The college basketball bandwagon gets crowded this time of year, everyone jumping on board looking for that wild tournament ride. Pembroke Academy grad Max Curran is doing more than that – he’s one of the guys with a March Madness steering wheel in his hands.
Curran is a 6-foot-9 sophomore forward for UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), the No. 16 seed in the South region that will face the top-ranked team in the country, Virginia, in a first-round game on Friday night in Charlotte.
“I’ve definitely been dreaming about this since I was a little kid in middle school and then all the way through high school,” said Curran, who helped Pembroke to the 2014 Division II title as a junior. “I always knew it was possible and I just worked every day like it could happen sometime, and stuff played out and worked out they way it did, so I’m just grateful.”
Stuff has played out in a winding way for Curran on his way to the NCAA Tournament.
After playing just 6.9 minutes per game as a freshman last year, Curran started the first nine games of this season for the Retrievers (24-10). But then he lost his starting spot, and after a concussion in late December, he fell out of the playing rotation all together.
“That was tough. I was getting frustrated, but I talked to my dad and my girlfriend and they told me to stay positive and keep working and you’re going to get what you deserve, so that’s what I tried to do,” Curran said. “I just tried to stay positive and I was lucky enough to get another chance to get back in the rotation right before the playoffs started and I kind of got a little groove going.”
After not playing in back-to-back games on Feb. 18 and 21, Curran came off the bench for a combined 20 minutes in UMBC’s final two regular-season games and scored a total of 10 points. Then he played 12 minutes, scored seven points, grabbed five rebounds and had a block in the second-seeded Retrievers’ 89-77 win in the America East quarterfinals against No. 7 UMass-Lowell. He kept it up in the semifinals with four points and four boards in a 75-60 victory against Hartford.
Then, in Saturday’s final against Vermont, Curran played his best when it mattered most. He was on the floor for the final 4:40 of the game, throwing down a dunk with 2:49 on the clock to tie things at 60-60 and coming up with the defensive play that helped the Retrievers acquire an early taste of madness.
“Max has been huge for our team down the stretch of the season,” UMBC coach Ryan Odom said. “His block on the last defensive stand at Vermont gave us a chance to win.”
After that block, Jairus Lyles hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Retrievers a 65-62 win and a ticket to the big dance.
“It’s just crazy after the way the whole year played out that coach had enough confidence in me to put me in for the last five minutes. I was just grateful to be a part of it,” Curran said. “And on that last shot, I was so confident in Jairus. You can’t even count how many times he hit game winners when we were playing pickup, but when he made it, I was still in shock. I didn’t even know how to react. But to see him make that shot, it was the greatest feeling in the world.”
Curran said, “the mood on campus was just crazy,” when the team got back from Vermont, and that a crowd of cheering students came to see the team off as they left for Charlotte on Tuesday. The mood on the team has stayed loose as they’ve practiced at Queens University of Charlotte in preparation for Virginia (31-2).
“We’ve just got to hit a lot of 3-pointers because they do a great job on defense, but we’re just thinking we don’t have anything to lose, so we’re just going to play ball like we normally play ball,” Curran said. “A 16 seed has never won, so we’re going to have fun with it and see what happens. But we don’t think it’s impossible, we definitely think we can play with them.”
Maybe Curran can deliver the play that will help a No. 16 finally topple a No. 1. It would fit the rest of his improbable college basketball story.
After graduating from Pembroke in 2015, Curran spent a year at Notre Dame Prep School in Fitchburg, Mass. He had just averaged 19.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game in his final season at PA, but Curran saw almost no playing time at Notre Dame. Worried that his stock was dropping, Curran accepted a scholarship to play at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the only Division I school that was offering him.
But the coach who recruited Curran to Milwaukee was fired, and the new staff was telling Curran he might not get much playing time if he came to Wisconsin. So Curran decommitted and immediately got in touch with a former AAU coach in Minnesota, where he lived with his father for his sophomore year of high school (Curran was born in Manchester and went to Manchester Central as a freshman).
His old coach told him to get on a plane and come to a tournament in, of all places, Milwaukee. Curran did just that and packed his “A” game for the trip. Odom saw video of that tournament, came out to see Curran play in another AAU tournament in Las Vegas and then offered him a scholarship to UMBC.
“I had a bunch of other schools talking to me, but I felt like coach Odom was giving me an opportunity,” Curran said. “So I told him I don’t need a visit or anything, I’m just going to commit, sign and get to school, because I was just grateful for the opportunity to have another chance to play Division I.”
Curran has improved significantly during his time in Baltimore, especially on the defensive end. But he credits his time at Pembroke for giving him the foundation he needed to succeed at the next level.
“Being with Pat Welch and Matt Alosa, those are the two guys who got me better,” Curran said, referring to his former teammate and coach, respectively, at PA. “I wasn’t even that good at basketball until I started working with Pat and Matt, those two really had the most effect on my game and turning me into the player I am now.”
Curran plans on working out with Welch this summer, just like he did last summer, as he prepares for his final two seasons of college ball.
“I’m excited about what the future has in store for Max,” Odom said. “He brings a different look to our front court with his athleticism and skill behind the line.”
The future can wait for now, though. Curran and the Retrievers still have some dancing and madness in front of them.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341, tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)