May 7, 2008

Meg Kimmel at Summitt: “It’s the hard stuff at the beginning. When you get to the top, the air is thinner. Up above the clouds, you have a shot.”

David Matheny at the Brickhouse: “Georgetown? They’re huge. But you don’t have to beat them four out of five. You only have to beat them the one time. Please, I said. Let it be Sunday.”

Stan Brown on the phone: “I think people who aren’t into Xs and Os, they could still sense: They’re doing something, and it’s not an accident. It’s not luck.”

Fran Fraschilla on the phone: “I would call it an elegant toughness.”

Matt Garfield in Charlotte: “Everything happened fast. The timeout went fast. Everything happened fast. Then all of a sudden the ending was there. If the season was a movie, the ending was just there, bam. There was no time. One second we’ve got a shot for the Final Four. The next second we’ve got a 10-hour drive home from Detroit.”

He should stay

Fran Fraschilla:

First of all, Curry has the unique opportunity to build a legacy very few college players in the history of the game could ever achieve. Were he to stay, by the time his career at Davidson was over, he likely would be the NCAA’s second-leading scorer of all time, behind only the legendary “Pistol” Pete Maravich. And as inconceivable as it sounds, he could make a run at the all-time record of 3,667 points by averaging 29.5 points per game over 35 games. It’s not beyond his reach.

Curry already is a rock star and ubiquitous in college basketball circles. In fact, after a brilliant sophomore season that included an incredible NCAA tournament performance that led to Davidson’s Elite Eight run, CBS and ESPN turned him into a national celebrity, and Curry made himself a walking billboard for one of the great private liberal arts institutions in the country.

On Stephen

Fran Fraschilla last summer when we talked for the book: “He’s one of the two or three or four most skilled players in college basketball. People missed. His skill level is off the charts.

“And he has the mental makeup to take and make big shots. That’s an underrated art, a rare combination, that incredible skill level and great mental makeup. Genes or environment? Nature or nurture? He grew up in locker rooms and at practices and shootarounds. You have to watch someone a lot to see that.”

Fran Fraschilla yesterday on ESPN.com: “I was at the Oklahoma game, along with 20 or more NBA scouts, and I think he could have scored 60 points if his jumper was on. If it’s needed, I think he can get 50 points in a game this season. ...

“Maybe it’s his slight frame, his baby face or the fact that he’s a small guy in a big man’s game, but there is something about Curry’s basketball brilliance that resonates with college basketball fans.”