For nearly two decades, Mike Davis has cherished a photo of his then 7-year-old son smiling alongside a baby-faced LeBron James.
Detroit men’s basketball coach Mercy has caught himself looking at this photo more often this season with the two subjects chasing the story.
“I thought, ‘Is this the all-time leading scorer in NBA history and the all-time leading scorer in college basketball history? “Davis told Yahoo Sports last week. “What a priceless picture it would be if that happened.
This future was about to become reality, but Antoine Davis only needed a flick of the wrist to make it happen. Detroit Mercy’s fifth-year senior missed a rushing 3-point pull-up in the closing seconds of a 71-66 season-ending loss to Youngstown State, leaving him forever three points away from tying the record. Pete Maravich’s career NCAA scorer.
Davis entered Thursday night’s Horizon League quarterfinal 25 points from the 3,667 the legendary Maravich had at LSU from 1967-1970. That seemed like light work for a hard-shooting specialist who averaged a national record 28.4 points this season and had topped 30 in eight of his previous nine games.
The math changed when Youngstown State unveiled a defensive plan designed to compel anyone outside of Davis to try to generate offense. The top-seeded Penguins sent a double team to the 6-foot-1 combo guard every time he attacked on the dribble, every time he saw daylight in transition, every time he curled up around a screen for an opportunity to catch and shoot. Sometimes Davis faced a trap as soon as he crossed midfield.
In response, Davis found a balance between chasing his own shot and looking to set up his teammates. He had seven points at halftime, 15 at the start of the second half and 22 at the final buzzer. It wasn’t until the home stretch that he got ultra-aggressive, raising eight of his 26 shots with the game result up in the final four. -more minutes.
For some, it was a relief that Davis had not claimed a hallowed record that had stood unbroken for more than half a century. They argued that Davis couldn’t be college basketball’s king of legitimate scorers, that his achievement would have come with a tall asterisk. After all, Davis needed 144 games to approach what Maravich did in 83.
Maravich played at LSU at a time when freshmen were not yet college eligible. For three years, he averaged an unfathomable, almost mythical, 44.2 points per game, despite not benefiting from a shot clock or a 3-point line. Due to rule changes brought about by the COVID-19 disruptions, Davis received a waiver from the NCAA allowing him to play five full seasons at Detroit Mercy. He tallied 25.4 points per game for a struggling Titans program that posted losing records in all but one of its five seasons.
The other factor at play was Maravich’s mystique. Pistol Pete became a popular basketball hero during his career, a player whose haircut and floppy socks were of his era but whose crowd-pleasing game was ahead of his time. LSU’s freshman team consistently topped their varsity during Maravich’s first year on campus. Basketball-apathetic SEC City fans flocked to see his lineup of behind-the-back dribbling, no-look assists and jump shots with the zip code following.
Davis, on the other hand, shone in anonymity during an off-the-radar program. Detroit Mercy’s 8,000-seat arena was less than a quarter full on Tuesday night when Davis scored 38 points to extend his team’s season and keep their pursuit of Maravich alive. The 6-foot-1 combo guard’s quest to break the record Thursday night aired on ESPN+.
Even Mike Davis said last week that if his son surpassed Maravich, both of them should be remembered as record holders.
“I feel like Antoine is the top scorer of this generation and Pistol Pete is the top scorer of his generation,” Mike said.