They stopped Curry! (And lost by 30)
Posted: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 10:13 AM
Filed Under:
Rants, Mid-majors, Stephen Curry
During a week loaded with great basketball, who knew a mid-major coach would steal the show?
Just not in a good way.
Jimmy Patsos, the coach of Loyola (Md.) devised a way to prevent Davidson star Stephen Curry from scoring on Tuesday night. Curry, a sharpshooter who came into the game averaging more than 30 points a contest, was double-teamed whenever he was on the court. He took three shots and scored zero points.
“I don’t think irritate is the word. Just confused,” Curry said afterward. “When they’re down by that much and still allowing us to get open shots. It kind of surprised me.”
Curry’s not a moron. He simply took his two defenders into a corner and let his Wildcat teammate play 4 on 3 the entire game. Davidson won, 78-48.
“I know the fans are mad at me, but I had to roll the dice as far as a coach goes. I’m not some rookie coach,” said Patsos, a former longtime assistant at Maryland. “I won a national title as a top assistant coach to Gary Williams. For 13 years I spent on Tobacco Road. I coached a couple of No. 1 picks in the draft. And we scored 48 points. That’s the problem that Loyola basketball had today.”
OK, so Patsos took a chance. But didn’t he ever realize his strategy wasn’t working?
“We had to play against an NBA player tonight,” Patsos explained. “Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I’m a history major. They’re going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?”
Great job, Jimmy. We’ll put you in the Hare Brained Hall of Fame alongside the Bucs letting the Jets score (so they could get the ball back) and Paul Westhead’s defensive strategy with the Nuggets.
This isn’t his first case of bizarre behavior. Last week Patsos watched most of Loyola’s preseason NIT game against Cornell from the stands because he was worried about getting a second technical foul.
"I was trying to turn the other cheek," Patsos told the Baltimore Sun. "In the past, I've been too aggressive. I'm trying to find the middle ground and to be a better person."
For those interested in Patsos’ next move, Loyola plays at Vermont on Nov. 29. Maybe Vermont is a good place for strange behavior.
