Will Archambault and Max Paulhus Gosselin certainly are not the first N.B.A. broadcast commentators to marvel at the play of Stephen Curry. As analysts for R.D.S., essentially a smaller, French version of ESPN based in Canada, they have called Curry’s last two N.B.A. finals runs together from a studio in Montreal.

But this pair of finals commentators has a particular insight into Curry’s basketball skills, having seen them up close. How many broadcasting duos can say they practiced with and against Curry for years?

Before he figured in debates about the best shooters of all time, Curry went to Davidson College in North Carolina, where he played for three seasons. He burst onto the national scene carrying the underdog program to the regional finals in the 2008 N.C.A.A. tournament. Two of Curry’s teammates during that run, Archambault and Gosselin, also are along for the ride now as Curry tries for a third straight N.B.A. championship.

Except this time they are in the TV booth, and they are unsure whom to root for: their former college teammate or the Toronto Raptors, on the verge of winning their first N.B.A. title and pushing Canadian interest in basketball to its peak.