Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

Nobody knew he’d be this good. Not NBA scoring champion good. Not two-time MVP good. Nobody saw Stephen Curry coming in the distance, this all-time great shooting force of nature, but 7 ½ years ago, Purdue was preparing for a game against Davidson and Curry.

And Purdue knew enough to be concerned.

“Watching him on film,” Purdue coach Matt Painter was saying a few days ago, “he was making shots that were ridiculous. It was like he was playing H-O-R-S-E. We put him in a rare category: Don’t leave him to help (a teammate defend someone else). Don’t ever leave him.”

Stephen Curry entered that December 2008 game leading the country in scoring at 31.9 ppg and had scored at least 40 points three times. Nine months earlier he had shot Davidson into the 2008 NCAA Elite Eight. Seven months later he would be drafted No. 7 overall by Golden State. Last season he led the Warriors to their first NBA title in 40 years. This season he is averaging 30.1 ppg.

With quickness and crossovers and shooting range to 30 feet, Stephen Curry has become the perfect weapon.

Purdue defused him 7 ½ years ago. Right here in Indianapolis.

* * *

Check the picture running with this story. It’s from Dec. 20, 2008.

Baby-faced Davidson junior Stephen Curry at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Well beyond the 3-point arc, barely inbounds, and he’s being guarded. No, he’s being manhandled.

Look at Purdue defender Chris Kramer. Look at his feet – he’s completely outside the 3-point arc, not conceding to Curry even a 25-footer. His right arm is reaching into Curry’s personal space, lining Curry’s midsection like a belt of flesh and bone and muscle.

“Back then you could be more physical,” Kramer was telling me this week from Germany, where he is playing in the Basketball Bundesliga for EWE Baskets Oldenburg. “I would arm-bar guys to where I wanted them to go. I tried to physically make Steph uncomfortable, push him around to places I wanted him to be.”

Kramer, a 6-3, 215-pound bruiser, was the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. A few days before that game between No. 13 Purdue and No. 22 Davidson, Kramer had said exactly what he planned to do.

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“Got to be physical with him,” Kramer said, and noted that most teams let Curry bring up the ball before picking him up at midcourt. “That’s nine or 10 seconds of rest for him (every possession). He’s got to go 94 feet, so I’ve got to get into him and make him work.”

Curry missed his first shot. Missed the second one. And the third.

Steph Curry’s nightmare game was underway.

* * *

Chris Kramer didn’t defend Curry the whole game. He wanted me to know that right away, and indeed the box score shows Curry playing 39 minutes, Kramer 26. Kramer defended him for those 26 minutes, but Lewis Jackson and Keaton Grant also took turns.

“We harassed him,” Kramer was saying. “We wore him out.”

Purdue was barely two weeks removed from a 76-60 loss to Duke in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, a humbling defeat for a top-10 team.

“That game against Duke was embarrassing,” Painter says. “We played angry, and we got Davidson at the right time.”

Davidson coach Bob McKillop had scheduled aggressively to prepare his team for another NCAA tournament run. The Wildcats had been to New York to play West Virginia, to Oklahoma to play the Sooners, and to Charlotte to play North Carolina State. Now they were in Indianapolis to play No. 13 Purdue.

“They were exhausted, and we were coming off the Duke game,” Painter says. “I think the timing of the game benefited us for those factors.”

When it was over, Stephen Curry had gone 5-of-26 from the floor and 2-of-12 from the 3-point arc. He reached the foul line just once, making the free throw. He finished with 13 points and committed six of Davidson’s 11 turnovers. Purdue won 76-58.

Curry scored just five of his 13 points in the 26 minutes Kramer was on the court. Even now, with Curry considered by some to be the greatest shooter ever, Kramer won’t gloat.

“Stephen Curry then and Stephen Curry now are a little different,” Kramer was telling me.

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But Stephen Curry then was the No. 1 scorer in college basketball, I remind Kramer.

“True, true,” Kramer said. “He was so under the radar, basically his whole life, a guy that comes into college basketball and puts Davidson on the map. To dominate college basketball like he did, then transition into the NBA and now back-to-back MVPs – and win it unanimous this season – just shows you what hard work and dedication can do.”

Kramer hasn’t seen Curry since Dec. 20, 2008. Curry went to the NBA, Kramer to Germany, but some things don’t change: Curry led the NBA in scoring this season; Kramer finished third in the Defensive Player of the Year voting in Germany.

“I’d love to go to a (Warriors) game in San Francisco,” Kramer says. “I’d love to talk to him some day about the hard work he puts in, pick his brain and steal some of his drills and try to help my game.”

What about Dec. 20, 2008? Don’t you want to talk about that?

“I’m sure he doesn’t remember that game,” Kramer says.

Pretty sure he couldn’t forget.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.