Antoine Davis is on the verge of breaking a scoring record that was once considered untouchable, and somehow still is.
Detroit Mercy’s star guard needs just 26 points to pass Pete Maravich as the NCAA career leader. Davis, who leads the nation with an average of 28.4 points per game, can break “Pistol” Pete’s revered 53-year mark Thursday night in a Horizon League tournament game against top-seeded Youngstown State.
Davis scored 38 Tuesday night in a win over Purdue Fort Wayne to move past the eighth-seeded Titans and close in on the mark Maravich set as an All-American for LSU from 1967-70.
Just weeks after LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s career scoring leader, Davis has a chance to surpass Maravich, the Hall of Famer his father made him study while learning to play as a child.
A gifted shooter and scorer, the soft-spoken 6-foot-1 Davis will have his work cut out for him against the Penguins, who held him to 15 points on Jan. 29 at Youngstown State. He also dropped 32 in the first meeting this season.
Davis already holds several NCAA records, including consecutive games in double figures (143) and triple figures (584). He is seven 3 seconds shy of Stephen Curry’s record of 162 in a season.
Davis has scored 3,642 points in 142 games, while Maravich needed just 83 to reach 3,667 over three seasons for the Tigers, when he was known as much for a shaggy haircut and saggy socks as for his magic on the court.
Unlike Davis, who was granted a fifth year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maravich didn’t play as a freshman (he wasn’t allowed then) and there wasn’t a line either. 3-pointers or a shot clock. putting a premium on each possession.
It’s mind-boggling to consider that Maravich, who died in 1988 at age 40 after suffering a heart attack while playing in a pickup game, averaged 44.2 points without making a single 3-pointer.
Along with their propensity for scoring, Davis and Maravich share something else: They both played college ball while being coached by their parents.
Mike Davis has credited losing his job at UAB and moving his family to Houston, where his son, then in high school, worked with former NBA coach John Lucas, with the career change from his playing career.
To supplement the hours of work with Lucas, Davis had his son watch instructional videos of Maravich, who had a knack for making dribbling, passing and shooting look easy.
“A lot of times people can do things, but they can’t teach,” Mike Davis told Yahoo Sports. “Pete could teach it. The way he explained how he did things, it was so simple. You didn’t have to be a basketball coach to understand.”
Report from The Associated Press.
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