Sidney Lowe’s Plans To Slow Stephon Curry

Stephon Curry

Via Ken Tysiac of the Charlotte Observer’s ‘Observations From Above The Rim’ Blog, here is a glimpse into the defensive plans that State coach Sidney Lowe plans to employ tomorrow in Charlotte against Davidson:

• No junk defenses. “I don’t think you change your defense. You just have to be more aware. You have to be solid. Mentally you can’t have a breakdown, because he can burn you.”
  
• Keep a fresh defender on Curry: “I think you have to try to stay fresh, because he’s constantly moving to get open. No shot is a bad shot (for Curry), and when you’re playing against a guy like that you can’t afford to relax.”
  
• Don’t Ignore teammates: “We can’t pay so much attention to Curry that we ignore the other guys. (Bryant) Barr can shoot the basketball. They have guys that can score the ball. They played against a team (Loyola, Md.) that doubled Curry the entire ballgame, and still (Davidson) won by. . .30 points.”

On the surface, this sounds like a sound plan, and one can see where Farnold Degand’s play will be critical: keeping Fells fresh and sharp, especially for the stretch run.  Lowe will also avoid making the blunder of Loyola-Maryland’s head coach Jimmy Pastos and doesn’t plan on playing a Triangle-And-Two against Curry the entire game.  LMD lost by 30 to the #24 Wildcats, so it’s obvious that playing 4-on-3 against the rest of the Davidson squad is a shortcut to getting routed.