‘My momma won’t let me’

Marcus on Stephen:

But quietly, Curry experiences a tiny bit of reservation. The love he receives, the hype that follows him, comes with a price.

Curry doesn’t want to inconvenience his loved ones. He doesn’t want to upstage his teammates. He doesn’t want to come off as a glutton for glory.

“He doesn’t take anything for granted, and he doesn’t think he’s entitled to anything,” said Steve Rossiter, one of Curry’s closest teammates at Davidson. “That’s not who he is.”

Curry said his parents, his high school coach, his girlfriend -- whom he first met six years ago in their church youth group -- and a couple Davidson teammates serve as his escape. They allow him a welcome relief from life on the pedestal.

Curry said he’s confident he won’t fall off, nor does he want off his high place. In his mind, it’s his calling to be humble while exalted.

“It’s possible to keep that forever,” Curry said of his pristine image. “It can’t be just for show. It’s got to be who you are. I’ve thought about this. I think it’s just who I am, who I was made to be.”

The tourney, excellence, and us

McKillop: “There is a constant attempt in our society to diminish the value of excellence. Making the NCAA Tournament is a mark of excellence, and excellence should never be diminished.”

Reasons for optimism

Acorn on DavidsonCats.com:

1. The Butler Game. Let’s start at the beginning of the season. We knew this year wouldn’t be quite as good as the last two years, but Davidson played national runner-up and at-the-time-#10-ranked Butler pretty close at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The team led by ten in the first half. They came back from a ten-point deficit to take the lead with under ten minutes to go. Kuhlman (9 points, 6 assists) and Cohen (8 points) both had good first games, which leads me to ...

2. The Freshmen (Rising Sophomores). Nik Cochran, Jake Cohen, and JP Kuhlman all had great freshman seasons. Nik showed that he could come off the bench and provide great energy. He has shown a knack for getting into the lane and making things happen. There is some disagreement on Jake and JP -- but only over which one is better. Each one won a conference freshman of the year award. JP is a cool customer who is a capable ballhandler with a deadly shot. Jake has great length and great scoring ability -- he is also a good shot blocker. If JP
improves his defense and Jake puts on a few more pounds, they could each make multiple All-Conference teams.

3. No Bad Losses. The team played some excellent teams tough. I’ve already discussed the Butler game. They hung with Gonzaga in Seattle. And they should have beaten Cornell at Madison Square Garden. Sure, the Charleston tournament was a little rough. But in the conference season, Davidson didn’t lose any games to teams at the bottom of the conference. We didn’t see the kind of domination that we had become accustomed to, but the team played hard every night.

4. Recruiting. Coach McKillop and his staff have put together a strong recruiting class. De'Mon Brooks (6-7) was his conference’s player of the year. His teammate, Jordan Downing (6-5), provides length and scoring on the wing that the team didn’t have last year. Chris Czerapowicz led Sweden to the U18 European Championships last summer, and is one of the top-ranked players in his age cohort. Tom Droney (6-6) is a high-scoring guard with the ball handling ability of a point guard. These players should enhance the team’s ability to score in a variety of ways. And there is no reason to expect that recruiting will let up next year -- the prospects who have been identified as having interest in Davidson are of similar high quality.

5. Transitions. We’ve mentioned it several times on this board, but this was a year of big transitions. Stephen Curry left a year early somewhat unexpectedly. Matt Matheney left the coaching staff to coach Elon. Ben Allison injured his shoulder and Frank Ben-Eze was recovering from knee surgery. Aaron Bond decided to leave the team. That is a lot of disruption, both expected and unexpected.

6. The SoCon Seems to be Improving. Finally, the teams of the Southern Conference seem to be improving. App State, College of Charleston, Elon, Western Carolina, and Wofford all seem to be headed in the right direction. That may make things more challenging for Davidson, but raising the profile of the conference is important for getting multiple teams into the NCAA tournament (may be moot now) and for getting better seeds. It also helps with recruiting.

Says Eddie: While their loss wasn’t unscheduled, you could add to your “transitions” item the departures of the SoCon’s defensive player of the year (MPG), along with Davidson’s second leading scorer and top rebounder (Lovedale). This wasn’t, and couldn’t be, a seamless transition. It was a shock to the system at all levels.

JP in the Jacksonville paper

Alumni watch: Former Providence basketball standout JP Kuhlman enjoyed a brilliant rookie season for Davidson.

A film by Mark McGuire ‘96

Shugendô Now from Jean-Marc Abela on Vimeo.

Screening at Davidson a week from Monday, at 8 p.m., in the 900 Room. More.

He is alone

Just now on Kyle’s Twitter feed: Insider account of NABC meeting yesterday: coaches talking 96-team bracket. “Great idea. Anyone not in favor?” One man stood up: McKillop. More from Kyle.

Seven hundred and thirty days later

Claire: There was a power in those moments that I never tried to understand, but just let it sweep me up, clear knowledge that nothing else in the world was important except for the life we share and how this expressed that.

Say yes

March 30, 2008:

Those were the words running through his head.

Say yes.

Say yes.

Say yes.

Mid-Major Freshman All-America

JP.

Did they make this for us?

Billy Thom

The student assistant coach: “The most honest college tour I took was at Davidson. It was, 'This is what we are. If it’s for you, come on down.’”

Butler

A year and a month ago at Belk Arena:

Things I liked about Butler: Those kids looked like college kids. They played defense. They won loose balls. They earned “slobber” points ...

Now: the Final Four in their own city.

You having lunch with Stephen?

Help out Bryant and Buzzkill and break bread with No. 30. Auction.

Droney and Sewickley: state champs

After the win: “I was really excited to play even though I was really sick. I still had a little energy to get it going. I can’t thank my teammates enough for being supportive and playing great. … I woke up and I felt terrible. But I was going to play. We didn’t come this far not to play. Everyone stepped up and we won. I just tried to play as best as I could; play my best. … This is the best feeling in the world. I’ve never felt anything like this -- and it hasn’t totally hit me yet.” Beaver County advance. Tribune-Review gamer.

Droney’s (pre-Davidson) legacy

Beaver County Times:

Tom Droney has been so focused on winning a state championship that he’s never really thought about his legacy. But with one game left in his high school career, Droney’s reputation as one of the all-time greats from western Pennsylvania is etched permanently in stone.

State championship tomorrow. Reading Eagle. Post-Gazette.

The Continuum

Kyle:

Davidson’s continuum was broken this year -- the Wildcats finished 16-15 and lost in the Southern Conference’s first round to Elon. The program couldn’t replicate what happened after the 2005-06 season, when a giant outgoing class of seven seniors peaked with an NCAA appearance. The next year, Curry stepped in, and took the program to higher heights indeed.

It’s an interesting thing to think about. I kind of think it’s more like every season is new, every season is different, every season is hard.

Dime’s top 16 Madness Cinderellas

No. 1.

29 points, and on to the state title game

Droney: Tom Droney fought through a foul to make a game-winning layup with 3.6 seconds left and then added on the free throw to give Sewickley Academy a victory over Lincoln Park, 50-47, Tuesday night in a PIAA Class A boys basketball semifinal.

Why was I tearing up?

Landry after Georgetown: ... I did not know if I could articulate my thoughts to anyone. Luckily, I was sitting next to my former teammate and roommate, Ali Ton, and when I saw the emotion on his face, I knew that he did not need an explanation. When I left my seat and went out into the hallways of the RBC Center and saw the students and fans cheering, high-fiving, chest-bumping, and singing the fight song, I again realized that no explanation was necessary. The Davidson people understood it: against long odds our team accomplished a near miracle.

Nothing easy