By Brian Hoffman
I never thought I’d see the day when women’s basketball would sell out big arenas, but that day is here.
Give much of the credit to Iowa University senior star Caitlin Clark, who has sold out venues everywhere she goes. In the past few weeks she broke the NCAA women’s all-time scoring record on a long three-point shot, then passed one of my all-time favorites, “Pistol” Pete Maravich, as the all-time leading NCAA scorer, regardless of gender. Last week she followed that up by breaking Stephen Curry’s NCAA record for three-pointers in a season while leading her Hawkeyes to the Big Ten championship for the third season in a row.
It’s not so much that Clark scores a lot, but “how” she plays the game that makes her stand out. She shoots three pointers with Curry-like accuracy and passes the ball like John Stockton with a pony tail. She’s fun to watch.
I must admit, I don’t watch a lot of women’s basketball. I’ve never watched a WNBA game from start to finish. I go to most of the Roanoke College women’s home games and I watch a whole lot of high school girls’ games, but if there’s a choice between the women and an NBA game or a good men’s college game on TV I’ll watch the men.
That might be changing. When Caitlin Clark finishes her career, however far the Hawkeyes go this year, I’m anxious to see how she does in the WNBA. I might just watch an entire game if she’s in it.
And then you have Virginia Tech. I never thought I’d see the day when the Virginia Tech women were selling out Cassell Coliseum. . .getting bigger crowds than the men! I can remember 20 or so years ago when a woman I covered in high school was on the Tech team. I’d go to the game and people were showing up five minutes before tip-off and easing down to seats by the court. Those days are gone, at least for now.
Unfortunately the Hokies have hit a slide at the most inopportune time. Their star player, Elizabeth Kitley, suffered a knee injury in a loss at UVA in front of the largest crowd ever to watch a women’s basketball game in the state of Virginia. As I write this column her status going forward is still unknown, but the old saying “adding insult to injury” was never more appropriate when the heavily favored Hokies lost the game to the underdog Wahoowomen.
Getting back to Caitlin Clark, I was fascinated that she was the one to outscore Pete Maravich after all these years. . .54 to be exact. As I mentioned I like watching Clark play. I LOVED watching Pete Maravich play.
I was in high school when Maravich played for LSU. One of my best friend’s growing up, Gus, had an older brother who was a really good football player at our high school, Souderton High School in Pennsylvania. He got a scholarship to play football at LSU, so right then and there Gus became a big LSU fan and I joined the club. On a clear night we could get LSU basketball games on the radio and we’d sit on his front porch and listen to Pete Maravich light it up.
Thing is, if you just listened to Pete play you missed a whole lot. He was all entertainment. He had those floppy gray socks and he played like his hair was on fire, and boy did he have some hair! Those late ‘60s were the time when long hair was the norm and Pete’s mop top went every which direction as he dribbled down the floor.
Everything he did was exciting. I haven’t seen anyone before or since handle the ball like he did. It was said he carried a ball where he went growing up, bouncing it in the aisle of the movie theatre and dribbling on the way to and from school. When he dribbled it was like the ball was part of him, and I know you can say that about a lot of players but it was never more obvious than it was with Pete.
He could pass the ball like no one I’ve seen since. The closest I’ve seen was a couple times when Ricky Rubio would throw one of those full court bounce passes that found the mark, but Pete would do that with regularity. Our high school coaches frowned on behind-the-back passes, but Pete did it so well it was a weapon. And remember that fake behind-the-back that Rajon Rondo would do? Pete was a master of it.
And boy could he shoot. He would pull up from Damion Lillard land and swish ‘em with regularity. Only thing is, he only got two points for that shot back in the day. You had to guard him out there, but he could also go by you and wiggle through traffic on his way to the hoop. If they had called fouls in the NBA back then as closely as they do now no one could have ever stopped him.
Going back to the long shots, you have to remember that Pete didn’t play college ball with the three point shot. He also played just three years, because when he was at LSU freshmen weren’t eligible. If he had played four years with the three point shot no one would touch his scoring records. That’s not taking anything away from Caitlin Clark, it’s just a fact. She broke the record fair and square with today’s rules.
One more thing about Pete. His last year at LSU was my last year in high school. He was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks about the same time I decided to attend Roanoke College. I had just arrived in Salem, not knowing anyone in the entire state and not having a car, when I saw that the Hawks were going to play an NBA exhibition game at the Salem Civic Center.
This was in October of 1970, and I didn’t even know where the Salem Civic Center was. I got vague directions and walked to the game from Roanoke College to see Pete play live for the first, and as it turned out only, time in my life. It was exciting to see him play in those old lime green Hawks uniforms with the stripes running across the chest and down the side, floppy gray socks and all.
Unfortunately Pete died of a heart attack at just 40 years of age, playing pickup basketball, but he’ll always be remembered as one of the most exciting players ever. And Caitlin Clark can truly be called the “Pistol Pete” of women’s basketball and no one should question it.
