Home > Area Sports Blog > Archives > 2008 > March > 23
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Davidson stealing the show
Members of the Wildcats basketball team came out to watch some of North Carolina’s 51-26 halftime beating of Arkansas. What awaited the Wildcats was a standing ovation from the RBC Center crowd. Two rows behind my seat, Stephen Curry hugged his mother, father and other family members. Some players signed autographs. Rocky Mount Academy graduate Mike Schmitt walked up some steps in the crowd and waived to fans.
Pulling off the upset of the day and perhaps the tournament doesn’t get you all-access. Davidson players Thomas Sander, Jason Richards and Stephen Rossiter decided to sit in the first row of seats that have been reserved for some media members. Even though there were a number of open seats, a security guard asked the three to move to seats behind the basket with the rest of their teammates. “That’s Jason Richards and Thomas Sander!” a Davidson fan told the security guard, obviously baffled that the players did not have freedom to choose their seats. The players walked over and sat with the rest of their teammates and watched the drubbing the Tar Heels are putting on the Razorbacks.
Speaking of the Tar Heels, Deon Thompson is looking good. He is 5-for-5 and has scored 10 points in the first half. The Tar Heels need a challenge. Doesn’t look like that will happen today.
The RBC Center videoboard often has trivia questions during timeouts of the games. During the first half they had a “Guess the school fight song” trivia. Playing loud above North Carolina coach Roy Williams’ huddle was the Kansas fight song. Bet he knew the answer. He might as well have answered it himself. This team can coach itself to the final 20 minutes of this victory-to-be.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Colleges
Davidson-Georgetown postgame observations
Wow. Amazing. What can you say? Stephen Curry scored 25 points in the second half to lead Davidson to a 74-70 upset of No. 2 Georgetown. Davidson is in the Sweet 16. Guess you can’t keep a good shooter down for long. Curry finished 8 of 21 from the field.
Curry’s father, Dell, was sitting two rows directly behind me. Dell Curry made some big shots in his NBA career but his son’s accomplishment is amazing. Georgetown looked as if they had Davdson under control. They led by 17 points with 17:52 remaining in the contest.
Curry made his last five field goal attempts and iced the game at the free-throw line.
-Former Rocky Mount Academy standout Mike Schmitt’s parents are in attendance. They watched as their son - a Davidson walk-on - celebrated on the court with his teammates. I went over to David Schmitt after the game and he asked me, “Can you believe this.” His wife, Misty, sang “Sweet Caroline” with the rest of the Davidson fan base as the school celebrated another NCAA Tournament victory. Georgetown has been to five Final Fours. It will be at least another season before they return.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Davidson-Georgetown observations
- I’m normally not starstruck. My favorite New York Knick and perhaps basketball player of alltime, Patrick Ewing, is in the audience to see his son, Patrick Ewing Jr. play for Georgetown. I had a lifesize poster of Ewing (he stands at seven feet tall - I’m only 5-foot-6) in my room when I lived in Queens, New York. I interviewed him when he was an assistant coach for the Washington Wizards. I was in college then and the Wizards had training camp at UNCW. Doc Rivers, coach of the Boston Celtics is here too. His son Jeremiah is a sophomore guard for the Hoyas.
_ Georgetown 38, Davidson 27 at halftime. The Hoyas are doing a great job of defending sweet-shooting guard Stephen Curry. Curry is only 2-for-8 for five points. Rivers and Jessie Sappa have been guarding Curry the most in the first half. Curry missed his first four shots. The first two - both 3-point attempts - were halfway down, but rimmed out. He scored his first two points on a floater 10 minutes into the game. He did not score again until he knocked down a 3-pointer with less than a minute remaining in the half for the final points of the opening half.
Curry is not the only star having a sub-par outing. Georgetown’s 7-foot-2 center, Roy Hibbert has two points in only five minutes of action. He earned two quick fouls and watched the majority of the first half from the bench. Backup Vernon Macklin has performed well in Hibbert’s absence. Macklin has a team-high eight points in 13 minutes.
If Curry does not get going soon, the Wildcats will be in trouble. They have few scoring options in the post. The Hoyas’ are winning the battle physically. Their 66 percent shooting in the first half also shows their ability to put the ball in the basket.
Beating the Hoyas is going to be a tough task for anybody in this tournament.
Other observations: Hibbert received a cold reception from the RBC Center crowd during the introduction of the starting lineups. Wanna guess why? The partisan North Carolina crowd doesn’t seem to have forgotten last year’s loss to Georgetown. The crowd cheered Hibbert’s second foul with enthusiasm.
Who has the edge in cheerleaders? We’re not going by looks. The edge goes to Davidson. Their cheerleaders are louder. I’m sitting right in front of Davidson’s section and at one point someone yelled during the Hoyas’ performance during a timeout “We can’t here you.” Then the Hoyas cheerleaders made a bigger mistake. They left the letter ‘A’ on the court after they were done with the performance. A referee noticed and gave the ‘A’ to the Davidson cheerleaders. Oops.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Woody Durham will not attend local golf tournament
Cell phone service is spotty in the RBC Center’s media room. I went up to the first level Saturday afternoon to use my phone and the voice of the North Carolina Tar Heels, Woody Durham, was walking off an elevator. I asked him what he knew about next month’s celebrity golf tournament at Northgreen Country Club.
Durham said that he had been invited, but will not be able to attend because of a Rams Club meeting he is committed to attending. He did thank me for asking about it and seemed genuine in his interest in the tournament. Guess the tournament just falls on the wrong day.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Colleges
