On written words and spider graphs

Got for Christmas from my good friend Ben the preposterously cool San Francisco Panorma. Read about it here and here and here. If you have 16 bucks and any interest, any interest at all, in written words on printed paper that tell true stories, you should get it.

Of particular interest in this forum, though, there’s not only a keeper of a Stephen poster inside, but there’s also an interesting little “spider graph” and analysis by Roger Pimentel. The title is ... Stephen Curry vs. Monta Ellis: Can You Spot The Natural Point Guard?

Pimentel writes:

Let’s try to determine who fits which role. The top half of a spider graph is composed of offensive statistics; the bottom is defense. A well-rounded player will have a circular spider graph, while the graph of a player with specific strengths will have sharp points.

Can you guess whose spider graph is more circular?

Pimentel continues:

Right off the bat, it’s Curry who seems to be gravitating toward the role of a traditional point guard. Curry comes across as a creator -- his balance of scoring and assisting on the graph suggests that he creates shots for himself and others equally well. Despite his early misgivings about his teammate, Ellis is thriving in his quasi-two-guard role by doing what he does best -- taking the ball to the hole.

So I’m in Davidson right now. Last night Bill Cobb and I did a very festive and Christmasy thing. We drank beer and watched the Wisconsin game. There’s a play pretty early in the second half where Davidson starts to pull away. Thomas runs the floor and scores a layup while getting fouled. What’s Stephen do on that play? He gets the rebound. He throws a laser to Thomas. TV likes he shoots he scores, so it makes sense that that’s what most fans think of when they think of Stephen, but it’s neat to see that some seem to be starting to understand what I’d like to think we here have known for a good long while.

In which Bill texts me about JP

“Anything he wants.” The new kids.

Sunshine State chic

Taking the Shot at the Trop

What it means

On March 25, 2008, on charlottemagazine.com:

There’s Jason Richards, the point guard from the suburbs of Chicago, underrated and unflappable, a history major who wrote his thesis earlier this academic year on the African-American reaction to Jackie Robinson and the breaking of the color barrier in Major League Baseball. The first hug he got Sunday night when the bus got back from Raleigh was from Dr. Sally McMillen, his advisor, and also, I should say in the interest of full disclosure, a mentor to me, too, when I was here in school and ever since. Bill Cobb, Class of ’84 and one of the Wildcats’ most devoted fans, said Monday: “This is our team. It's the community's team. We all won.” And I think this is what he means. I don’t know Jason the way I knew the guys on the team when I was in school, not by any stretch, but I FEEL like I do, I feel like I know him, and that feeling somehow is because of things like Dr. McMillen giving him that hug. That’s something we share.

On DavidsonCats.com

From a graduation paper at North Mecklenburg High, “Basketball Success Brings Davidson College Elite Exposure,” by Jip Richards, son of former DAF director Jim Richards, printed here with Jip’s permission:

Online blogs, journals and message boards have become prevalent in the 21st century sports world. In 2005 two Davidson alumni decided to create an online message board of their own to appease Wildcats sports fans. The website, www.DavidsonCats.com, was created in November of 2005 and had just over 200 visits in its first month. Two years and four months later, DavidsonCats.com had grown substantially. In March of 2008, the website had over 60 thousand visits and almost 5 million hits. People from 50 different countries visited the website during that month. Almost half of the message board’s members joined after March 1, 2008.

And here are some stats from an e-mail Bill sent me about a month ago:

Unique visitors:

Jan. 2008: 4,380.

March 2008: 15,418.

Jan. 2009: 9,566.

Hits:

Jan. 2008: 1,662,203.

March 2008: 4,960,720.

Jan. 2009: 3,704,257.

Ricky and Kyle

Ricky Price and Kyle Mattson are students at Michigan State, which is in East Lansing, which is nowhere near Davidson, and yet the two of them drove all the way down in Ricky’s red Hyundai for Saturday night’s game at sold-out Belk.

Why?

This is something I’ve been interested in since last March. I know why I’m interested in Davidson basketball. I know why people like Cobb and Sink are interested. They went to Davidson and the place helped make them who they are. And I know why people like Meg and Chip are interested. They didn’t go to Davidson but they live in Davidson and they know the people who make Davidson basketball go.

But why do Ricky and Kyle from Michigan watch Davidson games whenever they can on TV or the Internet?

Why did Ricky do a Google search to find DavidsonCats.com and then register and then start posting?

And why were the two of them in Davidson, on Saturday, early in the evening, sitting at a table in the Brickhouse with William and Sink and Sink’s wife and daughter? The two of them even were wearing matching black homemade screen-printed shirts that said DAVIDSON and had the cat head logo on the front and a CURRY and a 30 on the back.

Davidson seems different. That’s what Ricky said. Ever since March, when he watched the Gonzaga game, he’s followed the team. He stressed that last word. Team. At Michigan State, he said, it feels like the guys are there more to try to go pro as fast as they can.

And also Stephen.

Of course Stephen.

They like watching No. 30.

“There’s just something about him,” Ricky said.

The story of Ricky and Kyle I think says something important about what Davidson basketball is at this remarkable moment in its history. The program right now is big enough to draw them in but still small enough to take them in.

On Saturday at the Brickhouse before the game William bought the boys’ pizza. For the game Eddie donated a ticket, and Reed Jackson donated another, and they sat in Eddie’s seats, Section 103, Row C, Seats 5 and 6. Wells gave them some gas money. David Rorie gave them some more. Big John Harper the hot dog man at the Wildcat Den gave them nachos and Cokes.

After the game Sink took their homemade shirts down to Rossiter. Rossiter took them back to the locker room to Stephen. Stephen signed them in silver Sharpie. Later, back at the Brickhouse, Ricky and Kyle showed them off.

To Ricky

God Bless

Stephen Curry

To Kyle

God Bless

Stephen Curry

They stood in the lobby and told me how much fun they had had and how awesome it was to watch Stephen have 23 at the half and how it was a smaller but louder crowd than at Michigan State and how much they liked Sweet Caroline. They said it seemed like everybody knew each other. They said they were shocked at how many people seemed to know them.

When I was talking to them, and I swear I wasn’t in on this, Sink and Eddie were out in the parking lot up to no good. Which is why when Ricky and Kyle got back in their little red Hyundai and drove all the way back to East Lansing, all hopped up on Mountain Dew and 5-hour energy shots, they did it with a brand-new Davidson license plate bolted to the front of that car.