DETROIT — As he sat among the small gathering of Davidson faithful amid the Ford Field expanse, Dell Curry was just another proud papa Thursday afternoon.

He wasn't famous. He wasn't one of the NBA's all-time best 3-point shooters.

He was, simply, Stephen Curry's dad.

"Any parent wants his child to do well," Dell said, sharing a row with Tom Richards (point guard Jason's father) and several other moms and dads.

"Nervousness and excitement are off the charts at this point."

So is the nostalgia.

When 10th-seeded Davidson faces the third-seeded University of Wisconsin in Friday night's NCAA men's basketball tournament Midwest Regional semifinal, Stephen (pronounced STEFF-en) Curry will be center stage.

The 6-foot-3, 185-pound baby-faced sophomore scored 70 points in the Wildcats' first two games — 40 against seventh-seeded Gonzaga, the school's first NCAA victory since 1969, and 30 (25 in the second half) of last Sunday's upset of No. 2 seed Georgetown — and is averaging 25.7 points per game heading into Friday.

"We've faced some players who are pretty good," UW coach Bo Ryan said, "but I don't know if we faced a player that's as hot as he is right now."

That hot streak has been simmering since Dell Curry, who played 16 years in the NBA (including the lockout-shortened 1999-2000 season with the Milwaukee Bucks) introduced his son to basketball shortly after his birth and indoctrinated him with countless practices, shootarounds and games.

"He went to his first NBA game when he was two weeks old," said Dell, who was with the Cleveland Cavaliers at the time, before playing 10 years with the expansion Charlotte Hornets.

"He wasn't a kid that would run around and needed to be babysat — he'd sit with a ball in his hands and watch and observe. As long as he had a Gatorade and we were practicing, he was happy."

Dell and wife Sonja, Stephen's mom, both graduated from and played sports at Virginia Tech (Dell basketball and baseball; Sonja volleyball and basketball) and hoped their son would play there, too.

But the Hokies wanted him to walk on as a freshman and wait a year for a scholarship. With little other interest, he headed to Davidson, a 1,700-student private college in North Carolina, about 20 miles north of Charlotte.

"Everything happens for a reason," said Dell, who twice played in the NCAA tournament at Virginia Tech but never won a game. "Whenever you're being recruited, you definitely know who wants you and who doesn't. And Davidson wanted him the most."

Not that Virginia Tech was the only school to miss out.

"He's a kid where — (the) University of North Carolina included — we can say, 'Hey, we missed that kid,' " UNC coach Roy Williams said after Curry scored 24 points against the Tar Heels earlier this season.

The question, of course, is how much Stephen, who lacks size but has his dad's incredibly quick release and long-range accuracy, is blessed genetically, and how much of his success is the result of growing up around the game.

"He was always a good player, a smart player, a good ballhandler, but he was always the smallest kid on whever team he played on," said Dell, who always kept the family hoop at the regulation 10 feet to make sure Stephen didn't develop bad shooting form.

"Genes are big, and being around him growing up, I just kind of naturally wanted to play basketball," said Stephen, who had 30 points against Maryland in the tournament last year, making him one of six players — Glenn Robinson, Jerry Chambers, Clyde Lovellette, Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain being the others — to score at least 30 points in each of his first three NCAA tournament games.

"But at a certain point, your genes stop and you have to really work on your game. Genes will take you a long way, but working hard takes you further."

Now, there's no telling how far it might take him and the Wildcats.

"There was an alumni function in Charlotte (before Curry's freshman season) and I stood up in front of this group of very engaged alums, and told them, 'Wait 'til you see Steph Curry, he is something special,' " Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. "That is something now that I feel very, very good that I said that, because I look like a prophet."