Look who’s blogging

Jip.

Home for Jip

Lake Norman Citizen:

Richards, a pitcher and third baseman for the Vikings, was to sign a national letter of intent with the Wildcats this week to officially follow his father Jim (class of 1980) and late paternal grandfather Dick (class of 1949) as third generation Wildcat baseball players.

“Three generations playing back-to-back-to-back like that is a pretty neat thing,” says Jim, who once served as president of Davidson’s athletic foundation. “That’s happened very few places.”

Congrats to Jip, and Jim, too. When I was a student, my seat on press row was right in front of Jim, and next to Jim, always, was tiny, apple-cheeked Jip.

Not really, dude

Eric Dorval at NESN:

Curry’s departure will almost certainly spell doom for Davidson’s chances of making a NCAA tournament any time soon. How much will it hurt, you ask? Well, when Larry Bird left mid-major Indiana State after leading them to the 1979 NCAA finals, the Sycamores did not even make the Big Dance again until 2000, 21 years later. We’re not talking about Kansas or Duke. At Davidson, you don’t reload, you unload. That’s just the way it is.

Wrong.

Jip is Johnny on the spot:

Davidson is nothing like Indiana State. Indiana State had never reached a Division 1 NCAA Tournament prior to 1979 (Bird’s senior season). Davidson had 8 NCAA Tournament appearences prior to the Steph Curry era, including two Elite Eights, and a tournament bid the year before Steph arrived. Davidson also has one of the best coaches in the country. After the 2005-2006 season, Davidson lost 7 seniors and over 70% of their scoring, they “RELOADED” and made two straight NCAA Tournaments. The Wildcat recruiting is getting better every year, returning players are waiting to step up and prove Davidson is more than just Stephen Curry. Curry’s departure will not spell doom for Davidson’s chances of making a NCAA tournament any time soon.

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.

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.