LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Thank you, Antoine Davis. Thank you so much.
Thank you for scoring all those points, launching yourself into position to become college basketball’s all-time leading scorer when your Detroit Mercy team plays Youngstown State in the Horizon League Tournament on Thursday night.
Thank you for pulling us along on your fascinating journey. Once, you were the irrepressible tiny boy who ran around your father’s basketball practices and press conferences during Indiana University’s 2002 Final Four run. Now, you’re the strong, confident young man who has consistently excelled over five seasons for your dad, coach Mike Davis, at Detroit.
But thank you most of all for this:
Reminding us about those wonderful three seasons when Pete Maravich rocked and rolled and roamed and ruled the court at Louisiana State.
Guys like Maravich and Calvin Murphy at Niagara and Rick Mount at Purdue and Austin Carr at Notre Dame created a generation of fans that have adored the college game for years. Like me.
I would say those dudes could score.
But Pistol Pete would quickly correct me. Those dudes could entertain. Their dynamic ability to score helped move the game from its regional base to a national conversation.
"Shooting is nothing. Anybody can shoot," Maravich once famously said. "The big thrill is putting on a show for the crowd."
There’s a lot of fussing going on today about Davis and what the NCAA should do with its record book if Antoine scores the 26 points he needs to overtake Maravich’s career total of 3,667.
Nothing to fuss about. Give Davis his standing ovation as well as a line in the record book with 44 asterisks.
Because 44.2 points is what Maravich averaged over three seasons at Louisiana State. (Davis has never averaged more than 28.4 in any of his five seasons.)
Pistol performed without a three-point shot. Or a shot clock. But, to be honest, with a coach (father Press Maravich) who let him crank an average of 38 field goal attempts per game.
Some context. Davis is the nation’s leading shot-taker this season at 19.5.
More context: Louisville, Kentucky and Indiana are all averaging 60 or fewer shots per game.
With freshman eligibility and an extra season because of COVID-19, Davis will play his 144th game Thursday. Maravich played 83 at LSU.
If Pistol would have played 144 games and maintained his career average of 44.2, Maravich would have pushed the record to 6,365 points.
Without the shot clock or three-point shot.
This should not be complicated nor controversial. Two players. Two records. Two eras. We should have plenty of love for both of them.
But with his Beatles haircut, floppy gray socks and haunting eyes, Maravich was an unforgettable face in the front row of a wave of players that helped grow the game.
And "The Pistol" did it during a time when most of the country had to follow along by reading about his achievements — in newspapers or magazines. Telephones didn’t have screens. They had cords and party lines.
Unless you grew up in an area that carried the Southeastern Conference game of the week, you likely never saw Maravich play on television.
But you wanted to.
You wanted to see him take the ball between his legs and then flip it toward the rim. You wanted to see those 35-foot look-away bounces passes. You wanted to see the wild collection of hook shots, set shots and reverse layups. People lined up to see him warm up — the same way they do it for Steph Curry today. It was a show.
You wanted to see him if he could go off for 61 (Vanderbilt), 64 (Kentucky), 66 (Tulane) or 69 (Alabama). You wanted to see him use the glass or spin the basketball like a yo-yo.
But you couldn’t because his LSU teams never came close to making the NCAA Tournament. Only one team per conference, please.
I was finally able to watch Maravich play the last game of his college career.
It took the Tigers getting to the national semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament, where they played Al McGuire and Marquette in Madison Square Garden.
As I remember, the game was not aired by any of the Chicago television stations. Maravich was a Serb. I grew up in Serbian home. Word spread in the Serbian community in the Chicago area, that a television station in South Bend was carrying the broadcast.
That inspired my father to drag the ladder out of the garage, climb on an icy roof and re-direct our UHF antenna East toward South Bend so we could watch the broadcast.
It worked. Wasn’t the world’s clearest black-and-white picture. But it worked.
McGuire was a Hall of Fame coach, who later led the Marquette to the 1977 NCAA title. For most of the game, he guarded Maravich with two players, refusing to let him touch the ball.
Boooooo.
That defense also worked. Maravich was limited to 13 shots. He made four. The tactics were a tad aggressive. Pistol did shoot 16 free throws, making 12. The 20 points tied his season low. LSU lost, 81-79.
Already unsettled by all the commotion stirred by fans pursuing him at the team hotel in New York City, Maravich sat out LSU’s consolation game finale against Bob Knight and Army.
So ended the Maravich era. But guys like Pistol, Murphy, Carr and Mount convinced the television guys there was a greater appetite for the college game.
And they inspired NCAA leaders to add more teams to the tournament. You can market stars.
You can honor them, too. And on the day when Davis is positioned to eclipse Maravich’s record, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate the gifts both players have given to the game.
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