NCAA Basketball: Revisiting Stephen Curry’s strangest college game ever
By Karl Heiser
The Aftermath
Immediately following the game, Patsos was criticized by fans and media for an approach to the game that seemed ludicrously selfish and unsportsmanlike – throwing the game away just to troll one player. After the game, Jimmy Patsos defended himself: “We had to play against an NBA player tonight. Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I’m a history major. Are they going to remember we held him scoreless or lost by 30?” Essentially, the coach admitted that his only goal entering the game was to keep Curry from scoring. Needless to say, the media had a field day with that one.
To add to the absurdity of it all, Patsos was actually correct. Steph Curry would finish the season as a consensus First Team All-American who led the nation in scoring with 28.6 points per game while the Greyhounds finished 2008-2009 with a 12-20 record. Anyone who looks at Curry’s old Davidson box scores won’t see the mediocrity of that Loyola team or the eccentricity of Jimmy Patsos. They’ll just see that the greatest shooter of all time scored zero points.
Jimmy Patsos went on to coach four more seasons at Loyola, coaching the Greyhounds to a MAAC Tournament title and NCAA Tournament qualification in 2011-2012. After Loyola, he coached at Siena for five seasons before resigning in 2018 amidst misconduct allegations. The NCAA levied restrictions against Patsos in March 2020 for infractions while at Siena that will keep him from coaching for three years.
Next. Early mid-major power rankings for 2020-21. dark
As for Stephen Curry, things returned to normal in his next game and he dropped 44 on NC State. Davidson would finish the season 27-8 and win the SoCon regular season title but would ultimately miss the NCAA Tournament. Curry would be drafted 7th overall by the Golden State Warriors in the 2009 NBA Draft. You probably know he did alright for himself after that.