NCAA Basketball: Revisiting Stephen Curry's strangest college game ever

NCAA Basketball: Revisiting Stephen Curry’s strangest college game ever

By Karl Heiser | May 18, 2020

RALEIGH, NC - MARCH 23: Stephen Curry #30 of the Davidson Wildcats looks on against the Georgetown Hoyas during the 2nd round of the East Regional of the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at RBC Center on March 23, 2008 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Wildcats defeated the Hoyas 74-70. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

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The Player: Stephen Curry

Entering the early-season contest against the Loyola (MD) Greyhounds, junior guard Stephen Curry was already a household name. In the season prior, he led the 10-seed Davidson Wildcats to an Elite Eight appearance in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, where they would fall to eventual champion Kansas. Over the tournament run, Steph averaged 32 points, 3.5 assists, and 3.3 rebounds a game while upsetting Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsin. The two-point loss to Kansas snapped a 25-game win streak. Davidson’s Cinderella run popularized Curry as the ‘Baby-Faced Assassin’ and solidified his status as a consensus Second Team All-American.

The beginning of the 2008-2009 season saw Curry pick up right where he left off. Over the first five games of the season, he averaged 35 points, 7.8 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 3.6 steals per game on 51.4% from the field and 45.1% from deep. This string of games included a career-high 44-point performance in a loss to Oklahoma that came in the second round of the 2008 NIT Season Tip-Off.

Entering the Loyola game, one of Davidson’s two consolation games in the NIT Season Tip-Off, Curry’s 35 points per game led the nation and Davidson was 4-1, hoping to build on the previous season’s Elite Eight run.

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