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Follow us on TwitterCurry opts to transfer out of Liberty after first season
Photo by Chet White/The News & Advance
Seth Curry, younger brother of Davidson’s Stephen, announced on Tuesday he will leave Liberty University after leading all Division I freshmen in scoring at 20.2 points per game.
Published: March 25, 2009
Updated: March 25, 2009
Last November 25, the day that Seth Curry scored 26 points in his third collegiate game to help Liberty stun Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena, the natural question from the assembled press to then-Cavaliers coach Dave Leitao was this: How could the ACC miss on another Curry?
It seems an ACC school will get another shot at landing Seth Curry, who announced Tuesday he is transferring from Liberty. Curry led all Division I freshmen in scoring at 20.2 points per game and set the Liberty and Big South freshman scoring records with 707 points.
Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said Curry is transferring for one reason — the chance to play in a better league with better competition.
“I think he was frustrated by the constant schemes to stop him and felt like if he was in a conference that starts with an ‘A’ and ends with a ‘C,’ that one of those schools would have some other guys around him so he wouldn’t bear such a brunt of the scoring load,” McKay said.
And the second-year Flames coach wasn’t talking about the America East Conference or the Atlantic Sun Conference. After Curry burst out of the gates with big games against Virginia and George Mason, much of the national talk about him was about how the ACC missed out on another Curry. Older brother Stephen led the nation in scoring as a junior this season and was a last-second shot away from leading Davidson to the Final Four as a sophomore.
Curry himself was mum on the issue of where he might be heading. He released a statement through Liberty’s athletics media relations department but was otherwise unavailable to the media, per the request of his father, former Virginia Tech and NBA standout Dell Curry.
“This is a difficult decision that I have reached after close consultation with my family and others close to me,” Curry said in the statement. “And it is based on my desire to develop as an athlete to the fullest of my potential and take advantage of new opportunities that may be available to me in a higher-rated conference.”
Curry continually drew double and triple teams and other trick defenses as the season wore on. As coaches saw him for the second and third time, his production suffered. In his first 28 games, Curry shot 42.3 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from 3-point range. In his final seven games, in which Liberty went 3-4, that production dropped to 38.2 percent from the floor and 30.5 percent from 3.
He’ll have to sit out a year under NCAA transfer rules and will have three years of eligibility remaining once he chooses a school.
Curry is the third player to transfer out of the program under McKay’s watch. Brolin Floyd, who started 29 games this season as a freshman, told McKay March 13 that he would be leaving school. Last year, B.J. Jenkins, a part-time starter, left to go to Murray State.
“The hard part for us is just the perception,” McKay said. “Seth leaves. Brolin leaves. What’s going on there? B.J. left last year. But Liberty is not for everybody. It’s just not. We’ve got a great situation here, and we believe in the mission of the university.
“But some kids want different things out of their college experience. In Seth’s case, I think he’d like to play in a league like the ACC and be on TV every game, and play with the Cameron Crazies.
“We try to paint a very realistic picture of what it’s like. For all of the people who will take this and paint it as a negative, I have such a peace about it. We had a chance to add value to Seth’s experience, and we did. We honored it. And in return, our program has won as many games as it did in school history. We’re on the right track.”
Curry first broached the subject of transferring with McKay Monday morning, the coach said,, before the Flames played James Madison in the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com tournament, a game JMU won 88-65. Curry was held to single digits in points for just the third time all season, scoring eight points on 4 of 11 shooting while missing all five of his 3-point attempts.
Curry informed McKay of his decision Tuesday morning, and McKay broke the news to the team shortly thereafter.
How Curry’s departure will affect Liberty’s recruiting efforts is up for conjecture. The spring signing date for basketball is April 15, and three athletes have already given verbal commitments to the Flames — F Ovie Soko from Hampton, G Chris Perez from Oldsmar, Fla., and G Bo Barnes from Scottsdale Christian High School in Arizona.
“Sure, will other schools use it negatively against us?” McKay said. “Yeah. (They’ll say), ‘they couldn’t keep Curry.’ Our pool, though, I don’t anticipate it shrinking. People want to be a part of a winning program. We’ve got three guys verbally committed. I’ve been in this thing long enough to know to protect yourself. Our roster, you’ll see, we’re going to be OK.
“I don’t want to take away from what Seth has done from our program. He’s been a blessing.
“Seth is a great kid. I love him. I want what’s best for him. But I want what’s best for us. A player that’s both feet in is what’s best for us. If you’re kind of hoping to be in a different situation, but you’re still in the one you’re in, you have two choices. Endure it. Knock it out. Commit to it. Or change the situation. And that’s what Seth has decided to do.”
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It is hearsay, because you’re repeating to me what you heard. Those are the out-of-court statements in my hypothetical. The people in the examples are the declarants. If it weren’t true, then it wouldn’t advance your point. So it’s offered for its truth. But it’s pointless for us to get hung up on that arcane argument. The point is that you heard the stories from someone else, and we’re hearing them secondhand. So there’s no way for us to verify them.
If your problem with Liberty is that they think they’re better than other colleges, then that’s one thing. If you think they don’t teach their students how to think, that’s another thing. I disagree with both. But you should be forthright that they’re both just your opinions.
As a marketing scheme, Liberty probably sells that they turn out a different type of student. But who doesn’t? They’re trying to attract students, so they have to do that from some angle. But it’s hard to hold things such as the robbery, etc., that you mentioned against the school. Obviously, their students are like anyone else’s students, which actually is a point in the university’s favor. They can’t control everything the students do. If they could, the school would have been responsible for the students breaking in. That the law doesn’t hold the university responsible should be enough for you to realize that the school had nothing to do with it other than happening to be associated because they were students there. There’s a reason there’s a rule of law governing situations like that, instead of a mob of angry Lynchburg residents.
At any rate, it seems to me that you just don’t like Liberty’s administration. That’s fine. But it’s just your opinion. And you should be forthright about it being just your opinion. It also seems to me that you’ve had a decent experience with some Liberty students. But when you go around on message boards dropping unsupported statements, like Curry’s probably transferring because he wants an education, when there’s no evidence for that, you hurt the students. They’re the ones who have to get jobs when they leave.
First of all Ol’ McCreedy, when told to me, the incidents recited were not heresay. It was direct “testimony” (since you used the legal analogy)—the people involved were the one’s making the statements. I practiced law for 30 years before retiring. Secondly, I agree with you—who should care if a student rents “Pretty Woman”-you’re correct, its the 26 year old students choice—shouldn’t be the university’s choice. She should be able to rent it and judge for herself whether its a “poor choice” as you claim. Maybe she should have that option—and maybe she would have concluded as you did. But, LU deems it appropriate to take that option from her. Many here are cynical about LU and its claims. For example, any claim that LU students are somehow more ethical, honest, even “Christian” than students of other colleges just doesn’t hold water, and most people here know that. I point your attention to a couple of noteworthy examples. There was the case of the LU students who robbed the liquor store and distributed the loot among the residents of an LU dorm. They were caught obviously, but when they were arraigned, it was learned that the robbery of the liquor store was only the tip of a very large scheme to create havoc, divert police resources so they could rob a branch of B of A. I was in the courthouse in Rustburg that day and heard the evidence against them (the ABC store robbed was on Timberlake Road in Campbell Co.) I overheard some LU students at Gold’s Gym discussing it. When I told them that I had been in the courtroom during the arraignment, they told me that what I heard was just the tip of the iceberg—a lot of crime that happens on LU campus “stays there”—assaults, sexual assaults and robberies. It never makes it out into the general community (actually, it eventually does, because LU students seem to be more forthcoming and honest than the administration. Then there was the case of the student caught with bomb making material in the trunk of his car. I don’t think LU students are necessarily worse than other college students. I also don’t think they are any better or “more Christian”. My point is, why pretend?
David,
As an opinion, what you’ve written entertains; as an argument, it face plants.
First, you’re not “bursting my bubble.“ I graduated from Liberty. I know they’re not ranked highly. But that wasn’t your point. You said you don’t learn to think for yourself at Liberty. There’s a difference between learning to think for yourself at a college and that college being ranked highly. Many people check off all the boxes, including going to a school with an “academic reputation,“ yet never learn to think for themselves. Going to a school with an “academic reputation” is neither necessary nor sufficient for learning to think for yourself. In fact, it says nothing other than that you went to a school with an “academic reputation.“ And because rankings are beside your point, I won’t even go into all the problems with the college-ranking system, particularly with U.S. News’s. (I’m sure you’re familiar with them anyway.)
Second, I never said anything about “liberal bias.“ I never used the word “liberal.“ Why you’re self-conscious about that, I have no idea. But you brought it up. I neither know nor care whether you or U.S. News or whoever are liberal. I’m accusing no one of “liberal bias.“
Third, your examples don’t amount to much. You found three people who had bizarre experiences at Liberty. So what? The examples you share are hearsay. There’s a reason hearsay is not allowed in a courtroom—it’s unreliable. Hearsay is still unreliable outside of a courtroom. The examples you listed are unverifiable. And they’re unreliable. So they don’t further your argument. But I’ll address them anyway. Perhaps the only offense in renting “Pretty Woman” is that your friend has poor taste in movies. But seriously, although I agree that no one should care about renting “Pretty Woman,“ who cares if someone “turned her in”? And who cares if someone “turned in” the guy about his computer? What does that mean? There aren’t idiots at other colleges? How does this reflect on whether Liberty teaches students to think for themselves? As best I can tell, all it suggests is that some students like “Pretty Woman”; others might not. Some students have stuff on their computer that others consider “suspect,“ whatever that means; others might not. Finally, I highly doubt your last story. Admittedly, most professors at Liberty are some strain of conservative, but no opposing idea was ever suppressed when I was there. And no one ever seriously told anyone for which party to vote. Hence, the reason hearsay evidence doesn’t carry much weight. If you can give me stronger evidence, I’ll be more likely to be persuaded. But I never experienced anything even remotely similar to what you’ve described when I was at Liberty.
Last, your argument is no stronger because you repeated that Curry left because he wants an education. In his statement, Curry seemed to go out of his way to say that the sole reason he was leaving was to play in a higher-rated conference. Coach McKay has gone out of his way to say the same thing in his interview with this paper. So your opinion is nothing more than that, plus it’s supported by nothing we know, yet contradicted by everything we do know. I’ll leave it to the other readers to infer from the strength of your reasoning how credible you are in castigating the quality of Liberty’s education.
You’re right it does take a certain kind of person to keep their job at LU. One who has no moral compass and one who can look the other way when violations are committed and rules are broken. Because when you do speak up and stand for what is right you no longer have a job there!
Ol’ McCreedy, I hate to burst your bubble, but LU is not know for its academic reputation—anywhere. In fact, LU is hardly known outside this region at all. (For one source, check out the USNews & Reports rankings of colleges or the Princeton Review—not associated with Princeton U before you get all upset over some perceived liberal bias). As far as intellectual freedom, I will give you three cases told to me personally by LU students. These are only three—I have heard more (like students being rounded up from local drinking establishments by LU monitors). First, a 26 year old female student told me that she was turned by another student for renting “Pretty Woman” from a video rental store. Another student told me that he was turned in after his roommate went onto his computer (without permission) and found some “suspect” material. It wasn’t pornography. And, a third student told me that she was harassed by her professor when, in the course of a classroom discussion, she told him that she was going to vote for the Democratic slate in November. When she went to the administration about the harassment, the reply was “you shouldn’t be voting for Democrats”. Academic freedom? Students at LU seem to give that up at the door when they enroll. Like I said earlier, maybe Curry just wants an education.
Liberty University has many wonderful people, professors and staff committed to educating from a Judeo-Christian world view. Young people can find purpose beyond themselves raising their quality of contribution during life’s journey. Unfortunately human nature and political agendas can quickly rob the potential impact of those committed to a community ideal by abusing positional power for self interest. As with my previous post I am confident that LU athletics has chosen that path and the blossoms for such seeds are documented in the headlines of this article.
David, your snide remark about Liberty not teaching students to think for themselves is misguided. You assume that students show up at college and swallow everything whole, i.e., they don’t think for themselves. Because you probably disagree with a lot of things Liberty does, you assume that students go there and swallow everything you disagree with whole. Perhaps you went to college and did that. But I went to Liberty and didn’t. In fact, that’s where I learned to think for myself. And that’s where I learned to grapple with ideas I didn’t agree with. That’s where I learned to be open minded. I didn’t agree with everything they taught. But I haven’t agreed with everything anyone taught me.
And your conclusion that Curry is transferring for academics is preposterous, especially given that he has suggested the exact opposite—he wants to play in a higher-rated conference. Basically, then, you’ve posted a comment riddled with assumptions that lead you to a conclusion that’s not suggested by any facts. Yet you assume that Liberty doesn’t teach its students to think. I suspect that you also assume you learned to think—somewhere . . .
A college experience isn’t just drinking and partying—its many things that Liberty U doesn’t really provide, such as learning to think for yourself, interacting with a diverse group of students and learning about the world. Maybe Curry just wants a good education.
This kid came to LU and did wonderful things, but i bet the only reason he came to LU was to showcase his talent to bigger schools, and then once the season was over, he was going to transfer. (Just adding on to his resume, lol) Ive seen this guy plenty of times on campus, and he didnt look happy being there at all. And i’m sure he wants to enjoy the college life, and LU is not where its at. Im not going to go into the whole Liberty experience, but as we all know its not the most exciting thing in the world, when everyone is in your business the whole time with no private life what so ever. Whats guy to do but transfer out..
The thing is that LU is not in the ACC, SEC, etc so how are they supposed to get recruits of that caliber. They are growing and making progress but at the same time when an athlete comes to LU they know that it is not the “normal” college experience. So if they want to party, drink do whatever they can go somewhere else but Liberty is what it is and they will not lower their standards to keep athletes there that dont want to be there. The fact is that Seth wants to go somewhere else and that is fine, LU won games before he came and they will win games when he is gone.
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