Fans from Florida

Got an e-mail this week from a man named Ken who lives down here near St. Pete. He said nice things about the book and then told me his Davidson story.

Here, with his permission, is a piece of his note:

As background, I played high school basketball in this area in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s and was moderately recruited by Davidson the last time they were really on the national sports stage. I remember watching them lose to UNC on TV on the Charlie Scott shot at the buzzer. I visited the school on a recruiting trip then, but Davidson ended up being my second choice for college. Nevertheless, I’ve looked at the school fondly and with a lot of respect ever since.

I have a middle school son who loves playing basketball. When I saw Davidson won in the first round of NCAAs last year, I told him about the school and we watched as much as we could of their remaining games. Obviously, we were cheering hard for them along with millions of others. Last summer, he went to the UNC basketball camp (this year he’ll probably go to Davidson’s). While driving there, we took him to Davidson to show him the campus. Who’d we meet working at the information desk in the gym but Andew Lovedale. He couldn’t have been nicer and his first words were “you need to do well with your studies, don’t just focus on basketball.” It was almost a scripted message you’d want a teenager to hear. Several people on campus also told us how the basketball players were also just normal students.

On a whim that day, I got the application for season tickets for this year -- which I ended up buying. I figured there isn't a better player for my son to watch and admire than Stephen Curry, and not a better program to follow in terms of what college athletics should be about. My son and I have been to three games so far this year and will be able to get to one more. At one game, we met Bob McKillop walking into the gym before the game (I assume from his home a few minutes away), and last Saturday my son was able to say hello to Stephen Curry as Stephen was chatting with family and friends outside after the game. Both the coach and Stephen were very nice and signed an autographed ball.