Two years ago now

The Post and Courier in a story on Wofford: Davidson’s run to the Elite Eight in 2008 earned the SoCon an extra $4.5 million.

SoCon Player of the Year

Hartsell in Charleston:

It only seems like Stephen Curry won that award six or seven times during his career at Davidson. He actually won it only once ...

If by once he means twice. Don Nelson last night in Oakland: “If we could have finished his passes he could have had 20 assists.”

Oops

Jeff Hartsell on the SCT in the Queen City:

Well, Curry will be in Charlotte all right -- with Golden State on Saturday, March 6, against the Bobcats at Time Warner Cable Arena, competing directly for fans and media attention with the SoCon quarterfinals on the same night at Bojangles Arena.

Wait, there's more -- the Lakers and Kobe Bryant will be in Charlotte on March 5, just in time for the SoCon's opening night.

At least in Chattanooga, the SoCon was only competing with Mr. Belding.

Just put it, and leave it, in Charleston.

The SoCon sans 30

Jeff Hartsell in Charleston: He will be missed by ticket managers throughout the league ...

Ripples

Worth noting: The Citadel’s share of NCAA money for Davidson’s run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA basketball tournament in 2007-08 will be about $45,000 a year for five years, Leckonby said.

Lowcountry mention

Taking the Shot in the Post & Courier. (Scroll down.)

No No. 30

McKillop: “This was uncharted territory for us, the first time in three years we played without Steph Curry. The absence of what he could do for us and the unfamiliar roles guys were put into, along with The Citadel’s great play, led to this defeat.”

Tonight in Davidson

Scott Fowler:

For 30 years, Dick Vitale has analyzed basketball games on TV.

Tonight, after nearly 1,000 games, Vitale goes to Davidson for the first time.

Jeff Hartsell:

Davidson (20-3, 13-0) has won 43 straight SoCon regular-season games, just one short of the league record of 44 in a row set by West Virginia and another basketball icon -- Jerry West -- from 1956-60.

Jay Bilas:

Of all the Division I players who have averaged five assists in a season in the past 10 years, Stephen Curry ranks first in terms of scoring average. In addition to his 6.3 dishes a game, the Davidson star manages a nation-leading 28.9 ppg.

Dana O’Neil:

Off on the side courts of conference play, Curry has taken a backseat to the weekly ACC and Big East slugfests, but you can almost sense him building for another March run.

McKillop: “I ain’t ‘there’ yet. I don’t know where ‘there’ is.”

More: Davidson. C of C.

The Stephen Award

Jeff Hartsell:

Curry’s ascendancy has caused an interesting dilemma for SoCon sports information directors, who choose the league’s player of the week each week.

Curry won the award this week for the third week in a row, seventh time this season and 15th time in his career. And it was probably a below average week for the Wildcats’ junior -- he averaged 26 points, 6.7 assists and 5 rebounds as Davidson went 3-0.

No SoCon team relies more on one player than Davidson does on Curry. And he’s so great that even a below average week is good. Should SoCon SIDs judge Curry by his own high standard, and reward other players who might have had exceptional weeks by their standards? Or should they just shrug and vote for Curry every week?

In Charleston ...

Jeff Hartsell:

Just to take the suspense out of it, we’ll go ahead and confirm the news. Yes, Stephen Curry is our unofficial player of the year at the midpoint of the Southern Conference basketball season.

Why not? No other SoCon player has earned his own highlight video with music by Queen (“Flash! Ah-ahhhh! Savior of the Universe!”). And he’s been named SoCon player of the week six times in 10 weeks. They ought to retire the award or at least establish a non-Curry category.

Can’t not watch

Jeff Hartsell in Charleston: How do you measure The Curry Effect? It’s about 281 percent. Davidson has played three SoCon road games, drawing season-best crowds at App State (8,350), C of C (5,368) and The Citadel (5,336). Those crowds were an average of 281 percent bigger than the previous home games at those schools. Also: Asheville.

The Curry brothers

Jeff Hartsell on Stephen and Seth: “I could shoot myself.”

That’s what Winthrop coach Randy Peele said last week about his failure to seriously recruit Seth Curry out of high school.

Peele should put away the rhetorical gun. A lot of sheepish college basketball coaches are feeling the same way about the Curry brothers, Davidson superstar Stephen and Liberty freshman Seth.