Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis Is Reaching For Pete Maravich’s ‘Unbreakable Record’

Detroit Mercy player Antoine Davis passed Michael Jordan to become the second-highest scorer in Division I men’s basketball history after scoring a season-high 42 points against IUPUI on Jan. 21. LSU’s “Pistol” Pete Maravich is the only player left to be pursued; Davis is 393 points behind him with 11 regular-season games, as well as a potential postseason run, left.

So, we pose the query: Can Davis surpass Michael Jordan as the top scorer in men’s basketball history? Is it actually going to happen? What would be required for him to go down in history?

Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis Is Reaching For Pete Maravich’s ‘Unbreakable Record’

This is how it looks right now:

1. Pete Maravich, LSU, 1967-70: 3,667 points.

2. Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy, 2018-present: 3,288 points.

“My phone consistently blows up on Twitter about Pete Maravich and me, and how he did it in three years and it took me five years to do it. I see it,” Antoine said. “If I let that get to me, if I let that bother me, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I either look at it or don’t look at it, and if I look at it, I look at it as motivation.”

The fact that both Maravich and Davis, who are first and second on the list, had their fathers as coaches throughout college, is a fascinating similarity between them. Press Maravich, who left NC State after two successful seasons and followed his hotshot son to the SEC, served as head coach at LSU from 1966 to 1972. Mike Davis, who has been at Detroit Mercy since 2018, previously led Indiana to the NCAA championship game in 2002, as well as UAB and Texas Southern to the NCAA Tournament. Antoine has been the star of each of his Titans teams.

With Jelly Walker of UAB trailing by over three points, Antoine Davis is now leading the nation in scoring at 26.4 points per game. Despite being well below Maravich’s record of 44.5 points per game set in 1970, Davis is certain to win the season scoring title.

In one game, I believe he shot 45 to 50 times, according to Davis, who spoke to TSN. “I looked at his game log, and I’m not taking anything away from it, but there were instances where he was shooting,” Davis said. “I just couldn’t, ever – like, I’d have to be really, really rolling to shoot like 40 shots.”

Maravich’s average attempts per game during his career was 38.1. Davis is at 20.5 per game for his career and only once attempted 30, last Saturday on the day he passed Williams to become No. 2 in career scoring.

“I’m just enjoying this. I can’t really complain about this at all,” said Davis, who is 6-1, 165 pounds. “I look at it as: I’m No. 1 in my generation in scoring in NCAA history. I look at it like that. But I’m No. 2 all-time.”

NCAA all-time leading scorers
Name, School Years Points
1. Pete Maravich, LSU 1967-70 3,667
2. Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy 2018-23 3,288
3. Freeman Williams, Portland State 1974-78 3,249
4. Chris Clemons, Campbell 2015-19 3,225
5. Lionel Simmons, La Salle 1986-90 3,217

 

Antoine’s production is perhaps most notable for its consistency. He has recorded at least ten points in each game of his career. His career high is “just” 48 points, so his output isn’t boosted by a few games here and there.

With 2,734 points at the start of the year, he was already 22nd all-time. Greats like J.J. Redick of Duke, Allan Houston of Tennessee, and Otis Birdsong of Houston were there in front of him. He would eventually surpass Danny Manning of Kansas, Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina, and Larry Bird of Indiana State.

 

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