The morning after

David’s gamer in the Indy Star:

Butler fans and college basketball analysts were eager to see the Bulldogs in action. Their coach was, uh, more subdued.

“I dreaded this game for six months,” Brad Stevens said.

Indeed, all his apprehensions -- that Davidson was seasoned, saucy and sizable -- were in evidence Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The 11th-ranked Bulldogs were thrown into the fray right away, and they responded by rallying from a 10-point deficit to win 73-62.

McKillop in the presser: “We had a 10-point lead, and all of a sudden we wanted to have a 20-point lead.” More: “New experiences for all of them. Different roles.” “Every one of them has adjusted to a new role.” “For us to get this kind of performance from them is very encouraging to me.” And on Butler: “That’s the great thing about this program. It’s a program. It’s not a season. It’s not a team. It’s a program.” Listen also to his radio chat with Kilgo.

Stephen’s exhibition debut

5 points, 5 steals and 9 assists in 24 minutes in a win over the Clippers. Game wrap with highlights. Marcus Thompson on Twitter at one point: Curry has six assists in 12 minutes. Monta has one in 21 minutes.

Something about him

SI’s Chris Mannix:

Two years ago, Gilbert Arenas told me he could tell if a player was going to be a superstar just by saying his name.

“Look at some of [the] names,” Arenas said. “Kobe Bryant. Tiger Woods. Anything with Michael in it. It’s like if you have a name like that, you’re automatically a star. O.J. Mayo, the kid hasn’t played one minute [in the NBA], but you already know he's going to be great.”

As I watched Warriors rookie Stephen Curry play here over the last few days at the NBA Summer League, Arenas’ words came back to me. Curry’s name isn’t exactly melodic, and it doesn’t tell me he’s going to be great -- but everything else about him does.

Stephen in Vegas

Game 3: not bad. Chron. Freep.

Looks like gratitude

Destination: Golden State

Okay. Back from the Old Northeast Tavern.

So.

The seventh pick of the 2009 NBA draft.

Merc: Curry can shoot, score, pass, defend. He can smile, talk, make for a nice (baby)face of the franchise.

Chron: Whatever you may think about the Warriors’ limitations up front, they just acquired the best shooter in the draft.

Ratto: What does this mean for Monta Ellis?

Meanwhile ... in New York. News. Star-Ledger.

D’Antoni: disappointed. NYT.

O’C: Stephen Curry, whose father Dell played in the league for 16 seasons, was taken with the seventh pick by Golden State. The nation’s leading scorer last season as a junior at Davidson with a 28.6 average, Curry led the Wildcats within a game of the Final Four as a sophomore.

Wetzel: ... will immediately be one of the team’s most popular players. And on Knicks pick Jordan Hill: Knicks fans booed him for not being a skinny 6-3 guy from Davidson.

Howard-Cooper: ... an explosive scorer like Curry in Nellie’s up-tempo system will put up huge numbers.

Jip Richards’ status on Facebook: Can’t wait to get a “The City” Steph jersey!

Text from Claire: I am so proud of him.

Scott: Curry walked down a back hallway at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night following the draft, saying “Golden State, Golden State” softly.

Three things

1. People were surprised when he did what he did as a freshman. People were surprised when he did what he did as a sophomore. People were surprised when he did what he did as a junior.

When will people stop being surprised?

2. Here’s what I wrote the week after he decided to leave school and go pro:

Stephen made the logical decision. He made the prudent decision. He made a serious decision, and he made it in a serious way.

Some people were bothered by it. Some people thought it was the wrong decision.

Does anybody still think that?

He made the smart decision.

Over these last couple months, though, at the combine in Chicago, then in his workouts in Charlotte, New York, Washington and Sacramento, the better he played, the smarter that decision became.

3. I think part of why I’m so looking forward to tonight is that it’s not at all an end to Stephen Curry’s Davidson story. It’s like everything else: a continuation.

The way I see Davidson College’s ongoing basketball narrative, it starts at Exit 30, always has, always will, at Belk, at the Brick House, on DavidsonCats.com, but then it radiates out from there, to the alums playing in Belgium or Germany or France, to the folks watching games on the video feed on laptop screens in Boston or San Francisco or Corpus Christi, to that red-lettered string of engaged, interested observers on the top of the message board.

Next year, there presumably will be a night or two or three when there’s a game at Belk, and Matt’s got a game up in Elon, and Stephen’s got a game in Chicago or Miami or Minneapolis, and any number of the fistfuls of the program’s pros are playing games overseas.

And there will be a group of people, maybe relatively small but certainly with purpose, who will care about all of those things.

It speaks, I think, to what’s been built over the last 20 years.

Their faces

TCC