Steph Curry Takes It Easy

Stephen Curry is the nation's top scorer in NCAA Divison I basketball. Last year, as you may recall, he led his Davidson College team to an Elite 8 appearence where they just missed a game-winning three pointer as time expired to lose to the eventual champion Kansas Jayhawks.

This season, Curry's junior season, has proven to be much of the same. The young man went into yesterday's game against Loyola (MD) averaging over 35 points per game. He scored an astonishing 44 points on national televison against a very impressive Oklahoma squad last week.

In Tuesday night's game, the one aganist Loyola, he decided his services weren't needed.

By that, I don't mean he didn't bother playing. He did - 32 minutes worth. He just didn't bother scoring. I'm not kidding. He did not score.

Credit Loyola's defense? Well, no. They gave up 78 points and lost by 30, so I'm not sure, but I don't think their defense can be credited.

I give all the credit to their stupidity. Loyola ran a defense seldem seen in the NCAA ranks, it is more a defense reserved for the dusty, dim courts of grade-school basketball. They ran a triangle-and-two defense all game long. Those unfamilar with the defense should know that this defense is designed to defend against a team with two superstars and three lesser players. It frees up two of your better defenders to guard the superstars man-on-man, and the 3 other defenders stay in a triangle zone around the key. The triangle zone protects the lane against the superstars that may get by the first defender and also keeps tabs on the three lesser players.

So you see, Loyola ran this defense, but instead of the two free defenders (ones not in the triangle zone) on two separate players, they both double-teamed Steph Curry on ever possesion.
What did Curry do? The answer is simple: Nothing. He literally ran into the corner and stood there. The scary part was that the two Loyola defenders stood there too making sure he didn't score. See the problem with that then becomes the rest of your defense. Davidson essentially played 4-3 on every offensive possesion because Curry and the two defenders were busy doing absolutely nothing in the corner.

Good plan, Loyola. Curry only ended up taking 3 shots, missing all three. His team didn't need him to score - a fact that will prove beneficial as the season progresses. Davidson now knows they can win, and win big, without their best player which makes them even stronger as a unit. It says a lot about the role players for Davidson who beat down Loyola by 30, albeit with a man advantage on offense.

But I think it says more about Steph Curry. He saw the defense they were running. Recognized it. And exploited it. Ya, he scores points like I eat fruit snacks, but on this day, he didn't need to - nor did he want to. He wanted to win, and he knew his best chance at winning was to stand around and take it easy on offense and allow his teammates to take it to Loyola. He didn't care about his individual statistics. He just wanted the win, and he got it.

Sometimes you have to know when doing nothing at all is actually doing more good than bad. I know it. Steph knows it. Take it easy sometimes. Good things happen.