Here's something to kick around: the more talented you are, the less likely you are to be a great basketball player. The catch, of course, is how you define great.
If greatness is defined by physical ability, then the argument is moot. But if you look at basketball as a series of adaptations to physical challenges, then the less talented player has to make more adaptations to continue competing at a higher level than does the more talented player.
You could argue this case with Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain, Reggie Miller vs. Michael Jordan, or with Larry Bird or Magic Johnson vs. any number of their contemporaries.
You could, one supposes, start to make that argument about Davidson's Stephen Curry.
He's not overwhelming physically. He's of average size, and while he is quick, he's not overwhelmingly quick like, say, Ricky Green used to be, or Ricky Price, for that matter, or hundreds of guys who are quicker and faster and who jump higher - none of whom hang 29 points a game and seven assists.
What Curry has grasped is in many ways the essence of the game - combine movement+balance and you can keep up with a superior opponent, and often defeat him.
That's what we saw Wednesday night in Cameron. Though Duke did a fine job on Curry in the first half, you could sense that he was getting ready to break out, and in the second half, he did, leading his team to cut a 26 point lead down to eight and making Duke sweat. He didn't pull it off, but you couldn't rule it out until the clock made it pretty much impossible.
Watching him bob in and out of traffic with the ball, taking a quick step back to create space to get a shot off, watching how cautiously Duke defended him, running everyone but Brian Zoubek at him, on occasion even double teaming him as he advanced the ball downcourt - he's a superbly alert player, and a guy who can find lots of ways to knock defenders off balance.
But as incredibly impressive as he is individually (the only knock on his game against Duke was turnovers - he had seven to his eight assists), we were just as impressed with Davidson's defense. For all the talk about how they're just not as good as last year - okay, fine, maybe so.
But their defense was superb. Duke got away from them for a bit, building a 26 point lead, but Davidson cut that down. And while a lot of it was Curry's efforts, of course, a lot of it also was their very fine team defense.
Like Michigan and Virginia Tech, at least for 24 minutes, Davidson paid more attention to stopping Duke's penetration than to the three point shooting. It worked to an extent - Duke shot 42.4% overall but was 8-20 from behind the line. This is as opposed to 6-16 against Virginia Tech, 1-12 against Loyola, and 7-33 against Michigan. But Davidson seemed to be everywhere when Duke drove, even, stuffing a Gerald Henderson layup, which doesn't happen very often.
As good as Davidson was, though, Duke was better. They limited Curry to 1-8 from three point range, and ran just about everyone at him. When he got past the first defender, there was always someone waiting for him. Curry had some gorgeous passes, but negated most of them with turnovers.
Other than Andrew Lovedale, who had a tremendous game with 15 points, seven boards, and four blocks, no one else from Davidson really did much and the Wildcats only got 23 points between eight other players. Curry, by the way, added eight boards, and Steve Rossiter, who only scored four points, grabbed 10 boards himself.
It's a tribute to both Stephen Curry and Bob McKillop that they can take such an unbalanced squad and find ways to compete. It's back to motion and balance, or rather, knocking the other team off balance at any rate. Davidson does it very well.
Duke also does it quite well, and usually through defense, stifling everyone except for Curry and Lovedale. They forced 17 turnovers and also outrebounded Davidson 37-31, and kept them under control on the offensive boards, winning that battle14-8.
Like Curry, Jon Scheyer is not the most talented player in the world, but like Curry, he's plenty talented enough, and also like Curry, a lot of it is between his ears. When the lead was trimmed to eight, Scheyer got a rebound, then a free throw, then a three point shot, then a pair of free throws. He also got a steal in there somewhere as well. By the time he was done, the lead had nearly doubled, to 77-64 and there were just 33 seconds left in the game.
All in all, as much heart as Curry showed in the waning minutes of the game, Scheyer matched it, and then some.
Duke won by 12, but it wasn't an easy game or anything, even with a 26 point lead, and it won't get easier against Florida State on Saturday. But a win is a win, and 13-1 looks pretty good.
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