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Message: [QUOTE="ConwayGmck, post: 4901521, member: 10442"] I think people really do not understand this. Everyone always talks about Maravich's points that he scored. They talk about how no one will ever score what he scored in three years, even if they play FOUR years. Detroit Mercy's Antoine Davis finished just 3 points shy of Pistol Pete's record, and he needed FIVE years to get that close, with an extra Covid year. But while everyone always talks about those career points in just three seasons, NO ONE EVER TALKS about the "OTHER" career record Pistol Pete owns, that NO ONE will come close to breaking, and that is Maravich's career shot attempts, which is 3,166 attempts. In 83 career games, that comes to 38.1 attempts per game for Maravich's entire career. And THAT is because NO HEAD COACH in MBB before or since Pistol Pete has or will ever allow a player to take those kinds of attempts in a game, unless its a multiple overtime game. But for an entire SEASON? Much less for THREE SEASONS STRAIGHT?? There have been MANY head coaches in college basketball whose sons played for them. A good number of those, their sons were actually star players for them too. But none of them ever let the entire program evolve and flow through their son, or anybody else's son, like Press Maravich vowed to do for his Petey, even BEFORE he got the job at LSU. But Pete Maravich was a great basketball player, and elite player as special as any other blue-chip elite, "one and done" or whatever, that has played the game. As commented on above, Pistol Pete averaged 44-45% FG shooting for his career at LSU. If Pete had averaged 50% for his career at LSU, do you know where he' rank in college basketball in that? Not even in the top 300 all-time. To rate the top 250, you have to have averaged better than 55% for your career. And when Maravich rose to the professional ranks, his shooting didn't improve much beyond that. He averaged 44.1% from the field during his NBA career, but he only averaged 24.2 pts per game. And that's not chopped liver either: Maravich led the NBA in scoring one season, and was one of the top dynamic scorers in the league during his era. But the only reason why Maravich averaged 44-45 ppg at LSU, and only 24 ppg in the NBA, was because his father wasn't his coach in the NBA. And NO NBA HEAD COACH was going to let a player take 38 FG attempts per game. Even in Maravich's NBA career's case, he still averaged 21.3 attempts per gm for his injury-stunted NBA career, which isn't chopped liver either. Top scorers in the NBA will have a number of seasons where they surpass 20 FG attempts per gm, but rarely do they have a long career of averaging that. Michael Jordan had the greatest career average, at 22.9 atts/gm. Wilt Chamberlain averaged 22.5. Allen Iverson had 21.8. But 38.1 attempts??? And average 14 free throw attempts for his college career too, making an average of almost 11 FTs per game? Maravich owns the #1, #2, and #3 most field goals attempted in a single season. Bill Mlkvy of Temple had one season where he took 964 attempts in the single season, in 1950-51. Only converted on 31.4% of them, but averaged 29.2 ppg that season. The next season - his senior year - he averaged a paltry 14.2 attempts/gm in 24 gms. They must've been short-handed his junior season. Someone mentioned Austin Carr and Calvin Murphy in another post above. Both Carr and Murphy averaged 34.6 ppg and 33.1 ppg for their 3-year college careers, respectively. Not too far off from Maravich's average. They both totaled 2,560 and 2,548 pts, respectively. The reason why neither challenged Maravich for his scoring title, was because they averaged only 26.0 and 28.1 FG attempts per game, respectively. Murphy had a similar FG % for his career as Maravich did, but Carr averaged .528 for his. What if Carr's head coach gave him the same opportunities to score that Press Maravich gave his own son? Perhaps today we'd be comparing Caitlin Clark with Austin Carr, instead??? Finally, over the years people have done with Maravich the same thing they've done with Woodstock, JFK's assasination, etc. They have added their own personal flourishes to history. Pete Maravich took the VAST majority of his field goal attempts from WITHIN the three-point distance. Closer to 90-95% of his attempts. Pete wasn't attempting to take shots from three-point range any more than he was attempting to take shots from FIVE-point range, because NEITHER shot range was a thing that even EXISTED in MBB during his time at LSU. That is just a bunch of Paul Bunyon tall-tale telling from his supporters. Most of Maravich's jump shots took place within the 3-pt. distance - anywhere inside the 10-20 ft. distance from the goal, and closer to 10-15 ft. distance. His favorite spot to take jump shots was on the right side of the lane, just outside the free-throw line distance. Other than that, Pistol Pete would slash to the basket, drive hard and make dazzling layups at the basket. Perhaps IF there was a thing such as the 3-pt. shot in college basketball at the time, Maravich would have the incentive to take those shots and perhaps he might have thrived there. Maravich only attempted 15 3-pt. shots in his entire NBA career, his final one in 1979-80 in the NBA's inaugurable season of allowing the shot, and he converted on 10 of those. So yes, he could shoot from that range. 15 attempts in 43 games. But the way to score in college - the BEST way to score - in Pistol Pete's time was to take the ball to the basket. Even AFTER the NBA started using the 3-pt. shot, it took YEARS before players started using the shot as a major weapon in their arsenal, and not just take them occasionally like bonus shots. If the college ranks in Maravich's day allowed for the 3-pt. shot, he'd probably only take 1-2 attempts a game, if that many. [/QUOTE]

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