The biggest shot of Steph Curry’s college career came vs. Gonzaga

Maybe, but probably not without the help of a big-time shot against Gonzaga early on in his college career.

As the NBA's all-time leader in 3-pointers made, Curry has delivered countless jaw-dropping moments throughout his 16-year tenure with the Golden State Warriors — and in the process, revolutionized the way modern basketball is played at the professional level. But out of all the miraculous half-court heaves and near-impossible shots he's made over the course of his career, the biggest shot of Curry's career — in his own words — is from that first-round matchup against Mark Few and the Zags in the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

“From my perspective, it was the shot against Gonzaga when I was at Davidson,” Curry said during an interview with Complex. “Everyone has those moments where, if things had gone differently, your life could have gone differently. I definitely think it made a big difference, not just in our run because it was the first round, but because the game was tied with less than a minute left."

At the time, Curry wasn't on everyone's radar like he is now whenever he steps on the floor of an NBA game. He was mostly known as the son of a former pro, Dell Curry, and had a flashy game to make up for his lack of size. Even while scoring 25.9 points per game, Curry's notoriety wouldn't take off drastically until his masterclass against the Zags.

Curry led 10-seeded Davidson past 7-seeded Gonzaga, 82-76, while dropping a game-high 40 points on 8-of-10 from downtown, including a clutch triple with 1:04 remaining in the second half to break a 74-74 tie with the Bulldogs and get the Wildcats across the finish line.

"Andrew Lovedale, my center at Davidson, was able to grab a huge offensive rebound, and the rest was like in slow motion," Curry recalled. "And it was like slow motion — like he got the rebound, pawed it with one hand, threw it to me. I made it. We go up three. You're like, 'oh, Davidson, we were about to win a tournament game.'"

"That just started a snowball of what that tournament run is. And then your stardom kind of goes up a little bit, and you kind of carry that confidence. And not to say, I wouldn't be able to figure it out had we lost that game, but that was a big moment that, had that shot not gone down, like, who knows how it would've played out."

Curry played one more season in college before blossoming into one of the game's most iconic players, influencing an entire generation of hoopers and rewriting record books along the way with his insane precision from downtown.

In addition to winning four titles and back-to-back MVP awards, Curry also has a gold medal from his role in Team USA's first-place finish at the Olympic Games last summer, in which Curry drained a huge 3-pointer in the finale against France to help the Americans clinch their 17th gold medal in men's basketball.

Luckily for Gonzaga's head coach, he was on the winning side of that 3-pointer from Curry.

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