Pete Maravich’s NCAA scoring record: Will Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis break career points total?

Detroit Mercy guard Antoine Davis will be linked with LSU’s Pete Maravich no matter how the Horizon League tournament plays out over the next few days.

Davis has 3,604 career points ahead of Tuesday’s first round matchup against Purdue Fort Wayne at 7 p.m. (ESPN+). Davis is 63 points behind Maravich’s legendary all-time scoring record, set with the Tigers from 1967-70.

Make no mistake, the numbers behind Maravich’s record are just that. Legendary.

“Pistol Pete” scored 3,667 points, and only 11 men’s basketball players have scored more than 3,000 points at the Division I level.

Here’s a look at some amazing facts behind Maravich’s goal record, which Davis will be looking to break this week.

Pete Maravich’s NCAA scoring record

Maravich averaged 44.2 points per game throughout his career and ranks first, fourth, and fifth for points in a single season. The three-year point totals and averages are staggering to say the least.

College Stats by Pete Maravich

YEAR	GAMES	POINTS	PPG.
1967-68	26	1.138	43.8
1698-69	26	1.148	44.2
1969-70	31	1,381	44.5
BUZZ	83	3,667	44.2

The 1,381 points and 44.5 points per game in Maravich’s senior season are also NCAA single-season records; the crown jewels among countless records Maravich set during his time at LSU.

More records from Pete Maravich

Maravich had 56 games with at least 40 points, 28 games with at least 50 points, and four games with at least 60 points. He scored a career-high 69 points on February 7, 1970 against Alabama.

Two weeks later, Maravich scored 64 points and Kentucky’s Dan Issel scored 51 points for a total of 115 points, another NCAA record.

A few more gems from the NCAA record book:

– Maravich set the NCAA record for single free throw games on December 22, 1969 with 30 free throws in 31 attempts against Oregon State. Maravich shot 77.3% from the free throw line in his career.

– Maravich had 1,138 points in 1968, which finished second to Houston’s Elvin Hayes, who had 1,214 points that season. Of course, Hayes played in seven more games.

– Maravich has the points-per-game record for senior, junior and sophomore. Who has the points per game for a freshman? LSU’s Chris Jackson set that record in 1989 with 30.2 points per game.

Pete Maravich: No shot clock or 3-point line

That’s yet another wrinkle that makes all those record-breaking feats that much more spectacular. When Maravich played at LSU, there was no shot clock or 3-point line, two factors that make the field goal total even more amazing.

Maravich has also never played in the NCAA tournament, and the 83-game total makes that score even more impressive.

Former LSU coach Dale Brown said in an interview with The (Lafayette, La.) Daily Advertiser on Feb. 22, 2023 Maravich could have averaged 10 more points per game if he was using a 3-point line and no shot clock would have played.

“If there was a 3-point line, I think he would have had nine points more per game just from the shots he made where he made them,” Brown said. “If he had known there was a 3-point shot, or if there had been a shot clock to speed things up, his record would have been absolutely impossible (to break). Houdini couldn’t break his record.”

Pete Maravich vs Antoine Davis

Davis – the son of Detroit Mercy coach Mike Davis – is a fifth-year player averaging 25.4 points per game ahead of Tuesday’s game against Purdue Fort Wayne. Antoine spoke to SN’s Mike DeCourcy earlier this season about chasing Maravich’s record.

“My phone keeps exploding on Twitter about Pete Maravich and me and how he made it in three years and it took me five years to do it. I see it,” Antoine told The Sporting News. “If I let that come my way, if I let that bother me, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I either watch it or I don’t watch it, and when I watch it, I watch it as an encouragement.”

There are some differences in career numbers. Davis will play in his 143rd game, 60 games more than Maravich played in college. Maravich, on the other hand, needed 3,166 shot attempts — that’s more than Davis’s 2,934. Davis has eight games of 40 or more points for his career.

Antoine Davis vs. Pete Maravich career stats

DAVIS	STATISTICS	MARAVICH
142	games	83
3,604	Points	3,667
23.4	PPG. (Career)	44.2
20.7	Shots per game (career)	38.1
5.0	FTs per game (career)	13.9

Davis made 578 three-pointers, and if you subtract a point for each of those points, Davis would be at 3,026 points.

Will Antoine Davis break Pete Maravich’s record?

Detroit Mercy is a four-point favorite against Purdue Fort Wayne on Tuesday, and a win would mean a matchup against a top three seed in the Horizon League on Thursday.

Davis would need to average 31.5 points per game over those two games to break the record. He’s scored 27 or more points in each of the Titans’ last eight games, and he’s averaging 34 points per game in that eight-game streak. If Detroit Mercy wins its first game, it could happen Thursday night.