Just a couple things on my mind late Saturday night….
News item: Parkway’s Lady Panthers roll to their state championship – A year after an agonizing overtime loss in the state finals, Parkway plastered Ponchatoula Saturday night to set things right. Congratulations, girls, coaches, staff, families, classmates, teachers … and no doubt, I’m overlooking somebody. The greatest accomplishment is by the team members, of course. But those around the champions are worthy of praise, as well.
When there’s a team with this special dynamic, it’s often billed as “STAR and TEAM” (in this case, Mikaylah Williams and the Lady Panthers) but that very gifted and academically-accomplished young lady undoubtedly feels otherwise. She understands the team is the sum of its parts and that has helped make the title run possible. The other piece: she has some quite capable teammates.
Credit to coach Gloria Williams and her staff for putting together a challenging early-season schedule that tested the team while at times showcasing Williams, a generational talent. Her championship game performance is another case in point.
Her stats typically understate her ability, because 1) Parkway blows out nearly every opponent and more importantly, 2) night in and night out, it’s a team game if you want to win. Because of that and much more, the Lady Panthers bring home a state championship – leaving no doubt as they rocked through the playoffs, dominating every game as arguably one of the best squads in state history.
News item: Pursuit of Pistol Pete’s record falls just short … for the moment – On the other hand, here’s a prime exhibit of the continuing unravelling of the team concept in major college sports.
Give immense credit to Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis, who is not only a tremendous scorer but sounds like a first-class young man. He was chasing the NCAA men’s basketball record for most points in a career, held for over 50 years by LSU’s phenomenal Pete Maravich at 3,667. When his team was beaten in its conference tournament, Davis fell just two points shy of tying the mark.
His team had a losing season, 14-19. It is not worthy of playing in a postseason tournament. But it could happen, strictly to allow for the splash of media attention that would follow when Davis passed Pete.
Never mind the fact that Maravich piled up his total in 83 games during three varsity seasons, and Davis has accumulated his in 144 games over five seasons (due to an extra season allowed by a one-time pandemic booster for all NCAA athletes). There was no 3-point shot in the game when Pete played, but Davis has set the NCAA career record for treys with a total nearing 590.
The mark for points in a career is what it is. And by all rights, Davis made an incredible run at the record and fell a basket short of what was believed to be an unapproachable standard (and without that pandemic year, would have been).
But thanks to the organizers of the College Basketball Insider tournament, a dubious event to begin with, this chase may yet have legs. The CBI is one of those “pay-to-play” postseason events, ostensibly an opportunity for good teams that missed the NCAA’s 68-team field and didn’t get selected for the 32-team NIT. But there’s a catch – teams literally must pay an entry fee approaching $30,000, which continues game-by-game if a team advances in the 16-team bracket.
To this point, no team with a losing record or anything near one has been invited to the CBI. But now, the worms who run it are openly considering Detroit Mercy for one and one reason only – to facilitate Davis breaking the career scoring record.
Davis is no Maravich. He and his dad Mike (also, like Press Maravich, the team’s head coach) have continually given ultimate respect to a legendary figure in the history of the sport, and don’t for a moment believe there’s any comparison in stature. But there is, thanks to the unprecedented length of Davis’ playing career, comparison in one stat: points scored.
The CBI is perverting the game and its best-known record if it invites a losing team to play. Detroit Mercy would abandon the concept of team play by accepting. In doing so, it would tarnish the remarkable achievements of Antoine Davis, a fantastic player at the mid-major level of college basketball, a sportsman, and somebody who doesn’t deserve to be known as a guy who broke a record thanks to a one-time bogus exception.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com