Taking the Shot: The Davidson Basketball Moment First edition by Michael Kruse (2008) Paperback

The basketball team from Davidson College captivated the country in the 2008 NCAA tournament. It was more than just a Cinderella story. There was Bob McKillop, a coach who preached balance and family. There was Jason Richards, a gritty point guard who went from sitting on the bench to leading the nation in assists. And there was of course a baby-faced, just-turned-20 Stephen Curry, the fledgling superstar who wrote scripture on his sneakers and made shot after shot from all over the court. It led to a singular and unforgettable moment.

In Taking the Shot, Michael Kruse, a Davidson graduate and award-winning reporter, tells the tale of hope, trust and togetherness. This is the story of not just the start of the legend of Stephen Curry but of that moment as a whole and why it meant so much to so many.

From the book: "It wasn't a feeling of imminent victory. What it was, was an overwhelming feeling of opportunity. The chance. We can win this. It was, for some alums, particularly for those who had been boys during the Lefty years of the 1960s, something like a reawakening of the possibility of national success. Two days after that, late in the second half of the comeback against Georgetown, one fan turned to his left and looked down his row in Raleigh and saw a white-haired alum with a single tear running down his cheek and then turned back to his young son and asked him to please watch this game close."

Michael Kruse has been a staff writer at the St. Petersburg Times since 2005. Before that, he was the editor of the ACC Basketball Handbook, a senior writer for Basketball America and the writer at large for the Times Herald-Record in New York. His work also has appeared in The Sporting News, ESPN The Magazine and Charlotte and Cleveland magazines, and on cbs.sportsline.com and ESPN.com. Kruse was born outside of Los Angeles and raised outside of Boston. He graduated in 2000 from Davidson College in North Carolina and now lives in Florida.