March Madness Part 3

I'd have to say that one of the biggest surprises of the tournament so far is unarguably the success of Davidson, and that success is due largely to the performance of their standout shooting guard, Stephen Curry. He's put on an exhibition thus far in the tournament that aren't paralleled by anything I've ever seen in the tournament. (This may be because LeBron James and Kobe Bryant didn't go to college, but we'll call that irrelevant.)

Curry is barely six feet high, and probably weighs somewhere around 160-170 pounds, but scores at will, and I mean it. I know that this phrase is used rather liberally--usually by Bill Walton--but in this case it's actually true. I sat down with my brother yesterday to watch the game, and Curry did whatever he wanted to them on the offensive side of the court.

In the last three minutes of the game, he would jog slowly down the court, as if he hadn't a care in the world, and would wait for the Wildcats to start their half court offense. It wasn't a very complicated offense, and it went basically like this: pass or hand the ball off to Curry, and get the hell out of the way unless you were going to set a pick. Possession after possession, Curry made Jeremiah Rivers, Georgetown's defensive specialist, look like a complete idiot.

It got so bad that Rivers was eventually yanked from the game, while Curry remained on the court to make the rest of the team look totally bewildered and lost.

There were two consecutive possessions during which Curry especially impressed me. The game was tied at 70 when Curry got the ball and drove to make an absolutely ridiculous double-pump lay-up that you don't even see in video games, and especially not on the Hoyas' better-than-average big men.

On the ensuing posession, Curry got the ball just past halfcourt, took a few dribbles and shook Rivers out of his shorts with a behind the back before he pulled up in Patrick Ewing Jr.'s face to hit a three-pointer.

It was right around this time that I realized something. Stephen Curry is my age. He's a sophomore in college, and he's definitely smaller than I am; but he's out there doing these amazing things and is now the center of attention nationally.

And I'm writing a blog entry.