Tonight in Charlotte

Against the Bobcats:

After a modest start to his NBA career, Curry has been very hot the past two months. He recorded the first triple-double of his career in a February win over the L.A. Clippers, registering 36 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds. Only five other NBA rookies have ever posted a 35-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist performance -- Michael Jordan, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor and Jason Kidd.

“I've got a lot of confidence right now,” Curry said. “Nothing has really changed with how I’m approaching the game, but I’m getting a whole lot of playing time due to all the injuries we’ve had.”

Warriors.com. AJC blog last night: On a semi-related note, as small as Davidson College is, every Davidson grad in the Atlanta area must have been at the game. He got a noticeable ovation at the beginning of the game. He played all 48 minutes, too. Stephen last night in Atlanta: “It’s going to be fun. Lot of family in town. Lot of Davidson fans are going to be there. My teammates from last year are going to be there. They’re going to be loud, and it’s going to be fun to play in that arena. I worked out there all summer, so it’s going to feel like home.” Corey Maggette last night in Atlanta: “Sitting down and watching him is unbelievable. There is something bright at the end of the tunnel. Even in the darkness, you notice the way Steph is playing. You see flashes of greatness. We’re watching an All-Star forming. No one expected him to be doing what he’s doing. I mean, we saw what he could do in college, but you never know if that is going to transition into the pros. He’s scoring and facilitating. He is a hell of a point guard.” DavidsonNews.net: Keeping track of No. 30. Worth the read: Frank Hughes on SI.com. Stephen talks with Kilgo.

The Stephen show: in town after all

Scott:

There is one tinge of irony to the weekend. Southern Conference organizers hoped that Curry would stay at Davidson for his senior year and become the star attraction at this weekend's tournament.

Instead, Curry went pro a year early. Yet he's going to end up being in Charlotte anyway.

“I found out this was going to be a possibility in the fall,” Curry said, “when the schedules all came out. My one trip to Charlotte all season comes at tournament time. It's pretty funny. It's going to be great for me, of course, but it's going to be great for a lot of people besides me, too. A weekend like this just shows how big basketball really is in Charlotte, and how well the city can showcase such a great sport so many of us love.”

Cremins: “Is it inconvenient? In a lot of ways, yes it is.” Iamarino: “I would have preferred if the Warriors to come to Charlotte on a different weekend. Guess I didn't have David Stern's ear on that one.” Stephen: “I'm putting the pressure on my Davidson boys. They better win Friday so I can see them in person Saturday.”

Scott’s 10 of the last 10

Stephen is No. 3: Curry and Davidson made for such an unlikely, gorgeous fairy tale in the 2008 NCAA tournament that I still have a hard time believing it happened.

The Observer drops in

Scott:

But don’t forget that coach McKillop got the Wildcats to the NCAA tournament twice before Curry ever arrived on campus. Although the Wildcats will have far less flash this season -- it’s doubtful that Dick Vitale will show up this season for a Davidson game, as he did last season -- you can bet Davidson will still have some moments.

Three times actually.

Scott on Stephen’s postcard

Here:

Basketball star Stephen Curry wanted to show the Davidson community how thankful he is for the past three years.

So, on the eve of his NBA career, Curry made a remarkable gesture. At a personal cost of $3,000, he sent out 2,000 “Thank You” postcards this month to fans, faculty, students and alumni.

“I started thinking about this while I was taking a summer school class at Davidson,” Curry said in a phone interview Wednesday from Oakland, Calif., after completing a practice with his new team, the Golden State Warriors. “It hit me that I wasn’t going to be able to say goodbye to everyone I wanted to, and that they might have a hard time keeping up with me now that I’m on the West Coast. I want people to know that even though I’m here, I’m still deeply tied into Charlotte and Davidson.”

Greensboro. Blog. QC Sports Blog. Salisbury.

Talking Panthers

McKillop on the news Panthers president’s time as the head of the SoCon: “Danny was a consensus builder. He dealt with a lot of different schools -- state schools, private schools, recent members of the conference and schools that had been in it for 60 years. And he was often able to build some type of consensus despite dealing with a lot of significant differences between the schools.”

The power of the story

Scott:

Another coach told Chadwick he would be the face of the program for four years, he said, and do for that team what Stephen Curry did for Davidson.

I wonder how often No. 30 and March 2008 come up in different coaches’ pitches these days.

The company you keep

Scott: Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Bob McKillop, Jeff Capel -- you could have held quite a college coaching clinic in a 20-yard radius in that NBA green room.

Stephen Curry of Davidson College

Scott:

The Curry family had a sign at their table that read “Hi, Davidson” that attempted to get in front of ESPN’s cameras several times.

“That was just our way of saying hi to the community back there,” Curry said. “Just showing that I’m still wearing Davidson on my heart even though I have a Golden State hat on now.”

Still (always?)

Scott in New York:

Unbidden, the desk clerk at my New York hotel offered his opinion upon check-in when he realized I was from North Carolina.

“I hope the Knicks don’t take Stephen Curry in the draft,” the desk clerk said in a thick Noo Yawk accent. “I’m not a scout or nothing, but I just don’t think he’s NBA material.”

Then again, he wasn’t ACC material, either.

Been a while

Scott:

How unusual will it be to see a Davidson player selected in the Top 10 of Thursday’s draft? Consider this: The last Davidson player picked was Cliff Tribus, who was selected in the eighth round by the Denver Nuggets. In 1983!

Pre-draft Sunday

Scott:

Curry averaged 28.6 points his junior season at Davidson and was a first-team All-American while making a successful shift from shooting to point guard. Still, in a point-guard heavy draft, his stock has skyrocketed.

How did this happen?

The key moments occurred at the NBA draft combine in late May, where Curry measured 6-31/4 in basketball shoes, shot the ball as beautifully as he always does and impressed everyone with his general Opie Taylor goodness.

“A lot of NBA general managers and executives had thought he was just a 6-1 scrawny kid who could shoot,” Dell Curry said. “They got to that combine and realized he was more than that.”

Bonnell: A safe pick in a dicey draft because he’s such a reliable jump-shooter and smart passer.

A week from tonight

Green room.

Better than you think

Scott:

Curry was somewhat of a surprise as the second-place finisher, which speaks to how well he was received at the combine, where he shot the lights out, measured a little bigger than expected and looked like he fit in with the other point guards on the floor. He also was a pro in the interviews, and many of the older GMs feel the fact that he grew up around the NBA game will help him make a quick transition to the pros. Three GMs had him ranked as the top point guard in the draft, and he received seven second-place votes, too. One GM had him ranked sixth. This coincides with a number of things I heard at the camp that had the Thunder, Wizards and Warriors all looking at possibly selecting Curry before the Knicks draft at No. 8.

More here: He could easily find himself in the top five when the Draft rolls around.

Still going ...

Scott:

Curry’s only solo comes about a minute into this 5-minute rap, which is basically a shout-out to the Davidson “Commons,” the on-campus place where Curry loves to eat (along with a lot of other Davidson students, apparently).

Ready

Scott:

Curry said Thursday at his news conference he was told he would be picked anywhere from No.7 to No. 20 in June’s NBA draft. Those guaranteed millions would make this a no-brainer for many.

But he wavered for weeks about this decision because he was so wedded to the Davidson college experience, his teammates and the idea that he should get his college degree before leaving.

Finally, the NBA won out. Davidson fans were left to bemoan their fate, having just lost the best Wildcats player any of them will see for the rest of their lifetimes one year early. I believe Davidson’s basketball program and its fans will struggle more in the 2009-10 season than Curry will.

Fowler in Davidson

McKillop: “But it’s not a divorce. Stephen will always be a part of our program. He will always be here in spirit with us.”

Why it’s hard

Scott:

Davidson star Stephen Curry will announce Thursday at an 11:30 a.m. on-campus press conference whether he’s staying in school for his senior year or going pro.

Here’s the weird thing: Davidson coach Bob McKillop still doesn’t know what Curry’s decision is going to be. And neither do Curry’s parents.

“He told us he just wants to sleep on it,” Dell Curry, Stephen’s father, told me Wednesday night. “But he honestly hasn’t told us what he’s going to do yet.”

Said McKillop Wednesday night: “I don’t think Steph knows what he’s going to decide right now. His heart is feeling one way. His head is feeling another way. Somehow, he’s got to get his heart and his head feeling the same way.”

Interesting. Not that surprising, though -- not if you know the kid. He said early on in this process that he didn’t want it to drag out, and that he’d make a decision fairly quickly, but I think in retrospect he said that just hoping something somehow would show itself. This was never going to be easy. Go one way, and he lets himself down; go the other, and he lets other people down, or at least he’ll feel that way, even if it’s not true. And Stephen’s really one who wants to please those who are closest to him.

Stress?

Scott:

Is Stephen Curry tossing and turning his way through dozens of sleepless nights, constantly debating the decision he must make this week to either stay at Davidson for his senior season or jump to the NBA?

No.

Restoring order

Scott:

Davidson standout guard Stephen Curry will make a decision sometime this week as to whether to skip his senior year of college and turn pro -- but that decision has not come yet, his father Dell Curry said Monday.

Dell Curry denied a report from the website DraftExpress.com, which claimed Curry had already made his decision and would go pro. “That’s just not true,” Dell Curry told The Observer Monday. “At some point, it’s going to be true or false, but they’re just guessing. I guess they do that to draw interest to the website -- just put it out there and hope they’re right.”

Davidson coach Bob McKillop said he had a 30-minute, one-on-one meeting with Stephen Curry Thursday night and then had dinner with his star player Friday night.

“We went over all the pluses and minuses,” McKillop told me Monday. “I made it clear to him that although his decision will certainly impact our program in numerous ways, there’s no sense of urgency from our standpoint. I want him to make a decision that is well-thought out and that he’s comfortable with."