Is Stephen Curry Overrated?

Davidson is not supposed to beat the likes of a Georgetown, or a Wisconsin, or an NC State. Why? Because they simply do not get as much talent into their program as those big time schools do. Calling the Southern Conference even a mid-major conference could be a stretch. The past two years, Davidson has had at most three guys that you could make a case for as high-major talents: Jason Richards, Andrew Lovedale, and Curry. This year, it is just Lovedale and Curry.

When Davidson plays other teams on their level, the rest of the guys on their roster become a threat. Will Archambault, Bryant Barr, Steve Rossiter—these guys are good Southern Conference players. But when they are going up against a team like Purdue, the Boilermakers really don't have to worry about the rest of the roster doing much damage.

In other words, Southern Conference teams need to factor in the Wildcats' role players when they game plan against Davidson. BCS schools do not need to. They can game plan entirely around how to stop Steph, knowing that they will be able to slow down the rest of the Davidson team by putting one guy on them playing help defense.

So not only is Curry going up against better coaching, better teams, and better athletes when he faces the BCS schools, he is facing a defense that can gear entirely towards stopping him. Purdue might be the most well coached team in the country defensively, they might have the best defensive player in the country (Chris Kramer), and they had a week to prepare for Davidson, knowing they didn't play another good team for 10 days.

It shouldn't really be a huge surprise that they were able to keep Curry in check (I'd be willing to put a large sum of money that Bobby Riddell, the senior/former walk-on that has been getting minutes with Chris Kramer slowed by injury, spent at least four or five practices playing the role of Steph Curry).

To make matters worse, this year he is playing out of position. Let's get this straight: Curry is not a point guard. Plain and simple. He can play the point, but that doesn't mean he is a point guard. He is a scoring guard that is at his best when he is coming off of screens and either looking for his shot or looking to drive. He just happens to also be a very good passer.

This problem gets magnified when you consider the lack of talent around him. If you put Curry on, say, Oklahoma, he could be an effective point guard. All he would need to do is get the ball up the court (which he can do) and then get the Sooners into their offense (which he can do).

But playing for this Davidson squad without Jason Richards, he needs to be able to bring the ball up and get the Wildcats into their offense, but he is their entire offense. What Davidson does offensively is have Curry bring the ball up and then let him create, either 1-on-1 or using a ball screen, without giving the ball up. Or they have him pass to a wing and then run him off of a number of different screens.

Regardless of what they do, it is rare that Bob McKillop calls a play for someone other than Curry.

So when Davidson faces the better teams in the country, not only is Curry playing out of position, facing better players, and facing defenses that focus more on him, he is acting as the entire Wildcat offense for 40 minutes. No matter how good of shape you are in, that is going to take a toll on your legs by the end of the game, which is just about the worst thing that can happen to a shooter.

So the question remains: Is Steph Curry overrated? Actually, I believe he is. That's not to say that I don't love him or don't think that he is a first team All-American (I think he may actually be the best player in the country). But the media has been blowing him up and talking about him nonstop ever since he went on that tear in the NCAA tournament last year.

It is the Tyler Hansbrough effect—when a player becomes a media darling and spends a significant amount of time in the spotlight, the worldwide leader and other media moguls will beat it to death.

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