Pistol Pete Maravich’s NCAA scoring record could fall

Pistol Pete has spent 53 years sitting atop the NCAA heap, and it is a spot that he richly deserves. Knocking him off his perch is something that rubs basketball fans, and players the wrong way. Even the man who is poised to do it is not sure how he feels.

“Pistol Pete, man. Pistol Pete,” says Antoine Davis, shaking his head. “I mean, the numbers are crazy, right? All those points, in three years, no 3-point line? Incredible.”

And that is the rub. Back when Maravich played, stats were not compiled for freshmen. A distance shooter, he played his entire career, both college and NBA, with no three point line. It was invented just in time for his final season in the pros. He put up 3,667 points in only three years, two by two.

Like Pistol, Antoine Davis is a majority outside shooter, and has been a powerful weapon for Detroit Mercy. As a fifth-year senior, he has had nearly double the number of games to work with as well. So, with all due respect, and taking nothing away from Davis’ outstanding achievement, there are some pretty big questions raised by the numbers.

Had Pete had a fourth season at LSU, or had the three point line been in play at the time, it has been estimated that he would have put up over 4,500 points, a number so mind-boggling as to be almost unbelievable.

But of course, we live in the world of fact, and not “what-ifs.”

Detroit Mercy’s head coach is Mike Davis, Antoine’s father, just as Pete was coached at LSU by his father, Press Maravich. Davis says of Antoine, “I’m so proud that he can even be said in the same breath with Pistol Pete, cause, man, you know Pistol Pete! I know Pistol Pete, and there’s no player more special than Pistol Pete. But fact is, that was a different generation. I wish they had records for then, and records for now, because I’m torn by it. Really. I loved Pistol Pete. I used his videos to train Antoine for goodness sake!”

That’s the thing about Pete Maravich. Breaking his record feels almost sacrilegious. He belongs to a pantheon of sports stars who are untouchable. He was basketball’s virtuoso, the closest thing to pure genius ever seen on the court.

Davis will break the record, surely. If not now, soon. But when he does, the new number will always have a bold asterisk next to it.