach Bob McKillop is a wise man, a great coach, but I don’t envy him for the decision he must reach before Saturday.

Does McKillop risk further injury to the ankle and play Curry his usual minutes against Butler? Or does he rest him with the hope of Curry returning to full strength in time for the Southern Conference tournament, which is just around the corner on March 6? Beating Butler might be enough to secure an at-large bid. It’s a tough call.

Butler won’t be feeling any sympathy for Davidson or Curry. The Bulldogs were moving up in the national rankings but now they have suffered consecutive losses for the first time in a span of 111 games. They lost to Wisconsin-Milwaukee 63-60 Wednesday night to fall to 22-4 overall and 13-3 in the Horizon League.

Just like that, the Bulldogs are back on the bubble. Loyola (Chicago) stopped Butler’s 16-game home winning streak on Sunday and the two straight losses prevented Butler from wrapping up a third consecutive Horizon League regular-season championship. The Bulldogs don’t have enough quality victories to feel confident about their NCAA chances.

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There you have it. Both teams are hungry, desperately in need for a victory to get them off the bubble, and one injured superstar. You want both to make it, but only one can win on Saturday.

Guess that’s why they call it the BracketBusters.

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