Its 4:00 am on Monday morning, heading out to the airport shortly to fly back to Long Island. its been a fun trip. I'd say of the six games I witnessed, only two, the two games with Davidson were really good games. Yes, North Carolina looked awesome in their two wins, but the two Davidson games, they were special (yesterday's Arkansas game was over when NC started out 9-0). There are certain things you can say you have done in your life, outside of the special things with your family which are obvious, that you will be able to look back on when they are mentioned that you can say, "Yes, I was there". But to be able to say that you did this with two longtime friends (and your friend's wife who is terrific) on a great trip, that's extra special.
Well, yes, I was there to see Davidson come back in both their games to beat higher seeded opponents. But the Georgetown game was extra special. Being a life Long Island native (I was originally going to use boy instead of native, but alas at 42, that doesn't work anymore), I have watched a lot of Big East games in my day, live or on TV. I can't ever recollect any team coming back from a 17 point deficit to the mighty Georgetown Hoyas (I have to go and do some homework on that). Yet, I witnessed Davidson do exactly just that.
Its a tribute to Bob McKillop's philosophy of ball movement that basically wore down two teams, Gonzaga and Georgetown. Its because the Wildcat players continually move, continually pass, look for weaknesses that eventually the other team just basically wears out on defense. Yes, Georgetown had 20 turnovers, but much of that credit should go to an underrated Wildcat defensive effort, And yes, Georgetown was abysmal in free throw shooting. But remember, Georgetown shot 63 percent for the game. But if you watched the game yesterday for the first 25 minutes (at least), Georgetown's swallowing defense contained Stephen Curry, Jason Richards and friends. Curry only had 5 points after the first 25 minutes of the game. But basically in those last 15 minutes, Davidson started getting Curry open, and Curry started hitting those shots. And we got to witness one of the most amazing performances at the end of a game that you will ever see...by a sophomore no less.
But it wasn't just Curry. Richards had 20 points on several drives to the basket. Andrew Lovedale had another solid game with 11 points and 5 rebounds. And Davidson took Roy Hibbert out of the game and was able to rebound with the Hoyas. It wasn't a one man show, but one man did stand out. Curry is an amazing talent. Its not that he is just able to shoot, he can drive to the basket. He can find the open man (Curry had 5 assists). And he works hard. He is in constant motion.
It was a pleasure to watch this game. Well, time to go catch another flight. I'll talk more about the other games from Sunday probably tomorrow.
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