UMBC men’s basketball player Max Curran is ready to embark on a new journey this season. After spending most of his career playing power-forward and small-forward, Curran is making a change. This season, he will be spending much of his time at the center position. This presents him with some unique challenges, but also provides him with some interesting advantages over other centers. Curran has the height for center, but he has a slender build, which gives him an advantage with his speed, and his impressive shooting ability from behind the arch gives UMBC some dynamic options on offense.
Curran started playing basketball when he was four years old. He has a sister who is two years older than him, so his father, Ben put him on a team with his sister. Ever since he started playing on that girl’s team, his love for basketball has flourished, and become a major part in his life.
Curran never saw himself as a Division I basketball player when he was younger; his first love was always baseball, and through middle school he played soccer and baseball along with basketball. He even thought that baseball was his best sport, before he hit a growth spurt in high school, reaching a towering height of 6’8. Curran noticed that he had a keen shooting ability, and started working daily on his basketball skills. He eventually came to the realization that he could play basketball at the Division I level, and set all other sports aside.
After scoring 19.2 points per game at Pembrook Academy his senior year, Curran committed to the University of Milwaukee, where he was slated to begin his college career. But, with only two tournament games left in the season, he uncommitted from the university. It was then that he received a phone call from UMBC coach Ryan Odom, who offered him a scholarship to play for the Retrievers. Without even visiting the university, Curran accepted the offer, and eventually went on to play in one of the biggest upsets in American sports history, as UMBC defeated the University of Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Aside from his work on the court, Curran is a sociology major. He came to UMBC as an undecided freshman, but he eventually chose sociology due to the influence of some of his teammates. Curran is unsure about what he wants to do when he graduates, admitting that right now he is just “going with the flow.”
When he’s not playing basketball, Curran is a bit of a homebody. He admittedly does not go out much, as many of his favorite activities do not require him to leave the house. His favorite thing to do is simply hanging out with his girlfriend. When he is at home, he enjoys watching movies like Interstellar, Happy Gilmore or Invincible. Curran also enjoys playing Fortnite, the popular battle royale game that has swept the world over in recent months. He enjoys playing with friends, and frequently plays with fellow UMBC teammate Brandon Horvath.
Curran’s biography page on the UMBC website lists him as an experienced Pokemon Go trainer. Pokemon Go is a smartphone app that encourages people to walk around to find wild Pokemon, take over gyms and do raid battles to catch rare Pokemon. But, Curran says that he hasn’t played the game in years. Curran laughed when reminded of this old information in his bio, saying, “That was my freshman year when that game was hot, they gotta erase that, they gotta take that down.”
