Carolinas' best pure shooters, college version

Where does Davidson's Stephen Curry rank on our list of college basketball in the Carolinas' best pure shooters ever? Hint: It's not first.

Welcome to the O List, a blog of lists from The Observer -- and, we hope, readers -- of just about anything to do with sports in the Carolinas.

Disagree with us? That's part of the point, because the lists are subjective. Have a suggestion for a list? Post it in the comments.

We'll start with our list of the best pure shooters I've ever seen play basketball in the Carolinas. We're limiting this first O-List to colleges and to our area. Remember, this isn't about who is the best athlete; we'll save Michael Jordan and David Thompson for that list. And we're limiting this one to the last 40 years or so because well, I didn't see many guys before that.

-- Stan Olson

5. Charlie Scott, North Carolina, 1966-70: Scott was streaky and had the added pressure of doing his bit to break the ACC's color barrier in a meaningful way. But when he was hot, he could carry a team. Check out the 1969 ACC Tournament championship game, when he rallied the Tar Heels past Duke by making 12 of his 13 second half shots. He scored 28 points in the period, 40 for the game. Of those 13 shots, one was a layup. The others were from behind a three-point line that didn't exist at the time. Eleven of them swished. The other went in and out. If you saw that game, you still remember.

4. Rodney Monroe, N.C. State, 1988-91: He could score on the drive and off the dribble, but his jump shot was a thing of beauty, pure as the driven snow. And it's that smooth and fluid jumper from the perimeter that I remember him for. He is still the leading three-point shooter (.439 percentage) in ACC history. Monroe and Chris Corchiani made up arguably the best backcourt the league ever had (hey, another list).

3. J.J. Redick, Duke, 2003-06: Maybe you hated -- well, intensely disliked -- this guy, and a lot of folks did. But even they admitted that J.J. could flat fill it up. And he always seemed to start filling when the Blue Devils needed him most. Sure, his teammates set a zillion screens for him, but he still had to make all those shots. And you want pure? Redick is the ACC's all-time leader in free throw percentage at .912. Twice, in 2005 and '06, he was the league's Player of the Year.

2. Stephen Curry, Davidson, 2006-present: Do yourself a favor and go see Curry play before he's finished at Davidson. There are subtleties in his game that don't translate as well on TV as they do when you're in the arena. Watching him shoot is a treat in itself; the operation appears effortless. If ever they decide to remake "The Natural" as a basketball movie, Curry is the logical star. Consider that he has won the Southern Conference Player of the Week award six times this season, and 14 in his career. They should put his name on it and retire it. He leads the nation in scoring at 29.5, but I believe he could average 40 if he wanted to; he's also in the top ten nationally in assists.

1. John Gerdy, Davidson, 1975-79: You had to see him to believe him, and not that many people did. Gerdy was pretty much the only weapon on several of the Wildcats' poorer teams, but wound up the leading scorer in school history against defenses geared to stop him. That was without a three-point line, and long-range jumpers were his specialty.

After a sensational performance against South Carolina, Gamecocks coach Frank McGuire said simply that Gerdy was the best shooter he had ever seen. Gerdy almost personally upset then No.4-ranked Wake Forest by himself. The Deacons won on a last second shot, 70-68. Gerdy had 40 of those 68, on 18-of-24 shooting. Deacons coach Carl Tacy said, "We played a box-and-one on Gerdy. We should have played the box on Gerdy and the one on the rest of those guys."

As far as I'm concerned, he was the best there ever was.

Think someone else belongs on the list, or that we've got guys out of order? State your case in the comments section.