Leave Me Alone, I'm Watching the Game!
Stephen Curry is The Man and The BEAST (as in Big East) is Back in College Basketball
By Ali Danois
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A baby-face and a mean cross-over.
College hoops is unequivocally my favorite sport. While we moan and sigh about the BCS football quagmire, where at least 3 or more deserving teams are shoved out of the national championship picture by some convoluted formula that’s harder to swallow than Oprah’s visual butchering of the Zora Neale Hurston classic, “There Eyes Were Watching God,” the light at the end of the rainbow remains to be consumed. It is, bar none, the ultimate American sporting showcase.
In case you’re wondering, it’s not the Super Bowl, college football’s Tostito’s - Fed Ex - All State - AT&T - Citibank - insert your corporate sponsor here - bowl games, baseball’s World Series or the NBA Finals.
The greatest show on earth is the NCAA Basketball Tournament, a.k.a. March Madness. Nowhere else on the face of the sports landscape is the specter of Cinderella more omnipresent. College Hoops is filled with the lessons that numerous David’s have served up to Goliath’s.
Coach Jim Valvano’s mad dash around the court when N.C. State knocked off the Akeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler led Phi Slamma Jamma crew from the University of Houston in 1983 and Villanova’s miraculous 1985 upset of Big John Thompson’s Hoya Paranoia Georgetown crew, led by Patrick Ewing, are supreme affirmations to the beauty and majesty of March Madness. The entire premise of the tournament is rife with buzzer beaters, upsets and more drama than a bad Tyler Perry movie.
This season, The North Carolina Tar Heels - led by Tyler Hansborough, Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson - boast an embarrassing abundance of talent that made them the prohibitive favorites to win it all. They breezed through the early part of the schedule as some began serious discussions on the possibility of an undefeated season.
A few went so far as to begin the “Best Team Ever” debate. Until, that is, they ran into a buzz saw named Tyrese Rice, one of the nation’s most underappreciated superstars, and his Boston College Eagles.
So now that the big bully on the block has stumbled, we’ve officially got the juices flowing. And what a delectable menu we have to choose from.
In the event that you’ve been sleeping under a rock, the second coming of “Pistol” Pete Maravich and Mahmoud Abdul Raouf (formerly known as Chris Jackson) is in the midst of his third year scaring the excrement out of every defender in the country.
His name is Stephen Curry and he performs his magic for tiny Davidson College. In last year’s NCAA tournament, he had Lebron James jumping out of his courtside seats as he scorched Gonzaga for 40 in the opening round and lit up Georgetown’s vaunted defense for 30 more in the second round. The whispers of the cognoscenti suddenly transformed into shouts from the casual fans when he poured in 33 against Wisconsin in the Sweet 16.
In Davidson’s two-point loss to eventual National Champ Kansas, one step shy of the Final Four, Curry, a.k.a. the Baby Faced Assassin, fought valiantly for every one of his 25 points. He solidified himself as the fresh face of March Madness and a future mega-star.
Curry has already scored 44 twice this season. One of those was against the University of Oklahoma Sooners who are led by the country’s finest big man, Blake Griffin.
But the biggest story this year has to be the re-emergence of the Big East Conference. As a kid growing up in New York City, I lived through the golden age of Big East hoops with Pearl Washington at Syracuse, Patrick Ewing at Georgetown, Ed Pinckney at Villanova and Mark Jackson, Chris Mullin and Walter Berry at St. John’s.
In 1985, three out of the Final Four teams were from the conference. And this year could produce a similar result. The University of Pittsburgh is the nations #1 team thanks to LeVance Fields, Sam Young and De Juan Blair and UCONN is for real with Hasheem Thabeet (the next great African import), A.J. Price and freshman Lamborghini Kemba Walker.
The magic is back at Georgetown with wondrous newcomer Greg Monroe elevating the talented DaJuan Summers and Chris Wright. Syracuse has gotten over its Carmelo Anthony hangover thanks to Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris. Notre Dame, with Luke Harangody, Kyle McAlarney and Tory Jackson, has the Fighting Irish landing combos like Floyd Mayweather.
Boston College, Marquette, Louisville and West Virginia round out an amazing total of ten conference schools ranked in the top 25. Right now, it looks like the toughest league in the history of college ball.
Don’t believe me? Ask Rick Pitino, who knows a thing or two about some great college basketball.
“This is the strongest conference, I think, in the history of college basketball,” Pitino said. “Because I’ve seen strong Pac 10, strong ACC, I’ve never seen 12 teams. I don’t think you’ll ever see 12, 13 teams as strong as in this conference ever again, in the history of the game.”
So there’s a quick Cliff Notes look at what to expect as the season shifts into full gear. And I didn’t even touch on what coach K’s got brewing at Duke, the amazing Darren Collison and the UCLA machine or the landmine that is Wake Forest with Jeff Teague and Al-Farouq Aminu.
Man oh Manischewits!!! I can’t wait for the Madness to start.
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I watched this guy run a Davidson sponsored clinic the other night. If you double (or triple) team him, Davidson did not score. It was the only way they controlled this team. He was putting points up at ease, and looked to me like he was at 80 percent effort. He’s going to do very well at the next level.
> Ramon
if teams don’t double him and gear their defensive strategy toward shutting him down ramon, he’ll explode every time.
i watched him against duke the other night, and they were relentless against him. he struggled and still scored 29. the kid is amazing. and watch out for his little brother, who plays at Liberty and leads all college freshman in scoring.
they’re a family of gunslingers.
and his father, dell curry, had the quickest trigger in the pros when he played on those charlotte hornets teams with muggsy bogues, larry johnson and alonzo mourning.
> ali
For me, this article almost has the feeling of being away for YEARS and finally, coming back home (I don’t mean from “Up North”). I say that because I grew up in South Philly playing in multiple basketball leagues and even being a ball-boy in the Palestra (U of Penn) for the Atlantic 10 games. Basketball may have kept me away from the many traps in the hood and could be responsible for me going to college and not becoming a street martyr like so many other family members and friends. I remember seeing the Admiral David Robinson playing up close in the Army-Navy game, as well as Mark Macon killing the game as a freshman for Temple U. There were too many greats to remember. Prior to college, I watched the March Madness with religious dogmatic dedication. However, once “the college days that swiftly pass” kicked in and in particular, a series of events that culimnated in March, 1989 forced me to go cold-turkey, I have yet to get back into the March Madness phenomenon.
Seems like this is a good time get back into “the habit”. With so many of the off the court activities of our favorite atheletes being scrutinized, it will be good to be able to focus on the love of the game and the people who take it to new heights.
> Keyes
Curry is nice, but the jury is still out. I agree about the Big East this season.
> House
i feel you keyes. get back in the habit ’cause it doesn’t get any better than that “one shining moment.”
i marveled at marc macon’s freshman dominance from afar. but by his soph year, i hit the palestra for those big five matchups and vividly recall john chaney on the bench and macon draining those long jumpers.
i got hooked on march madness in ‘81 when this little dude named isiah thomas, who reminded me of the older guys i looked up to on the playgrounds on nyc, took indiana to the title as a little sophomore. next year was jordan, perkins and worthy at north carolina, when jordan’s shot beat georgetown and announced him to the world. haven’t missed one since.
> ali
hey house,
the jury’s still out on what? he’s learning the point guard position right now and struggles at times. but he’ll be an exciting pro who gets buckets, no question. there’s too many weapons in the pro game and he will not see double teams every time down the floor. mark my words, he’ll be a better pro than he is in college.
> ali
DUDE! Boston College is no longer in the Big East. they defected to the ACC for more College Football Bowl money, years ago. Besides that, you’re right on point concerning the Big East. There can possibly be up to ten number one NBA Draft picks from the conference, including Marquette swingmen Wesley Matthews (his Dad, Wes played in the NBA) and Jerrel McNeal. And don’t forget West Virginia’s Ruoff who can shoot with anybody. Curry will be fine on the next level.
> Carl Elliott
Curry looks amazing from the clips that I have seen, Fact.
Personally, I’d love to see Syracuse rise from the ashes to win the NCAA again.
> Buck
Speaking of Syracuse, that Johnny Flynn’s one heck of a player. As a UCONN Grad, I’d love to see mu Huskies win another one. However, my boy Thabeet comes up soft against the Big Boys.
> Carl Elliott
His father’s face is hanging from the rafters at Virginia Tech yet Seth Greenberg didn’t take him!
> Saddened Hokie
wow! thanks carl. my dementia is really acting up. i guess i got so caught up in the big east glory years, my flashbacks of michael adams, bill curley, dana barros and john bagley just took over.
and jonny flynn can really go. uconn looks very good and i love the freshman kemba walker pushing the rock.
and saddened hokie, the entire virginia tech fanbase must be salty. they missed the boat on both of dell’s boys.
> ali
This year the Big East is the best it has been since 1985. Pitt looks to be the best team, but any one of 12 teams can beat each other on any given night. This was proven when St. John’s beat Notre Dame in a complete upset.
It looks as though the conference could get as many as 4/5 teams in the Elite 8 with UConn, Pitt, Georgetown, Notre Dame and Syracuse. Don’t sleep on Louisville either. The last three years they have started terribly and then really made strides in the back end of their schedule.
One thing that concerns me is that the league is so good that it teams might beat up on each other to the extent that injuries become a factor during tournament time. Either way, the Big East tourney is going to be incredible.
As for Stephen Curry, the guy is incredible. Last Wednesday, Duke ran three guys at him at all times and he still managed to score 29 points. He is averaging 29 points a game and that includes a game in which he scored no points against Loyola because they were double teaming him even when he did not have the ball.
His major problem is that there is not another scorer on the team. As a result, Davidson is not going to be as good as they were last year unless they can work Freshman big man Frank Ben-Eze into the mix once he becomes eligible in mid-January. Still, I do not see them losing more than one game in the Southern Conference and going into the tournament with 4 losses and a top 15 ranking. So far, they have beaten West Virginia and NC State (in front of LeBron) and their three losses were on the road to Oklahoma, Purdue and Duke (three teams ranked in the top 15).
> Bill Devens
dollar bill,
i agree wholeheartedly. they’ll probably set a record for the most teams from one conference selected to the big dance. and the regular season and big east tourney will be some phenomenal ball. think i might have to make a trip to the garden for this year’s big east tournament. and louisville will be a problem for anyone come march madness. terrence williams and the freshman samardo samuels are the real deal.
someone said that steph curry would not be as good if he played for a school like duke or unc. and it took every bit of restraint i had to not slap the joker in the head to wake him up.
steph would actually be much better and more dangerous if he played with a big man like blake griffin or hansborough. and i watched that duke game and thought, he didn’t even bust off and still had 29! incredible.
look forward to talkin more college hoops with you down the road.
> bookman
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