A Secret No More

-- Seth Curry Looks To Aid USA U19 Team In Its Quest For Gold --

Seth Curry

USA Basketball U19 World Championship team member Seth Curry is no longer the best kept secret in college basketball, not after what he has accomplished in 2008-09.

In addition to establishing himself as one of college basketball's top up and coming stars, he tried out and was selected for the 12-member USA Basketball U19 World Championship Team.

By making the USA team, he earned not only a trip to Auckland, New Zealand, but an opportunity to do so wearing the USA's red, white and blue uniform and represent his country.

-It's a great honor to make the team and to be representing the United States. When you grow up in the United States, every basketball player wants to be able to put on this jersey and represent the United States overseas and I'm just blessed to be able to do that."

The 6-foot-3 guard, whose older brother Stephen was a member of the 2007 USA U19 World Championship Team that captured the silver medal, was an unheralded recruit coming out of Charlotte Christian School in North Carolina.

Accepting a scholarship to Liberty University, he burst onto the college basketball scene early in the 2008-09 season, scoring 26 points in Liberty's November upset of the University of Virginia.

Seth Curry

He finished the 2008-09 season ranked as the NCAA's leading freshman scorer after averaging 20.2 points per game and set the Liberty and Big South Conference records for freshman scoring. He is the only freshman in Big South history to hit at least 100 3-pointers. He finished with 102. He was named Freshman All-America, Big South Freshman of the Year and he also earned second-team all-Big South honors.

Seth, who turns 19 years old on Aug. 23, announced in late March that he would transfer from Liberty to national power Duke University. He will have to sit out the next season and will be eligible to play again in the 2010-11 season.

He comes from an athletic if not a basketball prominent family. His father, Dell, starred at Virginia Tech and played most of his 16 NBA seasons with the Charlotte Hornets. He was respected as one of the NBA's most prolific 3-point shooters. His mother, Sonya, was a volleyball standout at Virginia Tech. Seth's older brother Stephen starred at Davidson College and was just drafted by Golden State as the No. 7 selection in the 2009 NBA Draft.

-I'm proud of what my brother did in the college ranks and it definitely gives me motivation to go out there and play hard every day and I just try to live up to the name.

'Growing up, that's (basketball) all my family did, being around the NBA, my dad playing basketball, that's all I really knew. I don't know what life would be like without basketball, but I just love it. I love getting on the court and working hard every day and just improving my game.'

Like all players, Seth too has his favorite NBA players and teams.

'I admire every player in the NBA just because it's so hard to get there. But to name a few, LeBron James, you can't help but watch him and be in awe of what he does. Another guy when I was growing up because my dad played on his team later in my dad's career was Tracy McGrady. I love watching his game, how he plays, he's been injured lately but I just love watching him.'

With the possibility of following in his father's and brother's footsteps and making an NBA career for himself, he acknowledged there is one team he'd love to play for.

'I definitely can bring the ability to shoot and stretch the defense. I can be a playmaker. When the defense tries to stop the jump shot I can get to the hole and make plays for other people.'

For 11 days starting July 2, Seth's focus is on helping the United States in the FIBA U19 World Championship which features a total of 16 teams competing for the gold medal.

'We really don't know too much about the other team's we'll be playing so we just have to worry about what we do, get better every practice and just focus on what we need to do to win. Everyone on this team can score and does for their college team so no one has to feel like they have to do the scoring. This is really a 12-man team in that sense. It might be one player one night and another player the next night. Everyone here can score so that definitely will make us a difficult team to defend against.'