Alabama Basketball: What will not happen in Coleman Saturday afternoon

Alabama Basketball faces LSU Saturday afternoon in Coleman Coliseum. LSU has lost three straight games, The Bengal Tigers could lose another four in a row before playing Texas Tech in Baton Rouge in late January.

At 12-4, LSU is not a bad team. They beat Arkansas 60-57 in late December in Baton Rouge. But they are not a particularly good team either. It is tempting to predict LSU will not upset Alabama on Saturday. But though chances of an upset are probably less than 10%, LSU could possibly pull off a shocker.

A, not yet fully developed group of young Alabama basketball players, might not properly focus and give LSU a chance to at least prevent the Crimson Tide from covering a huge 15-plus point spread.

I can make a prediction for Saturday’s game and the odds of it being correct are 100%. Stealing a phrase from the late Dan Jenkins, the ‘dead solid perfect’ prediction is no LSU player will set a new single-game scoring record against the Crimson Tide. Not just an LSU record or an SEC record, but an NCAA, single-game scoring record.

The record was set by an LSU player, against Alabama in Feb. 1970. On that day, Pistol ‘Pete’ Maravich scored 69 points on the Crimson Tide. LSU lost, in overtime, 106-104.

LSU, who would win 22 games that season, led by Pistol Pete and coached by the Pistol’s dad, Press Maravich, was a clear favorite to win the 1970 game. C.M Newton was slowly building the Alabama basketball program, aided by a patient and confident, Athletic Director, Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant. Alabama went into the LSU game with a 5-12 record.

Pete Maravich averaged 44.2 points-per-game, in his three-season college career. Freshmen could only play on freshmen teams back then. His scoring average is still an NCAA record. The single game, NCAA scoring record has been surpassed at 71 points by Kevin Bradley in 1991. Unlike Bradley, Maravich’s 69 points came when college basketball had no shot clock and no three-point shot.

When hoops fans of today rave about offensive excellence, few of them know anything about what a wizard was Pete Maravich. Not only was he a great scorer, he was an exceptional passer. But for him to pass was almost a waste. Inside half-court there was almost no shot Maravich could take, that was a bad one. Yes, his career, college percentage was under 44%, but so many of the misses came from what must have been boredom. He was that much better than everybody else, in every game.

There has never been another player like him in college basketball. In 1970, Coleman (Memorial Coliseum then) was packed more to see Maravich than to see the Alabama team.

Note: More on the 1970 game, can be read here.

Sadly, Maravich died at the age of 40, from an undiagnosed heart defect. He was playing pickup basketball when he died.