Curry willing Wildcats to waltz a little longer

When Selection Sunday came almost two weeks ago, I was happy to see Pitt had gotten a No. 4… When Selection Sunday came almost two weeks ago, I was happy to see Pitt had gotten a No. 4 seed. After all, this season had more ups and downs than the stock market, so a 4 was a success.

With their tear through the Big East tournament, the Panthers hushed all talks of a 9 or 10 seed, salvaging a top spot in the Big Dance. Though the 4 was nice, I got greedy.

Only two Big East teams got higher seeds – Louisville with a 3 and Georgetown a 2 – and it made me wonder if the Panthers had avoided the injury bug, could that 2 have been theirs? Surely, a meeting with a 7 or 10 seed in the second round would’ve proven a more favorable match up than Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans. Right?

Think again.

Had Pitt received the exact No. 2 seed Georgetown got, they would have had a date with Davidson in the second round. David-who? Stephen Curry, that’s who.

The sophomore, son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry, is averaging 35 points per game through the first two rounds, including a 30-point effort – 25 in the second half – against Georgetown Sunday, bringing his team back from 17 points down and completing the biggest upset of the Tournament.

In round one against Gonzaga, Curry went off for 40 – the fifth-highest total in any Tournament game since 1996 – including a 3-pointer for the lead with 1:04 left in the game. The majority of those points came in the second half, too. If you’re counting, that’s victories over two ranked opponents in as many games.

In last year’s Tourney, the baby-faced shooting guard dropped 30 in Davidson’s first round loss to Maryland. Though Curry couldn’t get his team the win then, he thrust Davidson onto the national scene.

So what did they do? The Wildcats scheduled North Carolina, Duke, North Carolina State and UCLA on their nonconference schedule this year. Each game was lost, though by slim margins, but designed to get the liberal arts college team some experience against bigger, tougher opponents.

It paid off.

Curry spearheaded the Wildcats’ undefeated conference record, averaging 25.7 points per game, while bringing the nation’s longest winning streak – 22 games – into the Tournament. Not bad for a school with a student body of 1,700.

Now, Curry and Davidson are the talk of the Tournament. You might be thinking George Mason a la 2006. You’d be wrong. Instead, Davidson is simply a better version of last year’s team. Curry is still lighting up the scoreboard, but the team’s starting point guard, Jason Richards, who led the nation in assists this year, has 35 points and 14 assists through the first two rounds.

Curry has also blossomed, evolving into an all-around playmaker, rather than just a scorer, and is making better in-game decisions. At 6-foot-3, Curry’s undersized for a swingman. And he definitely looks like a sophomore