This season Davidson plays two Top-5 teams and a Top-15 team in the first month: UNC (Nov. 14), Duke (Dec. 1) and UCLA (Dec. 18). You’ll hear about UNC’s Ty Lawson, Duke’s Greg Paulus and UCLA’s Darren Collison but Davidson sophomore Stephen Curry may be best guard on floor.

“Immediately, I thought he was going to be a very special player for us. You can just watch the way he carries himself. You can watch the way he approaches an individual workout. I made it very clear that I believed in him and that I knew it was going to happen.

”When word spread that a freshman was putting up 20 plus points per game, Stephen was an instant celebrity on the intimate Davidson campus. The youthful Davidson team, predicted to finish third in the Southern Conference last year, was winning like the veteran NCAA tournament team of the prior year. Soon attendance at home games was up, and Stephen with his boyish looks was the new face of the team.

Stephen was virtually clueless of this until one day a fellow student bumped into him in the hallway. The student was reading a story about Stephen in the school newspaper and not paying any attention to where he was going. When the student knocked into Stephen, he looked up at him, looked back down at a picture of Stephen in the paper, looked back up and said, “Oh, it’s you."

Stephen played it off with the coolness of a veteran. He looked down at the box score and acted as if it was news to him that Davidson won last night and a guy named “Stephen Curry” scored 21 points. “I guess we got the spotlight on our campus,” he said. “It’s a pretty cool experience to be recognized for what you do on the court. I get to share that with my teammates.”Critics may discount his accomplishments last year based on the strength of Davidson’s opponents in the overlooked Southern Conference. But it’s difficult to dismiss the fact that only two freshmen finished the regular season in the top 20 in scoring average and the other plays for the Seattle Supersonics right now.While Kevin Durant seems destined for stardom in the NBA, Stephen will continue to learn the point guard position from his buddy and teammate, Jason Richards. Though the pair hung out before the season started, Stephen continues to surprise Richards with his play. “Stef had a lot of potential coming into this year,” said Richards, who was ranked second in the country in assists per game last season. “But what he’s done is unbelievable.”

Every game Stephen has played at Davidson, his dad Dell has watched with the critical eye of a father, coach and former NBA player. Even Dell, the former three-point ace who played in the NBA from 1988-2002, recognizes the passing of the torch from father to son.

“He can handle the ball better than I could. He’s a better defender. I was taller and stronger at this point,” Dell said about his son. “But I grew two inches in college. I was 6-foot-3 and I obviously put on weight and got stronger. I think that he will do the same. Right now he’s farther along than I was in college.”