Links and a thought from 35,000 feet

The links?

Andy:

... the Wildcats, who are playing their first game without Stephen Curry in four seasons.

Gary:

... now that Stephen Curry is with Golden State.

Jeff:

Not exactly an easy start to the Life Without Stephen Era for Davidson coach Bob McKillop.

The thought? I know it’s hard to avoid, and I know it can’t be ignored, and I wouldn’t want it to be -- but I do hope that this game at some point can be less about who’s not on the court and more about the guys who are.

Matheny to Elon?

Says here it’s so. Press conference is tomorrow. Here’s Charlotte.

Won’t be the same

Stephen: “I’ve got to make a new story.” Also: Jeff calls him the Tiger of college hoops.

Detour

Jeff Goodman’s Facebook status: “Was set to head to Chattanooga for Stephen Curry’s Play-In Game; Scrapped that plan and headed home for a couple days before Big East tourney really gets going.”

The kid’s ankle

I’ve been in Daytona all weekend doing some reporting for a story for Charlotte mag. What’d I miss? Just kidding.

Cranston:

Davidson star guard Stephen Curry’s injured left ankle is not broken, and the nation’s leading scorer will be listed as day-to-day.

Curry met with doctors on Sunday, a scheduled off day from practice, and underwent X-rays that were negative. Coach Bob McKillop said Curry will sit out Monday’s practice, but no determination has been made for Wednesday's game against Southern Conference foe The Citadel.

The Wildcats (22-4, 15-1) host No. 15 Butler on Saturday in a Bracketbusters game.

Goodman:

Stephen Curry is fine.

The Davidson star guard injured his ankle last night in a win over Furman and had to leave the game on crutches, but he is hopeful of playing Wednesday against The Citadel after X-rays revealed it was just a sprain.

“I think I’ll be back soon,” Curry told FOXSsports.com on Sunday afternoon. “If I heal as quickly as I have since last night, I should be able to play Wednesday.”

Fowler:

If Curry had torn something and been out the rest of the season, that would have put a huge damper on Davidson’s season. The Wildcats might have still made the NCAA tournament, but it would have been no beter than a 50-50 proposition. As it is, I’m sure Davidson coach Bob McKillop will be careful with Curry and perhaps sit him out Wednesday vs. The Citadel. But if I were a betting man, I’d bet Curry will play Saturday in a huge non-conference home game against nationally-ranked Butler.

Pub

From Jeff Goodman: I saw Michael Kruse, a former Prepstars writer who is now working down at the St. Pete Times in Florida, for the first time in years this past week at Madison Square Garden. Kruse is a Davidson grad who recently finished a book called, TAKING THE SHOT: The Davidson Basketball Moment. It’s due out this week and is published by Butler Books (www.butlerbooks.com). Can’t wait to get started on it.

‘Little tiny Davidson’

Jeff Goodman: Why fans jammed the building.

The zero game

Loyola of Maryland wasn’t going to beat Davidson Tuesday night, probably not, almost certainly not, so why not try something really, REALLY different? What was there to lose?

Some might say a lot.

Pride.

Dignity.

Reputation.

Respect from the players on your team.

Folks are talking about this all over the place today. Most all of them are using words like “dumb” and “ridiculous” and phrases like “an embarrassment to his profession” and “continues to lose his mind.”

For now, from here, two thoughts:

1. It’s a coach’s Hippocratic Oath of sorts to prepare his players, and to give those players a chance, the very best possible chance, to compete and to win. That is not what happened here. Jimmy Patsos did not do that. Maybe he thought at some point, the day before the game, the morning of the game, at the start of the game, that this was in fact his team’s best chance to win -- that’s totally possible -- but he HAD to realize by at least halftime that it wasn’t working. Davidson finished the half on a 35-8 run. Not working.

2. Seasons and the games that add up to seasons are all about adjustments. One team does this, the other team does that, the one team does something different, the other team tries to counter, and so on and so on. It never stops. To do one thing, and only one thing, for a full 40 minutes -- no matter what that thing is -- is a pretty good way to lose. I once was having beers with an attorney whose cases I used to write a good bit about and I asked him what made somebody good in his line of work. A malleable mind, he said. A good thinker is a flexible thinker. Loyola was losing 39-17 at the break. It got worse from there: 46-22, 52-24, 60-31, 71-38. And STILL: two men face-guarding Stephen standing in the corner. Rigidity is stupidity.