About last night

1. So much talk obviously about Stephen at the point and not the two, going into the season, still now. I don’t know. 30 points, 13 assists, three turnovers: That pretty much works for me. It’s Steve Nash-y. Steve Nash in his prime-y. I’ve thought for months and months, spring, summer, fall, now with a handful of games so far in this new season, that one of the very few not good things about Stephen at the point is that Stephen is not also at the two. That’s not a knock on Bryant or Will -- more just an acknowledgment that Stephen at the two was an extraordinary thing. But Stephen at the point? Other than the fact that he can’t play two positions at once ... what’s not to love? Another thing to consider: John Akers of Basketball Times leaned over on press row last night and made the point that Stephen is shooting a lot of free throws, more than last year, maybe a lot more -- although I’d rather not go look up the numbers right now -- and that’s because (duh) the ball’s in his hands more and he’s exceptionally difficult to guard. That’s going to be especially true in games against Southern Conference teams. Or teams like Winthrop. How do you score 30 points on 16 shots? One way: You take 10 free throws and make nine of them.

2. Good line from Gary McCann of the Rock Hill paper: Curry, he wrote, “has made the transition from shooting guard to point guard seamless. He plays like he was born there and shoots like he believes everything is going in.”

One thing I think people sometimes forget, though, is that Stephen kind of WAS born there. That’s the position he played at Charlotte Christian, every year, before he came to Davidson and played the two because Jason played the one. Just worth remembering as we continue to watch Stephen keep improving at the point. And that IS what he will do. Because that's what he does.

3. Andrew. Taking all sorts of grief from (some) posters at DavidsonCats.com after the Oklahoma game. In the Oklahoma game, of course, he was going up against not only Big XII competition but first-team All-American competition. Against Winthrop, though -- and this will be the case, I’m thinking, in most Southern Conference games, too -- he was the mannest man out there. Rebounds? If they were anywhere NEAR him? They were his. It was one of those efforts where you looked at his final line of 20 points and 15 rebounds and you sort of said to yourself: “Hmm. Seemed like even more.”

4. Will. Forget the numbers, and forget the shooting, even though they were plenty promising. The most important thing was that there was absolute energy in him and the way he played last night.

Here he comes.

Watch.

5. First time for me last night in the new and improved Belk Arena with the Seats That Stephen Built. Strange, but strange in a great way, for those of us who were there for Monday night SoCon games against, say, East Tennessee State, with attendance checking in at an (exaggerated) 1,128 or something like that. Stating the obvious but it really is an amazing thing going on right now on our campus and in our village.

Two numbers:

30.

5,223.