Evaluating Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU legend Pete Maravich

Two days earlier than Christmas 1969, Invoice Walton first noticed Pete Maravich in individual.

A highschool senior from San Diego headed to hoops immortality at UCLA, Walton watched at Pauley Pavilion because the LSU legend went by his pregame warmup drills.

“He was a genius,” Walton instructed ESPN. “And as is usually the case with geniuses, they get bored in a short time. So he was consistently difficult himself. He was a showman, and he cherished the present.”

Walton understands why individuals see similarities between Maravich and Iowa girls’s faculty basketball star Caitlin Clark, who’s closing in on passing Maravich for the Division I males’s and girls’s scoring mark. Maravich scored 3,667 factors from 1967-70; Clark is at 3,617.

“After I watch her play, which is as usually as doable, it simply places a large smile on my face,” Walton stated. “The great thing about basketball is that it isn’t all about dimension and energy. It is about ability, timing and place, and he or she has all of that stuff and extra. She awes individuals together with her creativeness and creativity. She makes it enjoyable.”

Maravich was born in 1947 and died at age 40 in 1988, 14 years earlier than Clark was born. In that point, the world of basketball expanded enormously, together with the modern-day girls’s recreation. Maravich’s faculty profession got here earlier than freshman eligibility, so he performed simply three seasons — 83 whole video games — at LSU. Earlier than the 3-point shot and the shot clock, Maravich averaged 38.1 photographs and 44.2 factors per recreation. Clark, a senior, has averaged 19.9 photographs and 28.3 factors in 128 profession video games.

Walton stated statistical comparisons between totally different eras in sports activities are problematic due to all of the variables. However what gamers can imply to a sport, and the way they make individuals really feel whereas watching them are extra comparable.

“Caitlin is a kind of uncommon forces of nature that when she’s enjoying, you can’t take your eyes off her as a result of she’s simply shifting on this sleek and productive method,” Walton stated. “She’s additionally a results of the evolutionary course of from the late ’60s and early ’70s, when girls began to be empowered to play aggressive sports activities. A complete lot of foundational gamers have come earlier than her.”

That included stars akin to Walton’s fellow Bruin Ann Meyers, the sister of his UCLA teammate Dave Meyers, and Kansas’ Lynette Woodard, whose AIAW main faculty file of three,649 factors Clark can be close to passing.

Like Maravich, Clark — who has 1,037 assists — is not only a scorer however an offensive artist.

“I would evaluate Pete to the good chess gamers within the historical past of the world,” Walton stated. “Pete might management himself, the ball and the opposite 9 gamers on the ground.”

Within the NBA, Walton performed in opposition to Maravich. The New Orleans Jazz’s first victory as a franchise got here Nov. 10, 1974, as Maravich led the best way in opposition to Walton, then a rookie, and the Portland Path Blazers. Walton nonetheless remembers each element of Maravich dribbling by the protection to hit a turnaround, twisting fadeaway bounce shot for the profitable basket.

“One of many nice issues about the most effective of the most effective gamers like Pete and Caitlin is that they play the sport on the run,” Walton stated. “They are not utilizing a bodily benefit to maneuver their opponents out of the best way. They are not that large. However no one can cease them.

“Once you consider nice scientists or musicians or stage performers — no matter it was they did, they simply captivated everybody else’s consideration. That is what Pete Maravich did fairly just a few years in the past. That is what Caitlin Clark is doing proper now.”

And although greater than 50 years have handed, there are similarities of their video games. — Michael Voepel

Scoring and capturing: Buckets, a number of buckets

Maravich performed at LSU for his father, Peter “Press” Maravich, throughout a interval from 1967-70 when freshmen weren’t eligible for varsity. Maravich is named the scoring king of NCAA basketball with 3,667 factors. He took practically 40 photographs and 14 free throws per recreation throughout his profession and had the very best scoring common (44.5 factors per recreation) ever in a single season as a senior and the very best profession scoring common (44.2) in NCAA historical past. Maravich additionally owns the file for many 50-point video games (28) and 40-point video games (58).

These numbers are superb contemplating Maravich had solely three years to perform his information. There was additionally no shot clock, that means groups held the ball and accrued fewer possessions in a recreation.

Maravich had a present of creating robust photographs look simple. He might end on the basket with a double-pump layup or hit a operating hook shot, which was distinctive to his recreation. His pull-up jumper was deadly in transition in addition to the half courtroom. His long-range jumper — a 3-pointer in as we speak’s recreation — had exacting vary. Maravich was at all times on the assault, but completely beneath management.

It is laborious to know the place to begin with Clark as a result of she impacts the sport in so some ways. Her capacity to shoot (and make with ease) from deep jumps off the web page. Clark creates 51 factors per recreation, the very best utilization fee in faculty basketball, and is within the 98th percentile in effectivity. Roughly 59 % of Clark’s photographs come from behind the arc. She makes 42% of her pull-up 3-pointers and 38% of her catch-and-shoot 3s with a mean distance of 25 toes, 9 inches, based on Synergy Sports activities in 128 video games performed.

Clark has an actual probability to steer the nation in scoring for the third time in 4 years. The scouting report would not even matter most video games — Clark will discover a method to get to her numbers. Opposing defenses can solely hope to make it harder — even a box-in-one fails to gradual Clark.

LSU affiliate head coach Bob Starkey confronted Clark final 12 months within the NCAA championship and detailed the difficulties in game-planning for the Iowa star.

“Caitlin has nice elevate on her shot with a really fast launch and limitless vary and accuracy,” he stated. “There is no such thing as a wasted motion in her shot or recreation. She has a phenomenal shot — until you are the one who should put together for it.”

Clark’s step-back jumper is her calling card. She shoots the ball with nice vary and precision off the catch and with a quick-rhythm dribble.

Some say she’s the Stephen Curry of girls’s basketball.

“Her compact capturing is up and out with a fast launch. She has unbelievable distance,” stated Curry’s coach, Brandon Payne. “One motive is, she has tight, repeatable mechanics and shoots by her core and wrist. She lives in her work. It exhibits in her consolation and confidence degree capturing the ball.” — Paul Biancardi

Passing: Making magic with the ball

Clark is the primary participant to eclipse 3,000 factors and 1,000 assists. She leads the nation with 8.5 assists per recreation — with 15 video games with double-digit assists this season — and led all gamers with 8.6 per recreation a 12 months in the past. Clark has the distinctive alternative to steer the nation in passing for 3 consecutive years.

She’s maybe the most effective passer in faculty basketball as a result of she creates gravity on the ground. Meaning nobody calls for extra consideration than Clark, who generally has all 5 opposing defenders solely concentrating on stopping her. This permits her to navigate and exploit her opponents.

Her thought course of, passing imaginative and prescient and accuracy beneath strain are so superior. She has had some high-turnover video games however that comes with being the focus of opponents’ scouting reviews.

LSU coach Kim Mulkey, a former level guard who has gained NCAA titles as a participant and head coach, stated Clark is “going to get her factors.”

“However probably the most spectacular factor to me — now that you simply’re speaking to an previous level guard — is she makes all people round her higher. You will have nice gamers that may get numbers, however she makes others on her crew higher,” Mulkey stated on the 2023 girls’s Last 4. “Simply the issues she’s able to doing — one minute you suppose you are going to guard her a sure method, then you definitely watch the movie and alter your thoughts and go, ‘Oh, that is not going to work.'”

She may not essentially have Maravich’s flashiness, however it’s a captivating comparability.

“She’s an excellent passer who is 2 steps forward of everybody,” stated former Division I head coach Marlene Stollings, who can be the all-time chief in highschool scoring in Ohio with 3,514 factors. “She places the ball the place her teammates must be, which is uncommon. She must be a WNBA All-Star. She’s not as fancy as Pistol Pete, however she will be able to thread the needle and join.”

Maravich was generally known as “Houdini” round campus as a freshman at LSU. He made magic-like passes with flare. His unusual imaginative and prescient and uncanny passing model made it nearly unattainable for defenders to anticipate the place the ball was headed. Maravich is No. 4 in LSU historical past with 5.1 assists per recreation.

It was important for Maravich’s teammates to remain alert with their heads up and fingers prepared always. He’d discover them outrunning opponents, chopping to the basket or coming open from screens, even when it required an unorthodox supply. Maravich made the no-look help look simple. He was a grasp at drawing defenders along with his eyes and snapping a cross in the wrong way. Maravich was a crowd favourite whether or not at house or on the street, very similar to Clark. — Biancardi

Ballhandling: The artwork of manipulation

Maravich was a uniquely gifted ball handler. He devoted his life to countless stationary and motion drills to change into one of many biggest ball handlers ever. The basketball turned an extension of his hand due to his exceptional hand-eye coordination and intensely fast fingers. His affect prolonged far past his enjoying days.

“Pistol Pete impressed me at a younger age to suppose exterior the field and be artistic in my coaching,” Payne stated.

Maravich dribbled circles round defenders with excellent dexterity and will go behind his again whereas displaying a easy change of substances. He was thrilling to play with and troublesome to defend one-on-one. He might get to any spot on the ground at a second’s discover due to his creativity and drill work. Maravich was a real wizard with the ball.

Equally, Clark spent numerous hours with a basketball in her fingers rising up. She did each drill conceivable. Movies from her childhood present her unmatched confidence with the ball in her fingers. Clark reads the ground exceptionally nicely and is aware of the place to go along with the dribble. She has full management. There is a function to each probing dribble whether or not she’s shifting in a straight line or altering course in tight locations. Clark manipulates defenses together with her ballhandling.

Clark will encounter greater and higher defenders when she heads to the WNBA, however she’ll even have more room on the courtroom enjoying with different professionals. Clark is a artistic ball handler. She may not be as flamboyant as Maravich, however she’s simply as efficient. — Biancardi