No panic in LU camp over Curry's departure

As the dust began to settle from Tuesday’s bombshell announcement that Seth Curry had decided to transfer after one season at Liberty, Flames coach Ritchie McKay was surprisingly upbeat.

“It’s not Black Tuesday around here, or anything like that,” McKay said.

Certainly, Curry’s departure put a painful exclamation point on the Flames’ 2008-09, one that can only be called The Year of The Curry. Liberty tied a Division I school record with 23 victories, earned a berth in the inaugural CollegeInsider.com tournament and advanced to the Big South tournament semifinals for the second straight season.

But Curry defined the Flames, at least in terms of national exposure. The younger brother of Davidson’s Stephen Curry brought unprecedented media attention to Liberty’s program. SI.com, ESPN.com and The New York Times ran features on Curry, and former NBA standout Dell Curry and wife Sonya were mainstays at Liberty games.

The Curry factor helped Liberty land one of the TV spots in ESPNU’s BracketBusters event, and Curry did his share to justify the hype. He led all Division I freshmen in scoring (20.2 points per game), set Liberty and Big South freshman records for scoring and set the Big South freshman record for made 3-pointers in a season.

But just like that, he was gone. But if you were looking for panic in Liberty’s basketball offices Tuesday afternoon, it was hard to find. Assistant coaches were busy making phone calls in preparation for the April 15 spring signing day. A dry erase board in one office had an updated depth chart for the 2009-10 season, with Curry’s name already omitted.

McKay won’t deny that Curry played a big role in Liberty’s season. But insists the Flames will be fine going forward, even with their top two scorers from this year — Curry and senior Anthony Smith — gone.

Curry and Smith averaged a combined 37.8 ppg, 50 percent of the Flames’ scoring output. Curry was the Big South freshman of the year; Smith a first-team all-conference selection. Liberty was in a similar situation before this year began. With Alex McLean and TeeJay Bannister gone from the 2007-08 team, the Flames were picked to finish fourth by the Big South’s media and coaches.

When the leagues coaches and media convene outside Charlotte again in October, Liberty will surely be picked as a middle of the pack team. That’s OK with McKay, who would like nothing more than for the rest of the conference to sleep on his team this fall.

Kyle Ohman, who averaged 13.9 points per game, will be LU’s leading returning scorer. The most important returning piece, though, will be point guard Jesse Sanders, who recorded Liberty’s first Division I triple-double in a game against Presbyterian in February.

McKay expects big contributions from three players who spent much of the year in street clothes. Guard Jeremy Anderson, who made the all-Big South freshman team in 2007-08, returns after missing the year following foot surgery. A dead-eye shooter who shot 39.3 percent from 3-point range as a freshman, Anderson will be a candidate to start at the two.

At small forward, Tennessee Tech transfer David Minaya figures into the mix. The 6-foot-6 sophomore averaged 3.7 points per game his freshman year at the Ohio Valley Conference school but played just 14 minutes a game. In his first college start, at Oregon State in 2007, he scored 11 points in 13 minutes and hit three 3-pointers.

“Minaya’s going to be a great player,” said Smith, who went up against Minaya in practice this season. “He can score in a variety of ways and plays good defense. He’s going to be a great addition to the team.”

Carter McMasters, a 6-foot-11 center with a solid outside shooting touch, returns after missing most of this season with a stress fracture in his leg. Tyler Baker and Austin Smith return in the post. Bill Weaver, who played limited minutes at the two and three, is expected to come back as well.

With Curry and Anthony Smith gone, a legitimate No. 1 scoring threat will have to emerge, and there will be a chance for members of Liberty’s freshman class to contribute. Joel Vander Pol, a 6-11 center, signed in November, and three others — F Ovie Soko, G Chris Perez and G Bo Barnes — have all verbally committed and are expected to national letters of intent April 15.