Despite coming up short of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball scoring record held by former LSU star Pete Maravich, Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis may get another chance to break the record.
Davis seemingly finished his collegiate basketball career with 3,664 career points in 144 games over five seasons, while Maravich holds the record with 3,667 in 83 games over just three varsity seasons. It appeared that Davis’s name would be etched into history in second place instead of becoming the new leader.
However, Davis still might have a chance to break the record as Detroit Mercy is considering participating in the pay-to-play College Basketball Invitational tournament. Detroit Mercy finished the season with a 14–19 record and won’t make the NCAA tournament or the NIT tournament fields, so the CBI tournament would be the team’s last chance to play this season.
The team would need to first receive an invitation from the CBI, and if the team chooses to play, the school would pay a $27,500 entry fee, Gazelle Group president Rick Giles told Yahoo! Sports.
Detroit Mercy head coach Mike Davis, who also is Antoine Davis’s father, admitted after the team’s 71-66 Horizon League tournament loss to Youngstown State last week that he “would definitely accept any invitation” the team gets, but it “would be more up to the players” to decide if they want to compete.
The younger Davis wasn’t opposed to the idea of playing in the CBI tournament when asked about it last week, but he admitted it wouldn’t be his first choice.
“Everybody wants to get to the NCAA tournament,” Davis said. “Nobody wants to go and play in the—no disrespect to CBIs and NITs.”
Detroit Mercy hasn’t yet officially received an invitation to this year’s CBI, which begins on March 18.
