Whenever I visit with coaches who have had players compete for one of USA Basketball's summer teams, they rave about how much confidence their guys gained while practicing against some of America's top collegians for a month. By that standard, the players who seem poised to gain the most from the under-19 experience are Patrick Beverley, a 6-1 guard from Arkansas; Stephen (pronounced STEFF-in) Curry, a 6-1 guard from Davidson and Deon Thompson, a 6-8 center from North Carolina......Curry, meanwhile, gave the Americans a huge lift off the bench Sunday, scoring 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including 4 for 4 from three-point range. Curry was the only player on the team who hailed from a mid-major school. (Gonzaga guard Matt Bouldin is also on the U.S. squad, but most people have stopped thinking of Gonzaga as a mid-major.) True hoops junkies know all about Curry; he broke the NCAA's single-season freshman record for threes made (122) while leading the Southern Conference in scoring (21.5 ppg) and free throw percentage (85.5 percent). He has yet to carve out a national reputation. That should change next season, when Davidson returns all 11 scholarship players from the team that went 29-5 and almost beat Maryland in the first round of the NCAA tournament. "I had a little sour taste coming out of high school knowing that none of the major D-I schools wanted to take a chance on me," Curry said. "For me to come here and be able to practice bringing the ball up the court against really good defensive guards I don't usually see is going to help me get better."
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