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Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark is in some rarefied air these days after moving into second on the all-time scoring list in in women’s college basketball last week.
Clark has somehow been even better this year than she was last year when she was named the Naismith College Player of the Year.
Really, the only comparison many fans can come up with for her scoring prowess is that of legendary LSU star Pete Maravich.
Clark will very soon pass Kelsey Plum for the top spot as she is averaging an eye-popping 39 points per game over Iowa’s last four contests (adding 8.8 assists per game along the way).
Caitlin Clark now has 3,462 points in her college career. Only Plum (3,527), Antoine Davis (3,664) and Pete Maravich (3,667) have scored more points in their college basketball careers.
She will probably surpass all of those names, including Pete Maravich, before she is done (especially if she comes back for a fifth year).
However, unlike in 2023 when Antoine Davis tried everything possible to pass Maravich on the list, Caitlin Clark won’t have to make any special arrangements to be able to do so.
That effort by Davis drew the ire of Pete Maravich’s son Jaeson, who called the Detroit Mercy star’s attempt to schedule a 145th career game so he could break the record a “sham.”
Jaeson Maravich doesn’t feel the same animosity towards Caitlin Clark. He does, however, still think his father’s record should stand alone, even if she surpasses it.
“I look at my dad’s record, and if somebody breaks it, it’s almost like two totally different records,” he said, according to Reed Darcey of Nola.com. “Just because of the circumstances and the rules and everything else. I think they had said if he had played four years, he would have had close to 5,000.
“So, I said this last year: It’s kind of like an apple-to-orange comparison. And then if you’re talking about the women’s record, I mean, to me, that’d be two totally separate records.”
He’s not wrong.
Pete Maravich scored all of his points without the benefit of the three-point line, a shot clock, and the ability to play on varsity as a freshman.
He averaged an astounding 44.2 points per game, setting his record in just 83 games. Clark is already at 123 games.
That doesn’t mean Jaeson Maravich doesn’t appreciate what Caitlin Clark is doing though.
“I got a chance to see (Clark) play for the first time last year, and she’s incredible,” he said. “She’s great for the sport, for women’s basketball, and I think she’s going to be a great pro. She’s very fun to watch, and I love the way she plays. So, I’m not surprised that she’s on the verge of breaking the all-time scoring record for women.”
At her current pace of 32.4 points per game, Clark will move past Pete Maravich on March 3 at home against Ohio State.
“But I mean, if she ends up breaking my dad’s record, kudos to her,” Jaeson added. “But I always look at it as two totally different records just because there were so many disadvantages as far as what my dad dealt with as opposed to today.”