Caitlin Clark Would Score More Points than Pete Maravich in the Same Number of Games If She Shoots As Much As He Did, Even Without the Three Point Shot

It’s impossible to compare players from different eras. That stops precisely no one from doing so.

On March 3, 2024, Caitlin Clark became the all time leading scorer in major college basketball, passing Pete Maravich when she scored her 3668th point.

Some have pointed out that Pete played only 83 games over three seasons, whereas Caitlin has played 129 over four seasons, as of March 3 2024. Additionally, the three point shot did not exist when Pete played college ball. As a result some have characterized Pete as being in a “different stratosphere”. What does the math say? I took 15 minutes and gave it a shot.

Courtesy of sports-reference.com (founded by an Iowa grad), here are key statistics for Pete Maravich and Caitlin Clark as of March 2 2024. (This is before Caitlin broke Pete’s record, but don’t worry about that right now.)

	g	fg2	fga2	fg2%	fg3	fga3	fg3%	ft	fta	ft%
pete	83	16.7	38.1	0.438	0.0	0.0	0.000	10.8	13.9	0.8
caitlin	129	5.4	9.7	0.557	3.9	10.2	0.382	5.8	6.8	0.9

Pete Maravich and Caitlin Clark (as of March 3 2024)

Without the three point shot, Caitlin would score 503 fewer points. Furthermore, if Caitlin had played only 83 games instead of 129, her point total goes down to 2025, far behind Pete.

But we haven’t adjusted for the fact that Pete shot much more than Caitlin. 38.1 total shot attempts per game would result in 27.9 attempts from 2 point range by Caitlin per game. This would take her back up to 83 * [2 * (27.9 * 0.557 + 3.9) + 5.8] = 3708 points in 83 adjusted games, more than Pete’s 3667.

Now, if you say that some of Caitlin’s additional shots would have been from three point range (and would count for two), I would say you are right. But then I would say that Caitlin is no dummy and she would not shoot that many more long distance shots, and they would be higher percentage shots than the ones she takes right now, because she would know they are worth two not three. And then I would say that since she would be taking more two point shots, she would be getting more free throws so we should adjust those upward as well.

What’s the lesson here? Don’t compare players from different eras. But if you do, please don’t cherry pick which factors you adjust for.

Here’s a spreadsheet with all of the above – let me know if I missed something.