Steph Curry: Winthrop basketball’s ‘one that got away’

What if Stephen Curry had picked Winthrop?

Curry’s fearless 3-point shooting has shown the NBA a different way of playing basketball, one that doesn’t require seven feet of height. But unlike many of the game’s legends, Curry didn’t suit up for an NCAA powerhouse during college.

Instead, he played at mid-major Davidson. This wasn’t entirely by design; no major programs offered him a scholarship. Winthrop did.

At the time of Curry’s recruitment, around 2005, Winthrop was the country’s preeminent small conference basketball power. Gregg Marshall’s Eagles were bullying the Big South, winning the league’s NCAA tournament bid five times in his first seven years let’s in Rock Hill and annually threatening upsets in the NCAA tournament. Picking Winthrop as a first round winner was chic March Madness bracket practice in the mid-2000s.

Randy Peele was Marshall’s top assistant and the Eagles’ main recruiter. He began watching Curry in the spring of 2005. Besides touting its sustained run of success, Winthrop also leaned on Peele’s relationship with Curry’s father, former Charlotte Hornet, Dell Curry.

“I had coached at Virginia Tech,” said Peele. “The connection was that Dell had played at Virginia Tech, I knew Dell… I just tried to develop a relationship.”

There was another school that was hard after Curry: Davidson.

Coach Bob McKillop saw a boyish 6-foot-1, 160-pound prospect that could evolve into a very good college player. He hoped no one else spotted the same flash of potential in the future NBA All-Star.

“You’re always wondering who else is watching him,” said McKillop.

Curry considered Winthrop, but he never visited the campus. He committed to Davidson at the conclusion of a home visit in September of 2005, signing with the school shortly thereafter.

“Truth be told, if he had waited, would it have been different? Maybe,” speculates Peele. “The reason he went to the level that he went to was because of his size. What they didn’t realize is that he’s an assassin that looks like a choirboy. He doesn’t look like he’s tough, but he’s got an extremely tough mentality.”

McKillop’s Wildcats had posted five straight winning seasons, but they weren’t the NCAA tourney regular that Winthrop was.

Still, even Winthrop was a bit late to the party. Curry felt wanted by a Davidson program that had seen something early where so many other coaches missed completely.

“I think he saw the vision and the dreams that my father had for Steph and for Davidson,” said current Davidson assistant coach Matt McKillop, who played for his dad in the mid-2000s. “I think Steph was very impressed by the magnitude of those visions and that dream.”

The circumstances

Guessing at Curry’s potential impact in a Winthrop uniform requires a consideration of the circumstances at the two schools headed into his freshman season, 2006-07.

Coming off its sixth NCAA tournament, Winthrop was well stocked at guard. Chris Gaynor - who started a school record 129 games over four years - and Michael Jenkins - who played in a school record 131 games during the same stretch - are two of the best the school’s ever had.

“That would have been quite a dilemma for Gregg Marshall because he had a veteran team,” said The Herald’s former sports editor, Gary McCann, who covered Winthrop closely during Marshall and Peele’s coaching reigns. “Whose minutes does Steph Curry take? And maybe he would have taken over.”

At Davidson, Curry entered a very different backcourt scenario.

In 2005-06, the Wildcats won the Southern Conference tournament title, but graduated five seniors and their top-three scorers, creating a vacuum Curry could fill.

“I don’t think McKillop realized how good he was until he played his first game,” said Peele. “None of us did.”

Curry the freshman started 33 games, shot 40 percent from 3-point range and scored 21.5 points per contest, second nationally among college rookies.

“Stephen, before we even played a game had earned (his teammates’) respect because of the way he was as a person and the talent he has as a player,” said McKillop. “He was so well accepted by his teammates. That’s, I think, the defining moment in what became an illustrious career.”

The next two seasons, Curry led the Wildcats to the NCAA tournament twice, including a Cinderella Elite Eight run in 2008 that made the baby-faced 3-point marksman a household name. Curry averaged 26 and 28 points per game those two seasons.

“Our offense was built around the ability to be skilled, and be unselfish. And Steph fit every aspect of it because of his skill level, but also because of his team orientation,” said McKillop.

Winthrop’s success also continued; the Eagles made the NCAA tournament twice in its first three years under Peele, who was promoted to head coach after Marshall moved to Wichita State following the 2006-07 season.

Having Curry, “probably would have helped us being a Sweet 16, or Elite Eight team. We always could defend, but our offensive efficiency wasn’t where it needed to be,” said Mantoris Robinson, a Winthrop standout during that era.

That Cinderella Elite Eight run by the 2007-08 Wildcats could have easily been Winthrop’s.

Residual benefits

Curry’s impact on Davidson wasn’t fully felt until after he left for the NBA following his junior season.

He’s become one of the league’s premier names in the years since, averaging 22.4 points, helping the previously hapless Golden State Warriors to their first NBA title in 40 years and winning back to back NBA MVPs, the second of which came via the league’s first ever unanimous vote.

Davidson has reaped the residual benefits through strengthened name and brand recognition.

“Many of our sports have seen an increased interest from high school students all over the country, and it may be a high school athlete calling and saying, ‘I’m interested in learning more about Davidson College,’” said Wildcats athletic director Jim Murphy.

Davidson basketball has thrived even in the absence of its once-in-a-lifetime player.

The Wildcats have played in three NCAA tournaments in the last four years and successfully negotiated the move up to the more difficult Atlantic 10 Conference, winning the league’s regular season title in the first year after the jump.

Davidson opened a new $15 million practice facility, signed an apparel and uniform deal with Under Armour - the brand that makes Curry’s signature shoe - and has experienced an enrollment bump, though Murphy was hesitant to attribute that solely to the Curry phenomenon.

“I don’t know if those things would have been possible if he hadn’t gone on to accomplish all he has since leaving Davidson,” said Matt McKillop.

The flip side

Fifty miles south, Winthrop basketball hasn’t experienced the same sunny days.

By 2009, the Eagles’ offensive efficiency had dropped from 46th nationally (according to KenPom.com) under Marshall in 2007 to 316th. The Eagles’ 2009 squad shot 28.4 from 3-point range. It’s fair to suggest Curry - the 40 percent 3-point shooter - would have helped in that department.

Peele’s offense operated at a deliberate pace and revolved around intricate halfcourt set plays.

“It worked a large amount of the time, but against some more athletic teams, or teams that were quicker or bigger, it didn’t work,” said McCann. “If he would have had players surrounded by Steph Curry, I’m guessing he would have taken that card in his pocket and torn it up and said, ‘Hey Steph, take the ball and get us some points.’”

Peele was let go in the spring of 2012, after a third losing season in five years, and replaced by Pat Kelsey.

The Eagles haven’t won a Big South regular season title in seven years and they haven’t played in the NCAA tournament since 2010. Under Kelsey, Winthrop has reached the Big South tournament final each of the last three seasons, only to fall short of an NCAA berth all three times.

It’s speculation to suggest that Curry would have had the same rock star college career in Rock Hill. We should also know by now to not underestimate arguably the greatest shooter in NBA history.

Had Curry excelled in garnet and gold, it seems safe to say that Winthrop’s run of success - its nearly annual NCAA tournaments and its vice-lock grip on the Big South - would have continued beyond 2010.

Superimpose Curry and his success into Winthrop circa 2008: “He would have enabled them to recruit maybe a player that was a step up from what they recruited,” said McCann. “They were still going to be competitive in the Big South, but with him they would have been able to recruit a better caliber of player than what they got.”

Continued success might have seen Winthrop jump into the ranks of annual mid-major powers like Gonzaga. The Curry effect might have bled into stronger athletics across the board at Winthrop and could have impacted athletic budgets. Winthrop ranked 187th out of 231 NCAA Division I public universities in 2014-15 athletic revenue, according to USA Today.

Curry was never an Eagle, but just imagine “what if.”

The bittersweet fantasy

Winthrop fans got the faintest idea of what could have been on Feb. 22, 2008 when the Eagles and Davidson squared off for the first time in 16 years. The game at a sold-out Winthrop Coliseum featured a juicy head-to-head matchup of Charlotteans, the free-scoring Curry and Robinson, Winthrop’s 6-foot-5, two-time Big South defensive player of the year.

Curry got everybody’s attention early with a 40-foot 3-point swish 20 seconds into the game. It was the kind of audacious heave that he’s made commonplace during his NBA career.

Robinson’s windmill arms harassed Curry into 4-for-14 shooting from the floor and just 2-for-9 from beyond the arc, and the budding star sat for the final 10 minutes, 14 seconds of the first half with foul trouble. Curry finished with just 12 points, Robinson having done his job. But the Davidson star’s jaw-dropping 3-pointer left an everlasting impression on Winthrop fans during the Wildcats’ 60-47 win.

The following year, the matchup was revisited. Curry dropped 30 points and dished out 13 assists in a 97-70 Davidson blowout. His metamorphosis into an NBA point guard was well and truly underway, and the effects of his decision to become a Wildcat were already being felt.

The fantasy is bittersweet, an idea probably best pondered after a couple of rounds at the bar: what could have been, but never was. Curry, the almost Winthrop Eagle.

“It would have been scary,” said Robinson, who perhaps understands that hypothetical better than anyone.

“It would have definitely been scary.”

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Steph Curry: Winthrop basketball’s ‘one that got away’."