It’s been six years since a scrawny guard from Charlotte, N.C., danced into the hearts of thousands while leading tiny Davidson College to the Elite 8 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

The Wildcats have made the NCAA Tournament twice since then, but have failed to win a game there. That same guard, though, has been doing his fair share of winning.

Stephen Curry didn’t have a single scholarship offer from a major-conference school. If he were a free agent in the NBA today, he’d have a good amount of options, that’s for sure.

Good for the Golden State Warriors, they have him locked up for another three years. Curry has been the leading catalyst on a Warriors team that is 25-14 overall and winners of 12 of their last 14 games.

Curry, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2009 draft by Golden State, leads the team in points, assists and steals. He’s shooting the ball at a 43.9 percent clip in addition to making 38.8 percent of his three-pointers and 86.5 percent of his free throws. Curry has scored at least 30 points in nine games this year and averages 23.9 points per game.

But, the sharpshooting ability that Curry possesses along with the way he can spread the ball around on offense are not what makes him the star he is today.

It’s his killer instinct.

Curry thrives in the clutch, in those situations where all eyes are on him and every move he makes influences the ultimate outcome of the game. He was Davidson’s go-to guy when the Wildcats were making national headlines in the NCAA Tournament, and he has now taken on a similar role in Golden State.

He’s hit two game-winning shots for the Warriors in 2013-2014 – Dec. 11 against Dallas and Jan. 10 against Boston – and told ESPN in December that he would list himself second behind only Michael Jordan in ranking some of the best closers in NBA history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3TxesOJ308

The fact that he didn’t shy away from doing that shows this side of him. Curry plays with a high amount of confidence from the second he steps on the court until the second he steps off of it. He lives for the big moments, as any athlete should.

I feel like Curry is one of the guys that doesn’t ask to take the shot down the stretch with the game on the line – he tells his teammates and coaches that he’s going to take it. Not in the sense that he’s overly cocky or a bad teammate, but in the light that those are the moments he trusts his game and his instincts to make the right decision. Simply, he’s been in these types of situations before and thrived, so why wouldn’t he excel in right then and there?

At the same time, though, it shows the foundation he’s built with his teammates and coaches. They trust him. They enjoy playing with him. There’s no major team issue with chemistry or egos that you sometimes see in situations with players like Curry. Instead, it’s just something that sets him apart from the rest.

Curry has also made every effort possible to improve his game both individually and as a teammate. Through his three seasons at Davidson, Curry saw increases in his scoring average each year, but also his assists per game number. Over the last two seasons, Curry has increased his assists average by exactly four per game while averaging nine more points per game as well.

https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/416962071604240385

Curry posted double-figure scoring tallies in nine games of a recent 10-game winning streak for Golden State. He had at least 10 assists in six of those games, though, too.

Sure, it’s only his fifth NBA season, and the 25-year old has a lot of learning to do on the court. But with a killer instinct like his, Stephen Curry will be coming in clutch for years to come.