Davidson's Stephen Curry continues to make the media rounds as the biggest star of this year's NCAA Tournament, and his latest stop was on Conan O'Brien:
Conan asked Curry for his Final Four predictions, and I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't just give the cliched answer about all four teams being great. Instead, Curry actually offered an opinion:
"We've played three of the four Final Four teams, so I have pretty good experience with all of them," Curry said. "I think UNC's going to take it, just because of [Tyler] Hansbrough and the amount of depth they have on the floor. I think it's going to be UNC and UCLA in the championship and I think UNC will take it."
Replied Conan, "I'm going to put a lot of money on that and then come looking for you if it doesn't happen."
He's not in the Final Four, but Davidson's Stephen Curry is the undisputed star of the NCAA Tournament, and he and his dad, former NBA player Dell Curry, are making the media rounds, including this stop on the CBS Early Show:
Curry was asked about his decision to pass, rather than shoot, just before the buzzer in Davidson's regional final loss to Kansas. "You're double-teamed, the guys are on you," CBS's Harry Smith asked, "If you had a second to re-think that last pass, would you have done anything differently?"
Curry's response: "Not at all. Based on the situation in the play, Jason was open at the top of the key, and he had the best look out of anybody on the floor."
That's obviously the right answer, and it bothers me that there are people suggesting that Curry somehow choked by passing up the final shot. Kansas played such great defense against Curry on the play that it would have been selfish and stupid for Curry to throw up a desperation heave when he had an open teammate. By passing, Curry showed that he's not just a good shooter, he's a good team player.
Sunday's Kansas-Davidson game was all set for the most perfect of storybook endings: Davidson star Stephen Curry hits a three-pointer to send his team to the Final Four. Except that's not how it ended:
But when you watch the last 10 seconds of that video, pay close attention to why Curry wasn't able to take that last-second shot. It was just about the best defense you'll ever see in that situation, as Kansas did everything humanly possible to force Curry to get rid of the ball. Mick McCabe of the Detroit Free Press reports on what Brandon Rush and his Kansas teammates did to keep Curry from beating them:
Rush scrambled to his feet and tried to get back to guarding his man -- Davidson sophomore sensation Stephen Curry. As he got close, Rush leaped into the air in an attempt to disrupt what he assumed would be the final shot.
"I thought he was going to shoot it," Rush said. "When I looked up, there were like five or six seconds left on the clock, so I was surprised he didn't put it up.
"But I guess we managed to make him take a tough shot, so he passed it."
The reason Curry didn't shoot when Rush fell is that Sherron Collins switched onto Curry and Mario Chalmers also came over to guard the guy Davidson was hoping would take the final shot.
That smothering Kansas defense should be shown to young players everywhere. It was just about perfect.
Davidson's Stephen Curry was the obvious choice for the Most Outstanding Player from the Midwest region, so obvious that it would have been a travesty for anyone else to have received the honor.
But how often can you say that -- that a player from a losing team deserves the top individual honor? It turns out that it happens so rarely that the last player to win a regional most outstanding player award despite playing for a team that didn't reach the Final Four was Juwan Howard of Michigan in 1994.
Those of us who loved the Fab Five remember that 1994 Tournament well. Chris Webber left school after his sophomore year, leaving just four of the Fab Five to try to get Michigan to its third straight Final Four, and Howard was incredible in the four Tournament games. But Arkansas, the eventual national champion, was simply too good, and Michigan shot too poorly in the regional final.
The loss to Arkansas was Howard's last college game. The good news for Davidson fans is that Curry will be back. Perhaps next year he can win a Most Outstanding Player honor without being on the losing side.
Despite getting knocked out by Kansas in the Elite Eight, the one player that defined the 2008 NCAA Tournament is Davidson's Stephen Curry. Curry tore up this tournament ... averaging 32 points in beating Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin before losing to the Jayhawks by two.
After Kansas ended Davidson's dream run in the NCAA tournament on Sunday, Curry said that he will return to school for his junior season.
That's great because Curry and the Davidson Wildcats really electrified this tournament. A tournament that had seen a ton of blowouts needed something to get us excited about.
Kansas wrapped up the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament by beating Davidson 59-57, ending the Wildcats' Cinderella run and sending the Jayhawks to the Final Four.
Stephen Curry was, as always, the leading scorer, with 25 points. But he lost his deadly accuracy from three-point range, making just four of his 15 shots from beyond the arc. In the closing seconds, Curry had the ball in his hands with Davidson down by two, but instead of shooting he dished off to Jason Richards, who missed the potential game-winner as the buzzer sounded.
For Kansas, Mario Chalmers and Sasha Kaun had 13 points points apiece, with the 6-foot-11 Kaun coming off the bench and making all six of his shots against the smaller Davidson frontcourt.
The Kansas win ensures that tor the first time ever, all four No. 1 seeds advanced to the Final Four. It's a good day for those annoying people who always play it safe in the office pool, and next Saturday and Monday should be good days for people who like good basketball. The four best teams in the country are headed to San Antonio.
UCLA's Kevin Love is the NCAA tournament's most talked about player west of Stephen Curry. With Love projected to be a lottery pick, his NBA future is on many people's minds. Not just the normal if he'll go, but what kind of NBA player will he be once he gets there?
So, we got our top hoops minds together to discuss this.
Charles Rich: I'm not so sure he will translate as well to the NBA. I see him much like Shane Battier -- a great college player and a solid NBA player. Great for team chemistry and smart.
Josh Alper: When I read the negatives about Love for the next level I always think that they're trying to find things that are wrong with him rather than stuff that's right. It's true, he isn't freakishly athletic but he's a fantastic basketball player. He's a strong passer, good shooter, goes 100% every minute of the game and knows how to maximize every one of his skills. That's pretty good.
Even if he did turn out like Battier, what's so awful about that? A guy who makes his teammates better and does it happily while helping his team win. I'll take that over a more talented Zach Randolph-type of player.
LeBron James wasn't wearing a specific hat during the Davidson - Wisconsin game on Friday night, but he was there as a guest of Davidson College, who apparently decided they had unlimited tickets to their win tonight. Clearly, though, Stephen Curry and the Wildcats had all intentions of impressing James, as evidenced by Curry's ridiculous reverse layup during the second half. Thankfully, even though CBS doesn't always bring the HD thunder to every arena, they were able to capture LBJ's reaction pretty well.
The Davidson Wildcats are going to the Elite 8. Yes, I really wrote that.
The small school just outside of Charlotte will face the winner of the Kansas-Villanova game in the Midwest Regional Final on Sunday.
Davidson continued to shoot well ... knocking down 12 three pointers (in 24 attempts) and nearly 50% total from the field. Stephen Curry led the way with 33 points, including dominating an amazing stretch to begin the second half. The Wildcats went on a 33-12 run and blew the game wide open after the break.
Wisconsin also played a poor game. They neglected their biggest advantage -- their size -- and instead took contested jump shots. When they did decide to go inside, Davidson elected to foul the Badgers and force them to convert of the free throw line. They didn't ... going just 14-of-22 from the stripe. They were also turnover prone which led to several easy baskets for Davidson.
Davidson College is a small school with a high tuition that provides some of the nicest undergrad amenities around. For the last 80 years, the school has provided a laundry service for its students. More recently, Davidson eliminated all student loan debt by funding "financial need funded entirely through grants and student employment."
All of that makes it a little less shocking that the college's Board of Trustees recently approved a fund to pay for students to travel from its North Carolina campus to Detroit for the Sweet 16, a cost that will include a large touring bus, hotel rooms and game tickets.
President Tom Ross announced the offer yesterday afternoon in an email to the student body.
Watch the highlights of Davidson's 74-70 victory over Georgetown yesterday, and one player stands out:
Yes, of course, it's Davidson guard Stephen Curry, who is the unquestioned star of the first two rounds of this year's NCAA Tournament, and who may be emerging as the biggest star of college basketball. Curry is the man everyone is talking about this morning.
The only question that still hasn't been answered satisfactorily is how on earth none of the ACC schools Curry wanted to attend picked up on him. It's the same question people were asking at this time last year. The answer, I guess, is just that recruiting is an inexact science, and on this one, the coaches in ACC country screwed up.
It's Cinderella day in the NCAA Tournament, as the underdogs who pulled upsets on Friday will get their chances to do it again in Round 2. In fact, it's a day that features 12 and 13 seeds playing each other for just the sixth and seventh times ever, with 12 seed San Diego playing 13 seed Western Kentucky, and with 12 seed Villanova playing 13 seed Siena.
But while those two games mean we're guaranteed to see two double-digit seeds advance to the Sweet 16, the overall outlook for upsets today isn't strong. Basketball Prospectus has a preview of all eight games today, and as part of the preview they let us know what the possibility of an upset is.
The outlook isn't good: The team with the best chance of an upset is 7 seed Butler, listed as having a 35% chance of beating 2 seed Tennessee. The other underdogs have between a 16% chance and a 29% chance.
Of course, if we expected them to happen, they wouldn't be upsets. And I think that if Stephen Curry continues to shoot like he did on Friday, Davidson will give Georgetown a run for its money. But overall, this isn't looking like a great day to be an underdog.
Thursday had very, very limited upsets. The first session of Friday games have already seen one, kinda. #10 Davidson beat #7 Gonzaga, 82-76.
Davidson's Stephen Curry was insane, hitting 8-of-11 from three and dumping 40 points on the Zags. After Gonzaga's defense spent the first half chasing Curry around (he scored just 9 points at the break), they seemed tired towards the end of the game. Curry went off for 31 in the second half, Andrew Lovedale was all over the boards and the Zags' own shots weren't falling.
Seeding-wise, it was an upset though many people had Davidson pegged for this one. Curry is an All-American and Davidson is about a two-hour drive from Raleigh, site of the game. Gonzaga had to fly across the country -- and this game was played at 9:30 a.m. their time.
Davidson takes their 23-game winning streak ... which is the longest in the nation ... into the 2nd round against the winner of Georgetown-UMBC. The Wildcats' last loss was on December 21st against NC State on the same floor they are playing on now.
Conference:Southern Record: 26-6, 20-0 in conference RPI: 35 How They Got In: Running the table and winning the Southern Conference regular season and tournament title. Seed/Bracket: #10/Midwest
Mascot: Wildcats.
Big Wins: Beating Winthrop in the Bracket Busters matchup involving Charlotte-area schools.
Notable Loss: This is what they are known for. They lost pre-conference games to UNC, Duke and UCLA. They were in all three of those games but couldn't pull out a win. Player You Should Know: Sophomore guard Stephen Curry is a bit famous. The All American averages 25.1 ppg and one of the sweetest shooters in the country. The son of former Charlotte Hornets swingman Dell Curry, he has his dad's shot and could have his dad's NBA future as a long range gunner.
Outlook: Curry may be the main reason why Davidson is in the tournament, but he's not the only reason they are good. Point guard Jason Richards is excellent at finding Curry the best places for his shots while they have five or six other guys that contribute in other ways. The Wildcats aren't that Cinderella team anymore so winning a game (or even two) is almost expected.
Throughout the season we'll look at bubble teams and assess whether they have a better chance of ending up in the NIT or NCAA Tournament. Team: Davidson
Record: 20-6
Good Wins: Georgia Southern, at Winthrop
Bad Losses: At Charlotte, at Western Michigan Comments: You hear a lot about how well the Wildcats played in losses to UNC, N.C. State, Duke and UCLA but very rarely do you hear about how poorly they played in losses to Western Michigan and Charlotte. Those two games, much more than the first four, are why Stephen Curry's crew could find themselves on the wrong side of the velvet rope come Selection Sunday. Last night's win at Winthrop should help as it gives them something other than ransacking a mediocre conference. Other Views: They are 58th in RPI, 18th on Basketball State, 32nd by the Sagarin Ratings and are in as Southern Conference champs on Bracketology. Verdict: If Davidson should falter in either of their last two games (Appalachian State, at Georgia Southern) then they will have to win the SoCon tourney. If they falter twice, they're out. If they run the table and lose in the SoCon finals, though, I think they should get a bid. They haven't just gone unbeaten in league play, they've hardly been challenged, and last night's win cemented my feeling. Held to 60 and playing without Curry for long stretches, the Wildcats defended, hustled and outplayed Winthrop on the road. It's not beating the Tar Heels, but it's enough.
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The Davidson Wildcats are going to the Elite 8. Yes, I really wrote that.
Throughout the season we'll look at bubble teams and assess whether they have a better chance of ending up in the 
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