Posted on Sun, Mar. 30, 2008

IN MY OPINION

Curry's a hit for Prime Time

Davidson star garners attention in all corners

TOM SORENSEN

DETROIT --

Stephen Curry arrived in Detroit on Wednesday. Since then, he has scored 33 points, pushed his team to a victory against Wisconsin and been called STE-ven, Stef-FAHN and STEF-en.

The proper pronunciation, of course, is Prime Time (PRIME-time). Trainer Ray Beltz gave Curry the nickname, and it stuck.

"I don't exactly know why," Curry says.

Teammate Jason Richards looks at Curry with utter bewilderment.

Gosh, why would anybody call Curry "Prime Time?"

He spends more time on ESPN than Dick Vitale.

His name has appeared in every U.S. publication but GQ, Redbook and the UNC Charlotte Alumni Newsletter.

A woman who works with Detroit Mercy, the host school of the Midwest Regional, walks through a Ford Field hallway Saturday, turns to her college-aged friends and says, "I can't wait to see Stef-EN Curry."

And she wassoexcited!

The five starters from the team that Davidson will play today, Kansas, are a mere 20 yards away. Some will be selected in the first round of the NBA draft. They're the rock, chalk top seed. They were famous first.

But in little more than a week, Curry has eclipsed them. He has eclipsed them all. When you look at the NCAA basketball tournament, it is him you see.

You see him go for 40 points against Gonzaga, 30 against Georgetown and 33 against Wisconsin. You see the Step Back Jack 3s and the how'd he do that 2s and think, "Yes, he's great, but isn't he out past his bedtime?"

If you dropped the best players in the tournament on a playground and had no idea who they were, Curry would be voted Guy We Most Want to Guard. He doesn't look ferocious. He looks 15.

"I thought he was a high school player," says Kansas forward Darrell Arthur, who met Curry in Dallas last summer at the tryout for the Team USA under-19 squad. "Then I saw him play."

The youthfulness enhances his appeal. He doesn't look as if he is supposed to do the things he does. We all watch, no matter where we live or where we went to school, because we can't wait to see what he'll do next.

"To me, he's the best player in the NCAA tournament," LeBron James says before his Cleveland Cavaliers play Detroit on Saturday night.

"He's been lights out," says former N.C. State and NBA legend David Thompson.

"He put this team on his back," says Sean May, the injured Charlotte Bobcats forward who led North Carolina to the 2005 NCAA championship.

On a Denver sports talk show Friday, Thompson picked the Wildcats to beat the Badgers. He'll be in Denver a few more days. He wouldn't mind running into the folks in the studio who ridiculed his pick.

May had Wisconsin in the Final Four. And he still loves Curry.

"Everybody is talking about him," May says.

Nine of the 18 questions asked of Kansas players during their news conference Saturday are about Curry. Four of the first five questions to Kansas coach Bill Self are about Curry.

If presidential candidates drive to Davidson to Curry favor before the N.C. primary, if Curry shows up in the caboose with George Clooney and Renee Zellweger to promote "Leatherheads," if LeBron gets excited because Prime Time shows up at one of his games, will anybody be surprised?

Curry would.

"It's nothing special that I do," he says.

When the DVD comes out, the action figures go on sale and the tour begins, maybe he'll understand. IN MY OPINION

Davidson Elite 8 History

MARCH 15, 1969: North Carolina 87, Davidson 85: After a controversial charge call gave North Carolina the ball, Charlie Scott hit an 18-foot jump shot at the buzzer to give the Tar Heels the win in College Park, Md.

MARCH 16, 1968: North Carolina 70, Davidson 66: Davidson led 34-28 at halftime but couldn't hold the lead at Raleigh's Reynolds Coliseum. The Wildcats shot 29 percent in the second half. -- Kevin Cary