5 issues to know as Antoine Davis is about to move ‘Pistol’ Pete’s scoring file

On Thursday, historical past may very well be achieved if Antoine Davis, the Detroit Mercy star, scores 26 factors in his staff’s matchup towards Youngstown State within the Horizon League match quarterfinals (8 p.m. ET on ESPN+) and passes “Pistol” Pete Maravich on the profession scoring listing. He wants 25 factors to tie the mark.

For a number of generations, Maravich’s file of three,667 factors in three seasons at LSU at all times appeared too unimaginable to pursue. After all, he did it averaging 44.2 factors per recreation with no 3-point line. (It’s value noting, although, that throughout males’s and ladies’s Division I hoops, Kelsey Plum bought to inside 140 factors of him in 4 seasons at Washington.)

But the extra 12 months granted to all gamers due to COVID allowed Davis, who now has 3,642 factors in his profession, to return to Detroit Mercy for a fifth season. He has averaged 25.5 PPG in his 5 seasons, which additionally contains the NCAA file for profession 3-pointers (584 and counting).

In girls’s faculty basketball, Kelsey Plum — who performed at Washington — set the ladies’s file with 3,527 factors, then passing Jackie Stiles.

Davis respects Maravich and his file. He by no means thought he’d come near breaking it, however he just lately advised ESPN that he is grateful for the expertise.

“Yeah, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t [think about Maravich’s record],” Davis advised ESPN after shifting into the No. 2 slot earlier this season. “It’s a big accomplishment. At the end of the day, No. 2 with 3,274 points is something that’s never been done either, so I’m just playing and having fun and enjoying this.”

Here are 5 issues to learn about Davis as he makes an attempt to interrupt the Division I profession scoring mark.

He practically left his father’s college final summer season

At Detroit, Davis is coached by his father, Mike Davis. That bond has helped him develop as a participant. Last summer season, nonetheless, he entered the switch portal and talked to a number of faculties, together with BYU and Maryland, as a result of he needed to show himself towards high-level competitors. He determined, nonetheless, to remain at Detroit and make an try to guide this system to its first NCAA match look in additional than a decade. “I just felt like it wouldn’t have felt right playing somewhere else or ending my career somewhere at a big school, even though that’s what I really wanted to do,” he advised ESPN. “I feel like I made the right decision. I love the team that we have. I love this university so much. They’ve treated me so well since the first day I stepped on campus.”

He used to look at Maravich’s movies when he was child

When he was a younger participant, Davis realized about Maravich by means of YouTube. Maravich’s coaching movies, which present the Hall of Famer dribbling between his legs and round his again, turned a mannequin for Davis, who tried to implement the identical strikes into his recreation. “I don’t take anything away from Pistol Pete,” he stated. “He’s a great scorer. And my dad is always telling me how great of a scorer he was. … I’ve heard so much about Pistol Pete. I’ve always known about him.”

He respects the criticism about his potential file

Davis is aware of numerous of us will put an asterisk subsequent to his file, if he achieves it, as a result of he had an additional faculty season. But he says his file is value recognizing, too. Davis has 2,961 discipline objective makes an attempt in his profession and Maravich had 3,166, though the 3-point line additionally impacts the dialog across the file. “The [fifth year] helps a lot,” Davis stated. “I was looking at [Maravich’s] stats and my dad was looking at [Maravich’s] stats from his college years, the three years he played, and there wasn’t a year that he didn’t shoot 35-plus shots per game in his three years there. I take a lot of shots, but I don’t take 35 shots per game, if that makes any sense. … These are all my points with no extra games being played [in the NCAA tournament], which is something that is kind of unheard of.”

He’d take the NCAA match over Maravich’s file

Davis is getting numerous consideration due to his pursuit of the NCAA scoring mark, however he stated he’d commerce all of it for an opportunity to take his staff to the NCAA match for the primary time in his profession. “I’d pick my team in the NCAA tournament [over the record],” Davis stated. “That’s something I’ve always wanted to be a part of: to be in the NCAA tournament. When my dad was at Texas Southern (2012-18), they ran that conference (SWAC) and they always went to the NCAA tournament and I always got to go with them. I experienced it from a spectator standpoint. I really want to be a part of something like that. If I had to choose between the two, I would definitely choose doing it with this team that we have and going to the tournament instead of just breaking the scoring record.”

He’s honored to even be talked about among the many greats

Davis stated that he by no means got down to beat Maravich’s file but additionally that he is excited that, years from now, he’ll nonetheless be revered as one of many recreation’s high rivals. “My name is going to be in this forever,” he stated. “When I get older and have kids, this is something I could tell my kids about. So this is something really special.”