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Post by calihanmole on Feb 14, 2022 13:59:57 GMT -5
My all time favorite TV show, Frasier, has a delightful episode where the very unathletic Niles Crane is randomly selected to take a half court shot at a Seattle SuperSonics game (yes, referencing the Sonics shows how old the episode is). After Niles has his seat called and nervously makes his way to the court, Frasier and his father have this conversation:
Frasier: Thank God we switched seats. I mean, that could be me down there. Poor Niles. Martin: What do you mean? Every guy dreams of a chance like this. Frasier: Dream or not, Dad, eventually he's going to try to take that shot. You know how Niles throws. Martin: Yeah, and you're Pete Maravich. Frasier: I don't know what that means.
What does this have to do with our beloved Titans? Pete Maravich is beyond well known to basketball fans, notably for holding the NCAA D1 scoring record with 3,667 points. Often thought of as unbreakable, the next on the list is Freeman Williams with 3,249 points.
So, here is the issue. If Antoine Davis elects to take his fifth year of eligibility, he would have a shot at breaking the Maravich record. Let’s break down some math. Antoine currently has 2,554 points. He has four remaining regular season games this season, and will have at least one HL tournament game this season barring an injury. Antoine averages 23.4 PPG this season. Let’s just for the sake of argument assume the Titans win at least one HL tourney game this year and Antoine has six more games this season with his average of 23 points. This would mean Antoine would hang up his shoes with 2,692 points after his senior year. This would put Antoine 975 points shy of Maravich. Is breaking the record possible?
Depends on how many games Antoine would play in the 2022-2023 season. If he played in 32 games, he would need to average 30.46 PPG. Very hard to pull off, but not impossible. But, what if the Titans played more than 32? What if somehow they got a few extra games by an extended HL tourney run and an NIT or even NCAA? If Antoine could play 36 games, he’d need only 27 PPG.
Not to say Antoine should play another year based just on this possibility. It assumes he could stay healthy, and would almost depend on the Titans seeing some kind of postseason.
Anyway, worth thinking about. If you’d of asked me a few years ago if the Titans would have a player capable of breaking the Maravich record, I’d of said you were higher than a typical Oakland University student.
In case you’re wondering, Niles Crane does hit the half court shot and wins a new truck … which he says he will use to go antiquing.
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Post by larrytitan on Feb 14, 2022 15:43:36 GMT -5
Do you think it’s a great achievement if it takes AD 5 seasons to surpass what Pete did in 3?
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Post by udballer on Feb 14, 2022 16:05:58 GMT -5
Good post.
That said, if AD does stick around another year... I hope to God he isn't needed to chuck up the 23+ shots per game it would take him to average 30.
We seem to be blessed but cursed in this scenario. I have no idea why we've not been able to attract better talent to stay and play beside him... but based on results over the past 4 years, we've not. The current ingredients do not appear to make a winner and I've watched this movie 4 years in a row now.
I want to watch a winner and rarely does a winner showcase an individual player taking 33+% of the team's shots. Maravich's teams weren't all that great either.
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Post by calihanmole on Feb 14, 2022 16:06:26 GMT -5
I do. But I’m sure others might differ. Maravich played only three seasons and scored 44PPG in 83 games. Nearly everyone else on the list below him played four seasons and played well over 100 games. Number of seasons should count less than games played. You have to consider that Antoine only played 22 games in 20-21 and also had games canceled this year due to COVID. Antoine also a bullshit HL tourney ban not his fault. Most records like this in sports aren’t exactly fair or based on the same amount of opportunity.
After this season, Antoine will have played probably 109-110 games. Doug McDermott is #6 on the all time scoring list but played 145 games.
Ultimately, if anyone breaks the Maravich record then of course people will say certain things. I think more than playing more seasons than Maravich will be the fact that Maravich didn’t have a three point shot. Had he had that he would have maybe scored 4,000 points.
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Post by larrytitan on Feb 14, 2022 21:19:08 GMT -5
Note that Maravich, McDermott and Antoine all played for Daddy.
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Post by Rogobob77 on Feb 14, 2022 22:15:45 GMT -5
Today was senior night at Purdue Fort Wayne, I watched on ESPN+. The announcers mentioned that a player or two did not participate in the pregame festivities for that because they already decided to come back next year for the bonus year. Perhaps at senior day for the Titans (2/26/22) there will be signals as to whether Antoine and others will be back for 2022-23.
As an aside, that PFW/CSU contest was one hell of an exciting battle, the Mastodons winning 102-98 in triple overtime.
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Post by Commissioner on Feb 14, 2022 22:18:56 GMT -5
Today was senior night at Purdue Fort Wayne, I watched on ESPN+. The announcers mentioned that a player or two did not participate in the pregame festivities for that because they already decided to come back next year for the bonus year. Perhaps at senior day for the Titans (2/26/22) there will be signals as to whether Antoine and others will be back for 2022-23. As an aside, that PFW/CSU contest was one hell of an exciting battle, the Mastodons winning 102-98 in triple overtime. This was a great game.
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Post by hyperion on Feb 15, 2022 8:50:31 GMT -5
love this post, great work Commissioner. I would be very excited about this possibility if the AD’s PPG average remains around 25 PPG. For this to happen, we need 9 more games this year and 32 next year. That’s a 23.7 PPG average. 9 games this year would mean a loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but I could be wrong. I think if he can front load this scenario with great success this year, then it’s in the discussion. We can call his campaign the “Catch the Pistol” or “Aim for pistol” or even “Speed past Pete”.
This would be a very special accomplishment for AD, our program, the Davis Family, and Kampe 😂
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Post by Commissioner on Feb 15, 2022 12:57:51 GMT -5
love this post, great work Commissioner. I would be very excited about this possibility if the AD’s PPG average remains around 25 PPG. For this to happen, we need 9 more games this year and 32 next year. That’s a 23.7 PPG average. 9 games this year would mean a loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but I could be wrong. I think if he can front load this scenario with great success this year, then it’s in the discussion. We can call his campaign the “Catch the Pistol” or “Aim for pistol” or even “Speed past Pete”. This would be a very special accomplishment for AD, our program, Davis Family, and Kampe 😂 This was Mole's post. As to the question, would this be a big deal? Yes. To be the all-time NCAA leader in any category is a big deal, and even if AD does it in 5 years, he won't have played more games than some players from schools that go to the NCAA every year. Nobody is saying this would make him the equivalent of Pete Maravich. We've been discussing where AD ranks among Titan greats elsewhere on this board. AD's career is frustrating because of all the losing. And it's not clear if that's because he didn't have the teammates, or because he didn't make his teammates better, or some seem to want to claim even made his teammates worse. I would say that his first two years he just didn't have surrounding talent. He's had more talent the last two and we've done better, but not gotten over the hump. AD will go down as a Titan great. Even if he comes back and has a big year 5, however, I'm not sure I'd put him in the top 10 Titans. But either way, being the NCAA's all-time leading scorer? Yes, that's a big deal, and would be a nice, long lasting PR chit. I'd rather he come back and lead the Titans to the Sweet 16--the record can take care of itself.
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Post by calihanmole on Feb 27, 2022 12:53:39 GMT -5
Update since I started this thread on 2/14. Antoine scored 20, 31, 24, 26 points in the past four games and now has 2,655 career points. I do think we will win the first HL tourney game against Green Bay. Antoine is outpacing my original projection and I think it’s likely he finishes this season with over 2,700 points. Hopefully we win more than one game. Being a top 3 regular season HL team would have really helped the points quest, as it might have led to at least a CBI or CIT.
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Post by calihanmole on Feb 27, 2022 13:19:01 GMT -5
Just did some research and realized you do *not* need a winning record to participate in the CBI and that quite a few teams with losing records from very small conferences have played over the years.
I’m guessing that for most schools they’re accepting the invitation and are willing to pay the financial price to pay for one of two reasons. Most likely reason is they have a roster that will return key players and they want to invest in by giving them more games and practice time. Less likely, but still probably somewhat common, is the CBI is a postseason experience for a departing player or players that worked very hard and things just didn’t work out as far as NIT/NCAA.
Would the Titans play CBI this year if invited?
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Post by Commissioner on Feb 27, 2022 14:13:45 GMT -5
Just did some research and realized you do *not* need a winning record to participate in the CBI and that quite a few teams with losing records from very small conferences have played over the years. I’m guessing that for most schools they’re accepting the invitation and are willing to pay the financial price to pay for one of two reasons. Most likely reason is they have a roster that will return key players and they want to invest in by giving them more games and practice time. Less likely, but still probably somewhat common, is the CBI is a postseason experience for a departing player or players that worked very hard and things just didn’t work out as far as NIT/NCAA. Would the Titans play CBI this year if invited? I would, but for the fact that it will conflict with our coming NCAA appearance.
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Post by calihanmole on Feb 27, 2022 14:33:01 GMT -5
I’m with you, commish. I’ve not given up on these kids. I’m just raising the question now in the highly unlikely event that we don’t go to the big dance.
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Post by Commissioner on Feb 27, 2022 14:41:37 GMT -5
I’m with you, commish. I’ve not given up on these kids. I’m just raising the question now in the highly unlikely event that we don’t go to the big dance. I know. Generally, I'm strongly against sub-.500 teams playing on. It's one of the lesser reasons I really wanted a win yesterday. But the precedent is there. I think we would be over .500 but for the cancelled games, we're playing well, and we've got one of the nation's marquee players. I simply think it would be good for the program at this point.
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Post by fan on Feb 27, 2022 20:38:41 GMT -5
The canceled games are the key this season, the team if they played those games could be looking at 16 or 17 W's now
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