Davidson 72, North Carolina State 67

[wolfpackdevil]

This is a big game for both NCSU and Davidson.

Davidson is 22nd in the country and looking for their first marquee win. The Wolfpack have started 4-0, but have not faced a true test yet.

This should be a big game, I do think State will win though.

Game is at 12:00 on FOX Sports South, chat on this thread about the game and both teams.

[BlueintheFace]

How many points would JJ have if he took 30+ shots every game... my guess is more than Curry... Curry is simply a very good high volume shooter... Put Jon Scheyer in his role and I bet their numbers wouldn't be all that far off but Davidson would be a better team.

... but man can he knock down that three

[dukebluelemur]

I dunno, he has better moves to the basket than JJ, and I've never seen Jon show the range of Curry. Those options give him a lot more good looks than either of our guys got/get. Not saying I prefer him over Jon, but if you need someone to take a lot of shots, he has the tools.

[Jumbo]

How many points would JJ have if he took 30+ shots every game... my guess is more than Curry... Curry is simply a very good high volume shooter... Put Jon Scheyer in his role and I bet their numbers wouldn't be all that far off but Davidson would be a better team.

... but man can he knock down that three

That's not fair to Curry at all. He's also a high-percentage shooter. He has a very quick release and an uncanny ability to shoot on the move with little room. The guy is just a terrific player.

[loran16]

Agreed with Jumbo. Curry is believe it or not better than Redick, he can make the range shots just as well, and he can go inside better than Redick ever could.

Davidson wins, Curry is insane again, but this imo is a letdown for them. They SHOULD have beaten state by a bigger and more obvious margin, the game should not have been this close.

Next up for them: WVU. And then Purdue and Duke.

Purdue would beat them if they played like they did today, and i dont know about the mountaineers.

[BlueintheFace]

That's not fair to Curry at all. He's also a high-percentage shooter. He has a very quick release and an uncanny ability to shoot on the move with little room. The guy is just a terrific player.

yah, yah... i know, i just can't believe that the team is well served by him taking sooooo many shots. From what I have seen, he would be better served by doing a little more facilitating. With the exception of the Loyola game Curry has taken 23 shots/ game!!! You just can't help but wonder how some other Duke players, current and past, would do with free reign to take that many shots and run the show at a team like Davidson. He is special and definitely an All-American but too often people neglect HOW MUCH of the game is simply putting the ball in his hands... thats what really bothers me

[Jumbo]

yah, yah... i know, i just can't believe that the team is well served by him taking sooooo many shots. From what I have seen, he would be better served by doing a little more facilitating. With the exception of the Loyola game Curry has taken 23 shots/ game!!! You just can't help but wonder how some other Duke players, current and past, would do with free reign to take that many shots and run the show at a team like Davidson. He is special and definitely an All-American but too often people neglect HOW MUCH of the game is simply putting the ball in his hands... thats what really bothers me

But you also have to wonder how many players would even be able to attempt that many shots. Part of what makes Curry amazing is simply his ability to get off so many decent looks. Not a lot of players have that ability.

[BlueintheFace]

But you also have to wonder how many players would even be able to attempt that many shots. Part of what makes Curry amazing is simply his ability to get off so many decent looks. Not a lot of players have that ability.

I'll agree with that to an extent. My opinion is that there are 5-10 players every year who are capable of creating their own shots to the extent that Curry does. However, I am also willing to say that some of those players would be All-Americans too if they took 23 shots/ game. I'm not saying Curry is bad... I am, however, saying that he isn't quite as special a talent as many in the media make him out to be.

When you have free reign to take as many shots as you can make for yourself on a team like Davidson... you are going to be scoring a lot.

[Wander]

How many points would JJ have if he took 30+ shots every game... my guess is more than Curry... Curry is simply a very good high volume shooter... Put Jon Scheyer in his role and I bet their numbers wouldn't be all that far off but Davidson would be a better team.


Would Jon Scheyer carry his team to the Elite 8 and within a shot of defeating the national champions? And before anyone says that was last year and Curry had Jason Richards, realize that Curry is scoring more efficiently than last year, not less.

[BlueintheFace]

That's entirely too speculative a question IMO. Nobody knows how a player will do when he is told to be the man and carry the team.

All I will say is that Jon took 7.6 shots/game last year at 44.4%. Additionally, Jon has the ability to shoot the three at a high percentage, take the mid-range shot, and drive to the whole. I would argue that he has better vision than Curry.

He does not however have the athleticism to create in the way curry does, but JJ created an awful lot of shots for himself and Jon is a more athletic player than JJ was... take from that what you will.

My real point is that people should not overlook the impact of opportunity on Curry's game.

[pfrduke]

I'll agree with that to an extent. My opinion is that there are 5-10 players every year who are capable of creating their own shots to the extent that Curry does. However, I am also willing to say that some of those players would be All-Americans too if they took 23 shots/ game. I'm not saying Curry is bad... I am, however, saying that he isn't quite as special a talent as many in the media make him out to be.

When you have free reign to take as many shots as you can make for yourself on a team like Davidson... you are going to be scoring a lot.

Curry has 219 points this year on 141 shots. Coming in at 1.55 points per shot is excellent. Really excellent. Redick, for his career, was 1.45 (1.50 in his senior year, 1.46 in his junior year), which is also excellent. Curry is a high volume and high efficiency shooter. He may be taking 20 shots a game, but it's not to score 20 points - it's to score 31 points.

[pfrduke]

I should add, the rest of Davidson's team has scored 388 points on 336 shots, for a point/shot of 1.15. So Davidson is getting, on average, an extra four-tenths of a point every time Curry shoots the ball.

And of course, it should be noted that he's averaging about 6.5 assists a game, too. He's not completely ignoring his teammates out there. He's just really, really good, and more often than not, the better shot for Davidson is the one he takes.

[dukebluelemur]

I bet Curry makes more than 2 if hes given 18 3 attempts in a half... :eek:

[chrisheery]

Aren't we forgetting the JJ essentially did have free reign to shoot whenever he wanted and just couldn't get as many shots off as Curry does? Curry can get by almost anyone because he is an excellent ball handler and uses his shot fake before or during the dribble to get his first move started then can split defenders and still make difficult shots going to the hoop. He's just an amazing player. He would likely score 25-30 a game even on a team as talented as Duke's.

[Davidson09]

Was at the Davidson-NCState game yesterday, sat about 10 feet from the court.

A few things:

1) Max Paulhus Gosselin, one of our starters, our best defender, and probably the most intense guy on the team, was ejected in about 4 minutes into the game following a flagrant foul on NC State's Trevor Ferguson.

2) I've seen Stephen Curry play for a long time. I've always been impressed with his abilities. Yesterday, I was especially impressed with his ability to drive to the basket and score. He was going up against big men as well as guards.

3) The NC State bench got a technical foul at some point for arguing with the refs.

4) Our big men are becoming better and better at rebounding - we beat State on the boards by quite a lot.

5) We played an incredibly sloppy and ugly game. Without one of our crucial players. Yet we won. I'm excited about this team's potential. I know there are some (yes, even in Davidson's corners) that try and compare this team to the one form last March. But if you compare this team to the one a year ago, we are so much better. This team will only improve.

6) We have three big games left in the season before conference play starts - West Virginia on Tuesday (it's on ESPN at 7 pm - watch it!), Purdue, I believe on the 20th on CBS, and Duke on January 7. Honestly, I don't think we'll win all 3. I'd be happy to win 2. Will be disappointed if we don't win any.

7) As per the JJ-Steph comparisons: As great as JJ was in the college game, Steph's game is more multi-dimensional. He is proving that he can find ways to score both from outside as well as inside; he's averaging 31 a game. His 2 career highs have both come this year to Oklahoma and NC State (who, btw, talent-wise, should be no lower than 4th in the ACC). Steph is also racking up about 7 assists a game. Not bad. When Steph scores between 25-35, he'll be dishing it out a lot more and gathering up 6-9 assists. When Steph scores 35+, his assists will go down, for sure.

[dukelifer]

yah, yah... i know, i just can't believe that the team is well served by him taking sooooo many shots. From what I have seen, he would be better served by doing a little more facilitating. With the exception of the Loyola game Curry has taken 23 shots/ game!!! You just can't help but wonder how some other Duke players, current and past, would do with free reign to take that many shots and run the show at a team like Davidson. He is special and definitely an All-American but too often people neglect HOW MUCH of the game is simply putting the ball in his hands... thats what really bothers me

Curry is an elite college player- no question. Beautiful shot and amazingly quick release. He is now becoming better off the dribble. He just is maturing. He was a skinny little kid in high school - and people did not think he could play at this level. His is growing into a man and is becoming a star. He would be a star on any college team. Even Lebron took time to watch him play yesterday- that is high respect. Duke will have its hands full when he comes to town. I expect he will put on a show on those soft Cameron rims.

[davekay1971]

My wife and I were at the State-Davidson game. Thanks, KD for the tickets in the 3rd row. It was fun to be wearing State gear and sitting among the Davidson blue bloods (had the director of admissions and his wife sitting next to us). Some thoughts on that game:

1) Stephen Curry is just an awesome scorer. The 3 he hit towards the end of the game, from about 25-28 feet, which really put the game away, was phenomenal. A clutch shot, totally fearless, when he'd missed 2 or 3 shots in a row before that. That had Lebron, who was about 20 feet away from us, standing up in awe.

2) State is going to be okay. They desperately need some help shooting outside, which would open up their offense tremendously. But they're going to be all right - Curry went for 42 and State was right there despite Courtney Fells tweaking his shoulder and ankle and not contributing much.

3) The way the guy laid out Ferguson was about as ugly a foul as you'll see. I'm glad the kid got ejected - these hard fouls from behind on breakaways need to be harshly punished...there's too much chance for serious injury on those plays, even if no harm is intended.

4) Cocktails and beer served at TWC arena for a noon college hoops game?! AWESOME!

5) Speaking of Fergie, not sure why Sidney kept putting him on Curry. It was painfully clear that there was no way Fergie was going to keep up with Steph. I think I literally saw Steph drooling every time Fergie was put on him. It'll be interesting to see Nolan checking him.

Good game, fun game, close game, but the Davidson crowd is about as genteel as the Wake crowd. That's not a compliment, folks. With the exception of a few plays, and the last couple minutes of the game, it was quiet in there. Everyone was sitting. I felt bad standing because the old folks behind me never did, and I felt like I was disturbing their view. The crowd noise was basically limited to polite clapping for Davidson and "You're missing a good game" shouts at the refs. It makes me ache to be back in the student section at Cameron. You just have to recognize how good our crowd is, and what a special atmosphere we have at CIS.

[jv001]

As much as I hate to say it, Steph Curry is a better player than JJ. He has taken over the point guard duties and still scores 25-30pts game regularly. His release makes it possible for him to get his shot off against anyone. He must get that from his dad who was a terrific shooter in college and NBA. The Davidson game will be very interesting. Go Duke!

[Davidson09]

- I absolutely agree that CIS' atmosphere is in a league of its own. Although the students are pretty vocal, a large portion of the Davidson fans were alumni/non-students, content with sitting down and being spectators for the most part. The atmosphere is a lot better at Belk Arena in that respect; a significantly larger portion of the crowd is a vocal student body.

- I'm in no way excusing what happened with the flagrant foul, but I should make the case that Max Paulhus Gosselin meant no harm to Trevor Ferguson. He misjudged the timing of his hard foul, and the result was an unfortunate circumstance that warranted his ejection. So please know that we at Davidson also acknowledge and accept the refs' call. We hope Ferguson is all right, and ready to compete. Max is a good kid, loves to play the game, and wouldn't hurt anyone intentionally like that. It's sad (but understandable, at the same time) when a guy is judged by highlight clips like that, and not the whole story. We all know Gerald's a good kid who likes to compete. His foul to Tyler a couple of years ago looked pretty bad, but we know he's a better person (and player) than that. Alright, enough about that.

- Tough loss to Michigan, but you have to hand it to them, they stuck to Belein's motion offense system very well. Duke shouldn't have been so trigger happy from the three; there were instances where taking it inside was a possibility but someone took a three instead. Looking for those higher percentage shots is key.

- One last plug: Davidson vs. West Virginia. Tomorrow (Tuesday) night. 7 pm. ESPN. Madison Square Garden.

Go 'Cats and Go Duke.

[dukelifer]

As much as I hate to say it, Steph Curry is a better player than JJ. He has taken over the point guard duties and still scores 25-30pts game regularly. His release makes it possible for him to get his shot off against anyone. He must get that from his dad who was a terrific shooter in college and NBA. The Davidson game will be very interesting. Go Duke!
Tonight it looked like he was out of his league. I thought that perhaps if he played in a league in which he was going against high caliber players night in and night out - he would wear out like JJ did. I am not so sure this is not correct. JJ was abused through a season. One wonders how fresh Curry would be after playing in the ACC or Big East night in and night out. But Curry showed something that is rare- and that is the ability to rise above a poor shooting night- and be clutch when it counts. That is what will make him a high draft pick this year! One clear example of a kid that no one saw coming out of high school. There are a few great players that were still boys at 17.