On Thursday evening Detroit Mercy’s basketball season ended with a 71-66 loss to Youngstown State. Or did it?
The loss capped an unremarkable season—the Titans finished 14-19, in eighth place in the Horizon League—except for one remarkable aspect. Senior guard Antoine Davis spent the year chasing Pete Maravich’s NCAA Division I career scoring record of 3,667 points, and finished just shy of the mark. Davis entered Thursday’s game needing 26 points and scored 22. He missed a three pointer in the final seconds that would have tied the record.
Now the school has a choice to make—and maybe some money to raise—if it wants to give Davis another shot at breaking the 53-year-old record the legendary Maravich set while at LSU. The Titans almost certainly won’t be invited to the NIT postseason tournament, but Detroit Mercy could potentially play in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), which carries a $27,500 entrance fee. There would also be additional costs, namely travel to the five-day event in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Titans head coach Mike Davis, Antoine’s father, said after the game that he would ask his players if they want to keep playing. Antoine said he’d like to, and doubted that his teammates would object. A spokesman for the school declined to comment on the financials or whether the school would pursue the CBI.
Davis’ and Maravich’s statistics aren’t an apples-to-apples comparison. Davis has played 144 games in a five-year career extended by an extra season because of the COVID pandemic, while Maravich, who died in 1988, set his record in just 83 games over three seasons. Davis has also had the benefit of the 3-point shot.
Still, a record like that would be a valuable marketing opportunity for Detroit Mercy, a private university with about 3,000 undergrads. The Titans next game, should there be one, will draw national media attention, and the program can use the record in its sales and recruiting pitches for a long time moving forward.
“The person who is holding that record has had it for a long time, and it’s still talked about, particularly for the school he went to,” said Jeff Hathaway, a former D-I athletic director who is now a managing partner at CarrSports. “If Detroit Mercy has the wherewithal to go to one of the postseason tournaments, it would certainly be a big thing for the school. And who knows how long it would take to break Antoine’s record.”
Jim Livengood, who served as athletic director at four D-I schools, agreed. The $27,500 entry fee is a “great investment” he said. “It’s not like this is an opportunity that comes around often.”
A Davis appearance may create as similar opportunity for the 16-team CBI, which is looking to grow its business in a crowded postseason basketball landscape. The tournament used to hold games on campuses, and teams hosting games had to commit to ticket minimums, which increased for each subsequent round of the tournament. More recently, the CBI moved to the current Florida model, with the $27,500 buy-in. Early round games are broadcast on FloSports, with the semifinals and finals on ESPN2.
The tournament began its outreach to schools across the country a few weeks ago, according to Rick Giles, president of the Gazelle Group, which organizes the tournament. Asked if the tournament intends to extend an invite to Detroit Mercy, Giles wasn’t definitive, although he added that teams often ask to play in the CBI to give a senior one more chance in the spotlight.
“The CBI is not the national championship, it’s an invitational tournament, and we want to put together an interesting and competitive tournament,” Giles said in an interview. “And there’s lots of factors that go into that.”
An additional $27,500 is a relatively minor expense, even for a program of Detroit Mercy’s size. The Titans athletic department had a budget of $10.6 million in the school year that ended in June 2021, according to data shared with the U.S. Department of Education.
Mike Davis was paid $593,000 in 2021, according to the schools most recently available tax filing. Perhaps, he’d be willing to chip in to get his son’s name in the record books.
(This article has been updated to include a no comment on financials from Detroit Mercy, and a quote from Jim Livengood in the eighth paragraph.)
