BATON ROUGE — This column is not a defense of Pete Maravich.
No one could successfully defend the Pistol for any length of time, so why start now?
This is just a reminder that LSU basketball legend Pete Maravich’s place in college basketball history is incomparable, no matter how many narratives have been shoved down our throats anytime one of today’s players challenges the NCAA men’s career scoring record of 3,667 points he established in 83 games through three varsity seasons.
Last year, it was Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis scoring 3,664 points in 144 games in five varsity seasons. Since Mercy finished 14-19, not one rinky-dink cash and carry-created out-of-thin air post-season-tourney outside the legit NCAA and NIT tourneys bothered to invite Mercy just so he could break Maravich’s record.
This season, it’s Iowa women’s star Caitlin Clark, who has scored 3,617 points in 128 games heading into Iowa’s Wednesday night date at Minnesota.
She will surpass Maravich’s numbers probably in a home game on Sunday. When that happens, Clark, who has averaged 32.1 points this season and 28.3 for her career, will have played 47 more games than Maravich. That fact alone that makes the likely ESPN-driven narrative she’s about to become all-time college basketball’s leading scorer extremely hollow.
She’s not even women’s college basketball’s all-time leading scorer.
Pearl Moore scored 4,061 points in four seasons from 1975 to 1979 for Francis Marion University. There’s also Lynette Woodard, who scored 3,649 points for Kansas from 1978-81.
Both schools were members of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, the governing body of women’s athletics before the NCAA took over that duty in 1981-82. NCAA snobbery has never recognized any national championships won or records set in the AIAW era.
By the way, Pearl, Woodard, Lucy Harris of Delta State and Nancy Liberman of Old Dominion are all former NAIA greats who have been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Which makes the NCAA’s omission of AIAW stats and accomplishments even more insulting.
Just as absurd is the Maravich-Clark comparison. The only things they have in common are rail-thin physiques and competitive fire.
The obvious arguments why Maravich and Clark’s career scoring numbers aren’t comparable – there was no 3-point line, no shot clock and no freshman eligibility when Maravich played collegiately (therefore his 741 points in 19 games on the freshman team don’t count his career totals) – are all valid.
Yes, if Maravich played when there was a 3-point line, his career scoring average of 44.2 points per game would have jumped well into the 50s.
Having watched all 48 of Maravich’s home games (37 varsity, 11 freshman) in person, I can safely estimate at least 10 of his 16.7 made field goals per game in varsity play would have been behind today’s 3-point line.
Forty-one percent of Clark’s points are from 3-pointers.
With no shot clock, there were games for Maravich when opponents slowed their offense to a crawl, like in his senior season when LSU played at Oregon State.
Offensively, OSU slowed the game with long periods of passing the ball back and forth to each other. While playing defense, a frustrated Maravich sat on the floor at one point in front of OSU guard Freddie Boyd (who had the ball) and told Boyd, “Can you make a layup now?
Defensively, the Beavers decided to foul Maravich frequently and physically wear him out. OSU held the Pistol to 8 field goals … but he drained 30 of 31 free throws (the 30 made freebies still stands as an NCAA single-game record) and finished with 46 points in an 86-75 win.
Clark hasn’t consistently faced gimmick defenses designed to solely stop her. She probably hasn’t seen many box-and-1 alignments or triangle-and-2 schemes or constant double-teams or defenders physically trying to knock the snot out of her every possession.
Maravich faced all of that. Every game. Every minute. Every possession.
His detractors say his scoring average was directly related to his 38.1 field goal attempts a game, the byproduct of LSU head coach Press Maravich (Pete’s dad) giving him the greenest light in college basketball history.
That can’t be denied. But think of how hard Maravich had to work to launch almost 40 attempts, the pressure he had to score his average every time he suited up because every team wanted to jam the Pistol.
Maravich scored 30 or more points in almost 90 percent (74 of 83) of his varsity games – 4 games in the 60s, 24 in the 50s, 29 in the 40s and 17 in the 30s.
Clark has scored 30 points or more in 41.4 percent of her college games (53 of 128) – 12 games in the 40s, 41 in the 30s).
Nice numbers, but nowhere near Maravich’s universe.
The one thing Clark will never hear from her fan base when scoring in the 30s in a game that Maravich did hear when his scoring dipped below 40 is this:
“Man, Pete just seemed off tonight. He didn’t play that great.”
Yep, that much was expected from him every game.
So, congrats Caitlin Clark for an excellent college career and for being the inspiration for thousands of little girls with big dreams.
But you’re not Pete Maravich.
Not unless you can score 44.2 points per game for your entire career and throw some of the most wildly imaginative passes anyone has ever seen before and since.
There’s been only one Pistol Pete. And no one – man, woman or alien – will ever replicate his points, passing and panache.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com