Caitlin Clark mirrors ‘Pistol’ Pete Maravich in additional methods than one

Jaeson Maravich was visiting his mother Jackie in Covington, Louisiana, close to New Orleans through the Remaining 4 final 12 months.

“Jaeson,” she referred to as to him from the lounge. “You want to see this woman play.”

Jackie apparently has an eye fixed for basketball. She met Pistol Pete Maravich at LSU within the late Nineteen Sixties and married him in 1976 when he was an NBA star – simply 12 years earlier than he died of an undetected coronary heart defect whereas enjoying pick-up basketball at age 40.

What Jaeson, who was 9 when his dad died, noticed on tv final spring was stunning – some form of an extended misplaced relative in additional methods than one.

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Caitlin Clark Instantly Impressed Pete Maravich’s Son Jaeson

“I used to be actually impressed proper off. She’s the actual deal,” Maravich informed OutKick final week. “And she or he appears like she could possibly be a cousin or one thing. There’s positively a resemblance to my dad – the lanky construct and actual darkish eyes. She shoots from 30 or 35 toes like he did, and she or he passes the ball like a magician. Not as flashy, however an actual good ball handler, too. And nobody might guard her.”

Jackie and Jaeson Maravich noticed on ESPN that Friday night time, March 31, was what a lot of the nation noticed. A median of 5.5 million watched, which was probably the most viewers for a university basketball recreation on ESPN – males or girls – for the reason that Duke-North Carolina males’s recreation in 2008.

What the Maraviches noticed was skinny, lanky, level guard Caitlin Clark of No. 2 Iowa rating 41 factors with eight assists and 6 rebounds to upset No. 1 and 36-0 South Carolina, 77-73, in a nationwide semifinal on the Remaining 4 in Dallas. Clark grew to become the primary participant in girls’s NCAA Match historical past to attain 40 factors or extra in back-to-back video games and simply the second participant to attain 40 or extra in a Remaining 4 recreation.

Maravich averaged an NCAA file 44.2 factors a recreation in his three-year school profession from 1967-70 when freshmen weren’t eligible. And there was no 3-point shot.

“I do not sustain with girls’s basketball, so I used to be like, ‘Who is that this?’ I imply, she was hitting from 30 toes,” Jaeson Maravich stated. “She will cease on a dime from 25 or 30 toes. She’s very unpredictable. She has nice composure and confidence and actually is an all-around participant like dad.”

Maravich’s profession capturing proportion was .438. Clark’s is .465.

And Clark, a local of Des Moines, Iowa, who will not be associated to the Maravich household, is simply 51 factors away from breaking Maravich’s NCAA profession scoring file of three,667 factors. The senior level guard scored 24 with 15 rebounds and 10 assists in a 101-85 win over Illinois Sunday. She is at 3,617 factors now in her four-year school profession.

No. 4 Iowa (24-4, 13-3 Huge Ten) performs at Minnesota (15-12, 5-11 Huge Ten) on Wednesday (9 p.m., Peacock) earlier than internet hosting No. 2 Ohio State (23-3, 14-1 Huge Ten) on Sunday (1 p.m., FOX). She averages 32 factors a recreation this season and hit a career-high 49 on Feb. 15 in opposition to Michigan when she broke the NCAA girls’s profession scoring file.

Maravich performed in solely 83 video games in his school profession. Clark has performed in 128 with two common season video games to go, doubtlessly three within the Huge Ten Match and 6 within the NCAA Match. Clark might keep at Iowa for a fifth season in 2024-25 due to the extra-year rule from COVID in 2020 when she was a freshman.

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Caitlin Clark Leads Nation In Scoring, Assists, 3-Pointers

Maravich additionally holds the NCAA file for many profession video games of fifty factors or extra with 28. Clark leads the nation in scoring (32.4 factors a recreation), in assists (8.5 a recreation) and in 3-pointers (5.3 a recreation).

Since Maravich shot so usually from past the 3-point line with out figuring out it, it has been estimated that he would have scored greater than 4,500 factors in his profession. Throw within the 771 he scored as a freshman in 1966-67, and he would have 5,271 factors. And that is excluding nevertheless many 3-pointers he would have had his freshman 12 months.

“It is two totally different data,” Maravich stated. “However I am comfortable for her. She’s an incredible participant and deserves no matter she will get. She is an effective particular person, and it is an incredible factor for the youthful technology. It is cool how they’ve related video games.”

Individuals usually don’t understand that Maravich was an enormous guard at 6-foot-5 who averaged 6.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists a recreation at LSU. Clark, a taller guard within the girls’s recreation as effectively at 6-0, has averaged 7.1 rebounds and eight.1 assists a recreation in her profession.

And so they have related angular, skinny faces.

“It is humorous how they give the impression of being alike,” Maravich stated.

Whereas Maravich was identified for his floppy hair and socks, Clark has been referred to as “Ponytail Pete.”

“I noticed anyone referred to as me ‘Ponytail Pete.’ I believed that was sort of humorous,” Clark stated on the Remaining 4 final 12 months. “I believe only a super praise. I’m aware of his recreation. I’ve seen loads of his highlights. I take loads of delight in with the ability to do loads of various things for my group. I believe the passing can get missed at instances.”

Mockingly, it was LSU that ended Clark’s and Iowa’s season final 12 months within the nationwide championship recreation – 102-85.

Pete Maravich Made The ‘Remaining 4’ In 1970

Maravich and LSU additionally made the Remaining 4 in 1970. The distinguished Nationwide Invitation Match Remaining 4 on the time, that’s, at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York with Military, St. John’s and eventual champion Marquette, which beat LSU within the semi and St. John’s for the title.

Very similar to Maravich did all through the Southeastern Convention, Clark is promoting out highway arenas as usually because the Carver-Hawkeye Enviornment in Iowa Metropolis.

Each are iconic Americana. Throughout notably spectacular video games, highway followers would cheer for Maravich. The identical factor has occurred for Clark this season all through the Huge Ten.

Maravich by no means received a nationwide championship or an NBA title. However he has been lauded for many years as one of many biggest gamers in historical past – if not the best. Clark might not win a nationwide title, both, however her legacy already appears safe by many.

“He’d make up photographs within the air,” Los Angeles Lakers nice Magic Johnson stated of Maravich. “The no-look passes, dribble the ball, then pat it with one hand and cross. That is the place I received that from. He was the best. He modified the sport. He was earlier than his time. He did what I did lengthy earlier than I did.”

Caitlin Clark Is A ‘Cultural Phenomenon’ As Was Pete Maravich

Former Duke star and ESPN analyst Jay Bilas put Clark on Maravich’s stage.

“She’s a cultural phenomenon not like something we have ever seen in basketball in my opinion,” he stated on a latest ESPN school basketball GameDay. “And it goes past the scoring file. She’s not elevated the ladies’s recreation. She’s elevated the sport. In that regard, we is not going to see her like once more, in my judgment.”

Maravich is believed to have pushed younger boys to basketball courts across the nation within the Nineteen Sixties, ‘70s and ’80s like no different participant.

“Are you able to think about the younger women who’re taking a look at Clark  proper now and dreaming in a approach that they’ve by no means dreamed earlier than in regards to the recreation?,” Bilas stated.

A well-liked Clark comparability is to Golden State’s Steph Curry.

“I do not evaluate her to Steph Curry,” ESPN GameDay’s Seth Greenberg stated. “I evaluate her to Pistol Pete Maravich. Her passing, her basketball IQ. Like Maravich, she makes it simpler for everybody else on the ground. Like Pete, she sees performs earlier than they occur.”

Clark has already seen herself breaking Maravich’s file.

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Caitlin Clark Desires Huge

“Earlier than each recreation, I attempt to take time and simply visualize what I wish to occur within the recreation,” she stated just lately on ESPN. “I am anyone who has actually large desires and aspirations.”

So too did Maravich.

“Love by no means fails. Character by no means quits,” he stated. “And with persistence and persistence, desires do come true.”

However they’re two totally different data.

“She’s a implausible participant – perhaps the perfect girls’s participant ever,” stated Bob Remy, who was the official scorekeeper for each New Orleans Jazz house recreation Maravich performed in from 1974-79. “She’s a greater passer than shooter, which is how Pete was. He was a greater scorer than he was a shooter, too. He was a showman. She places on a present. And I hope she will get it. The one approach I could possibly be upset is that if they think about that breaking Pete’s file. Totally different instances. Totally different recreation. No 3-pointer when he performed.”