Curry’s high school saw what ACC coaches didn’t

You might think the students and faculty of Charlotte Christian School would be going bonkers over 2006 graduate Stephen Curry this week. After all, it’s not every day that a sophomore guard from Davidson College (enrollment roughly 1,700) not only drives his team to the Sweet 16, but also leads the NCAA tournament in scoring after the opening weekend.

Beyond that, the baby-faced Curry woke up Monday morning to find his mug on the front page of USA Today and the sports front of the New York Times. At least for one weekend, the kid was hotter than Tiger Woods.

Yet ask Curry’s coach at Charlotte Christian to describe the school’s excitement over their favorite son’s 35-point scoring average through two NCAA games and he’ll tell you the place kind of half expected it.

“My players are definitely buzzing about it,” said Shonn Brown, who has coached the Knights for eight seasons. “And our kids are pumped up to see one of our own playing in the Sweet 16. But a lot of our players are also coming up and saying, ‘Coach, it’s Stephen. We know what he can do. Shooting the basketball, that’s what he does.’”

Anyone in the Southern Conference can painfully tell you that Curry may shoot it as well as anyone ever has. As well as Oscar Robertson, Rick Mount, Pete Maravich, Chris Jackson, Chris Lofton, anyone.

As University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach John Shulman has said more than once of Curry’s feathery touch, “You’re almost surprised when it doesn’t go in.”

But without offending Shulman, tossing in 27 in the opening half against the Mocs — as Curry did at Davidson in January — is not the same as scoring 25 second-half points against Georgetown, as Curry did in the Wildcats’ 74-70 comeback win Sunday. And those 30 total points came about 48 hours after he torched Gonzaga for 40.

Nor was this just any comeback. Davidson was 17 down in the second half to basically the same Hoyas squad that reached the Final Four last spring.

But as Wildcats senior Jason Richards later said, “You can never think you’re out of the game. We stayed focused. We got Steph the ball.”

Why Steph is getting the ball at Davidson instead of a couple of hours down the road at Duke or North Carolina is another story. Or how would you like to be Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg and know that all you had to do was ask and Curry would have been yours, since his father Dell was a Hokie All-American before spending 16 years in the NBA?

“Those other coaches made a mistake,” Brown said. “But Stephen made a great decision. Davidson was a great fit for him. He went to a school where he could play right away, a school with great coaching and great academics that could get the most out of what he does well.”

Curry does everything well. He can shoot it from 30 feet in without straining a single muscle. He can pass. He can dribble.

“He’s a hard guard,” Brown said. “He never stops moving.”

Let’s see. Great range. Multiple offensive skills. Never stops moving. Dad played 16 years in the NBA. So what wasn’t there to like?

“I don’t fault them,” Brown said of the coaches who passed on Curry, mostly because of his (then) 6-foot-1, 165-pound frame. “I think a lot of guys looked at his body and couldn’t see how someone his size could go against the athletes he’s have to face in the ACC.

“I was trying to promote Stephen’s intangibles. His shooting. His ball-handling. The way he made players better. But they couldn’t get past his frame. I kept saying, ‘You can make him bigger. You can give him muscle.’ But they just couldn’t see it.”

The beauty of programs such as Davidson, fellow Sweet 16 member Western Kentucky and Butler, which threw such a scare into Tennessee, is that they have to find the intangibles. They recruit ballplayers more than athletes. It might never win them the national championship, but on certain days, against certain teams, it can deliver them one shining moment in March.

And it has some members of college basketball’s elite taking notice.

Said Tennessee’s Lofton a day before the Vols’ narrow escape against Butler: “These mid-majors are really taking over. Mid-majors are the future, I think. They’re great basketball teams and they have players who get overlooked.”

Added Louisville coach Rick Pitino — whose Cardinals face Lofton’s Vols on Thursday night — after he heard Curry had torched Georgetown for 30: “Shooters ... I love good shooters. There’s always a place on your basketball team for a great shooter as long as he’ll work hard everywhere else. He doesn’t have to be the best athlete. If he can shoot it and he’ll work to improve on everything else, there’s always a place for him on the floor.”

Now 6-2 and 185 pounds, Curry takes the floor again Friday night in Detroit against Wisconsin. A win there would probably pit Davidson against Kansas on Sunday in the Midwest final for a spot in the Final Four. Either way, Brown and his wife are traveling with the Curry family to the game.

But for all you looking for a bracket buster down the road, it seems that Stephen’s younger brother Seth will be playing for Liberty next season.

“I think you’ll see a big difference in Liberty next year,” Brown said.

Apparently all they’ll have to do is stay focused. And get Seth the ball.