Steph Curry Davidson Offense by John Zall
The 2014-15 season could someday be referred to as “the season of Stephen Curry.” He has been the best player on the best team from wire to wire. As it stands right now, his Golden State Warriors are up 3-0 on in the Western Conference Finals and find themselves 1 game from their first trip to the NBA Finals in 40 years. Two weeks ago he was named MVP of the Regular Season and has continued his torrid pace in the playoffs, breaking the record for most 3 pointers made in a single postseason. Oh, and he did it in 9 less games then it took the previous record holder Reggie Miller.
The common narrative throughout the season has been how a kid from tiny Davidson College rose from nowhere to become one of the best players in the world and maybe the best shooter of all time. Some parts of the story are true: Steph Curry didn’t receive any “high major” scholarship offers and he wasn’t highly regarded coming out of high school. However, the part of him “coming out of nowhere” is a little exaggerated.
His father was in the NBA, so he was around high level basketball players and instructors his whole life. His parents should be given full credit for raising a great person who happens to have an outstanding idea of how to play the game. While he did attend Davidson College, they have always had a reputation of being a very good program under Head Coach Bob McKillop, who currently boasts a .738 winning percentage in conference and .495 winning percentage overall. This past season they were 5th in the country in Offense Efficiency per Basketballreference.com; scoring at a rate of 117.1 points-per-100 possessions.
It didn’t take Steph Curry long to prove he belonged in the elite levels of college basketball either. In his second ever college game as a true freshman he scored 32 point against the University of Michigan. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament that same season against the University of Maryland, he scored 30 points before fouling out.
During his sophomore season, Davidson came within a missed Jason Richards 3 pointer from going to the Final Four. Jason Richards, the teams starting point guard and Steph’s backcourt mate, led the nation in assists averaging over 8 per game.
Steph Curry’s scoring average continued to climb and during his junior season he led the country in scoring while averaging a whopping 28.6 points-per-game. He also shot 39% from 3 point range (his worst percentage of his career) while transitioning over to the point guard position and averaging 5.6 assists per game.
The following video and diagram are some of the sets that Coach McKillop used to get Stephen Curry open during his career at Davidson.
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Coach John Zall just completed his first season as an Assistant Coach at Division II Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH. This past season Franklin Pierce University won 20 games and advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament. Zall arrived at Franklin Pierce after spending the past 3 seasons as the Associate Head Coach/Head JV Coach at O’Bryant High school in Roxbury, MA. During his tenure at O’Bryant the program improved from 4 wins to 12 wins and qualified for the MIAA State Tournament twice.
Coach Zall also has experience as an AAU Head Coach for the Boston Warriors. As Head Coach for the Warriors his team won the 2011 16U State Title and twice competed in AAU Nationals down in Orlando, FL. On top of being a student at Northeastern University, Zall was named Head Coach of the Men’s Club Basketball team for the 2012-13 season. During his lone season as Head Coach, Northeastern finished second in the Northeast Regional Tournament featuring colleges from throughout the East Coast. Coach Zall has also spent time as a Head Coach in the Bay State Games where his team won the Bronze Medal in 2012 and at various camps including: Five Star, Boston Celtics, NIKE, Franklin Pierce University, Hoop Group and The Elite 75.
Click on the pdf link to download the Steph Curry Davidson Offense:
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