Davidson’s magical run to the Elite Eight, which also served as Steph Curry’s arrival on the national scene, was nine years ago. Curry, now a two-time NBA MVP and NBA champion, has become one of the biggest basketball stars in the world, which is a long departure from when he was “Dell’s kid” lighting up the 2008 NCAA Tournament.
Curry spoke with Dime Magazine earlier this week about his thoughts on this year’s tournament, Davidson’s run in 2008 and offered his advice to mid-major schools that find themselves on a Cinderella run through the NCAA Tournament.
How much do you still get a chance keep up with college hoops, especially at tournament time?
Throughout the season I watch as many Davidson games as I can, watch all the marquee matchups if we’re not playing on the same night. And then obviously, like the rest of the world, tuning in for tournament time just to kinda follow all the different storylines and what not. Looking forward to another great March Madness run and, yeah, it’ll be fun.
Do you have any thoughts on a pick for who can win this year?
It’s all about getting hot at the right time and my brother is obviously a Blue Devil and had some great years there, and Duke, the way they turned it on in the ACC Tournament, it’d be tough not to pick them right now.
What are your favorite moments from that Davidson tournament run in 2008?
It’s really hard to pick just one. It was during my sophomore year. It was an unbelievable year to begin with, just all of the powerhouse teams that we played and the experiences that we got in the regular season, and then getting to the tournament, you know, playing Gonzaga, Georgetown, Wisconsin and then Kansas. I would probably say the best moment was just walking into Ford Field in Detroit and playing in front of an entire football stadium with a court right in the middle. We’re from Davidson, we don’t get that experience ever. So, that was one of those things you’ll never forget. Just walking down the tunnel to that court on that stage. It was just unreal.
What is it like being on a mid-major team making a deep tournament run? How surreal is it to all of a sudden be thrust into the national spotlight and be everyone’s favorite team, and how do you stay focused on, “OK, we’re still here to play basketball?”
You gotta rely just on the foundation you set as a team just before all the hoopla starts. Like I was talking about, during the regular season we played everybody — Carolina, Duke, UCLA, NC State. We played a bunch of other games that kind of got us prepared for that kind of environment, and we had confidence in ourselves knowing that we could beat anybody in the country. And we were ready to prove it. When you get into the tournament, you kinda get wrapped up in the on-court mission, but you still can enjoy the fanfare I call it in between games. It was the first time a lot of us were doing interviews and stuff in between games. You’ve got to enjoy that part of it, but the focus and the confidence on the court never changed.
If you could give any advice to kids, especially on a mid-major team, about handling the tournament, what would you tell them? Is it to enjoy the moment?
Yeah, it’s really just do the same things that got you there. There’s no real recipe for succeeding in the tournament. You obviously need to bring your best game, but whatever recipe you had throughout the regular season to go through your conference schedule to develop that team identity you need to win. You gotta bring that same attitude. You don’t need to do anything special, per se, just have confidence that you can win.
