Curry: Thunder’s one-man ‘Nova Nation’

By John Bassetti

He’d like to see his alma mater beat North Carolina, then face Connecticut in an all-Big East final.

YOUNGSTOWN — Clarence Curry will be busy Saturday night when his alma mater, Villanova, plays North Carolina in the semifinals of the Final Four.

As a defensive back for the Mahoning Valley Thunder, Curry will be in action himself against the Milwaukee Iron, a first-time af2 opponent.

But the 6-foot-1, 208-pound Curry has an interest in the NCAA basketball game.

“I actually had an opportunity to play [basketball] my freshman year,” Curry said of the Wildcats’ program. He ran track as well.

“I had close ties with basketball coach Jay Wright, football coach Andy Talley and track coach Anthony Williams,” Curry said of his connections when he attended from 2000-2004.

“It’s a great school. I just try to make sure I support them in all facets of the game. It’s [the] Final Four, so it’s an exciting time.”

In 1985, Villanova pulled off one of the biggest upsets in tournament history when it beat Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown for the NCAA title.

“We’re known as a big basketball school,” said Curry, “but we fell off a little bit for a little while. In 2005, North Carolina knocked us out [of the Sweet 16] with a last-second layup [67-66]. So, this year, it was righteous that we won on a last-second shot [78-76, against Pittsburgh to get into the Final Four].”

Curry addressed Saturday’s North Carolina matchup.

“Hopefully, it’s payback time for us and we want to see UConn in the finals. You always want to represent your conference, so if we could have both from the Big East get in there, that would be great,” he said.

Curry — who rattled off the names of former Villanova basketball coach Rollie Massimino and former players Sam Perkins and Ed Pinckney as fast as you could say af2 — said he got some lip from one of the Thunder players who teased Curry with chants of “Duke, Duke, Duke” before the recent East regional semifinal game.

“When we blew them out by 23 points [77-54],” said Curry, “it was a great feeling.”

Curry is also enjoying the Thunder’s season after a season-opening victory over the Albany Firebirds.

“We have great chemistry and come with a business-like atmosphere,” Curry said following a 44-34 win over Albany last Friday. “We’re not a big rah-rah team. We come to work with our lunch pails. We try to stay focused in what we’re trying to accomplish. Our first game was a first step. We had a lot of mistakes, so this week we’re just trying to correct them. Hopefully, this Saturday, we’ll correct the little things and have a bigger lead in the early fourth quarter than we did being down 11 against Albany.”

Curry had his first interception in the final minute of the second quarter.

“It felt good to get a pick in the first game,” Clarence said of the theft in the end zone. “I think that is catalyst for the whole season — just to get that monkey off of your back. I think that’s going to help me during the season.”

Curry, however, cautioned that it’s too early to make bold statements.

“While watching film, I had several mistakes — as did the defense as a whole — so we’re just trying to correct them this week.”

Mahoning Valley is sort of handicapped because it doesn’t have film on Milwaukee.”

“With Arena 1 down [season suspended] you have a lot of new guys coming in, so you don’t know much about individuals. But Milwaukee’s got one game under its belt so they’re going to prepare as well [as they did last week].”

Curry graduated with a business law degree, but plans to go back when his football days are done.

“I’d like to go to law school, hopefully get a grad assistant job by helping the football team or possibly being director of player personnel — anything I could do in the office,” he said. “I’d like to do some sort of sports management, so that’s a good resume-builder.”

bassetti@vindy.com