Comparing Davidson stars: Curry vs. Gerdy

Stephen Curry needs 30 points against Georgia Southern on Saturday to become Davidson's all-time leading scorer, surpassing John Gerdy, who'll be in the stands to watch. Watch for our profile of Gerdy, who has lived an amazing life, in Saturday's Observer and online at http://www.charlotteobserver.com.

So how do Gerdy and Curry compare?

Physically, Gerdy was 6-foot-5 to Curry’s 6-3. Curry is quicker, but Gerdy was good at creating space for his shots with head and ball fakes. Curry has benefited from a running game that allows him to score often in transition. The undermanned Davidson teams of Gerdy’s day slowed the game down, costing him some shots.

“It’s hard to compare them, they played in two different eras,” says Ernie Reigel, who played point guard to Gerdy’s shooting guard for three seasons and is now a local lawyer who attends many Davidson games. “Besides the short shorts and sideburns, in our time they didn’t play the hand-in-glove defense they do now. Steph has a quicker shot than Gerd did, and he would average more points if he had played back then.

“Of course, John didn’t have the advantage of the three-point line. If we had had the three, I don’t think anybody else besides John would have ever shot, and none of us would have minded. His range was amazing.

“John was 6-5 and about 200 pounds and could jump well, so he could shoot over people. Most guards back then were 6-2 at the most. Gerd was big and he was strong. Of course, Steph has better coaching than Gerd had. I don’t think we got the most out of a lot of our players.

“Steph is also being guarded more closely; I see more trick defenses used on Steph. Steph gets a lot of points out of transition; Gerd could have done that if we had played that way.”

Johnathan Rhyne, a Lincolnton Lawyer and a team manager in Gerdy’s day, said, “People don’t realize how special he was. If he played today, and you put him on one side of the court and Curry on the other, it would be completely unfair.”

-- Stan Olson