What did Coach Rupp think of Pistol Pete as a player?

[Sir Richard F. Burton]

Pete Maravich was amazing But, did Rupp ever complain about Maravich's style of play that IMHO was flashy and somewhat undisciplined. Thanks to J Scotts website for this info. Pete's final game at LSU 64 points vs UK AWESOME.

52, 44, 52, 45, 55, 64 points scored by Pete Maravich against UK

Zero Wins

http://giftshop.lsusports.net/assets/storeimages/productimages/PAAAIAKFPBKBKFBB_L.jpg

[Terry L. Wildcat]

:cool:Since I saw Pete three times in Memorial that's a great question...however, I have no recollection of Coach Rupp's opinion of Pete...at one of the games Pete Rose was introduced to the crowd.

[Sir Richard F. Burton]

What if Pete had a 3 point line in those days?


Terry L. Wildcat wrote: :cool:Since I saw Pete three times in Memorial that's a great question...however, I have no recollection of Coach Rupp's opinion of Pete...at one of the games Pete Rose was introduced to the crowd.

[Wildcat Larry]

Sir Richard F. Burton wrote: What if Pete had a 3 point line in those days?


Terry L. Wildcat wrote: :cool:Since I saw Pete three times in Memorial that's a great question...however, I have no recollection of Coach Rupp's opinion of Pete...at one of the games Pete Rose was introduced to the crowd.
I, too, saw Pete three time at Memorial Coliseum. If I recall correctly, Pete didn't really make a lot of those points out where the three point line is today. Sure, he was a great shot, but a lot of his points came off of 12-15 footers after a dribble behind his back or between his legs and then falling off balance.

It seems that Rupp's theory was to shut down the other four guys on the floor instead of risking somebody beating you that shouldn't be in a position to beat you. I don't think I ever saw UK double team Pete like a lot of other teams did. Heck some teams triple teamed Maravich. Since Pete could pass so great, you were playing with fire by double or triple teaming him.

[ukcatfan]

Wildcat Larry, Coach Rupp did say that we let that boy shot all day and we will play defense on the other 4 and win the game. I can still hear Rupp saying this in his slow southern drawl. He did call him the boy

If there is some tape on the UK-LSU games you will see Larry Steele guarding him. When Pistol Pete (would the NCAA and all the political correct a-holes of today let us call him Pistol Pete?) would leap into the man that was guarding him, thus a foul on the defense. It would always make me so made to see the ref make such stupid calls when it was plain that Pistol Pete did the fouling. The closet that he has anyone to help him was a player called "Apple " Sanders

[LexJim]

What I remembered most besides the games (I saw two of the games in the Coliseum) were Coach Rupp's comments in his post game shows. Cawood would remark something aboutPete's point total and Coach Rupp would respond withsomething like,"Well, let me seeCawood. It says here that he hit 17 of 51 shots. Well, Cawood, I believe we'lllet him score 52 points any night as long as he's hitting 17 of 51." Of course, I don't remember the exact shot numbers made and taken, but they were similar to that in all but the final game when he scored 64.

I will say this though. He was incredible to watch. His junior year I remember one specific play when he was fastbreaking down the court at full throttle. Whoever was defending him (probably Steele) had boxed him outfrom cutting toward the basket as he ran down the court just outside the foul lane. At the last second before he was about to run out of bounds he threw up a shot from behind his head (like a behind the back pass) that went in. I believe he banked it in, but can't remember for certain. I sure remember that it brought the house down, though!

[Wildcat Larry]

You've got a good memory, LexJim. :)

In the last game against the Cats when Maravich got 64 points he actually did shot more that 50%, but in all the other games he didn't. Here's the stats compliments of Jon Scott's website:

1968
19-51 52 points
16-3844 points

1969
21-5345 points
20-4852 points

1970
21-44 55 points
23-42 64 points

[sardiscat]

"The closet that he has anyone to help him was a player called "Apple " Sanders."

He also had "Fig" Newton. Rupp thought he was a good player whocouldn't beat UK by himself andhad the stats he had only because he was given a degree of freedom that Rupp would never have given any player. I thought about Maravich the way I thought about Rex Chapman: the guy had skills, butregardless how skilled you are, you have to have some judgment about shot selection or you hurt your team as much as you help. Maravich's shot selection was worse than Chapman's. Where he really lost me was the six or so two-handed set shots he would shoot each game from 40 feetout. I don't remember him ever hitting one.

[Wildcat Larry]

If Pete could have been coached by someone who had the ability to reign him in and make him let the flow of the game come to him, instead of being coached by his Daddy, then he might have been an even more effective player .... one who made his teammates better and made the team greater than the skill of it's individual parts.

Yeah, Newton was the guy I was trying to thing of. Newton and Sanders could have played big roles on lots of teams.

[lribookend]

I agree with the earlier posters who remember Rupp saying that their plan was to let Pete get his points but shut down the other 4 players. Obviously, it worked very well. I think, but I may be wrong, but in one game against KY, PP was the only LSU player in double figures in scoring for most, if not the entire,game. Can anyone confirm that? I know that Pete took more than 50% of his teamsshots each and every game.

And just as an aside, wasn't Press Maravich (I think that was his father's name) fired as the LSU head coach within a year after Pete went pro? My memory is not clear on that.

I agree that Pistol Pete was hard to guard, because he was a great ball handler, great passer, could hit the fade-away jumper with ease....but if you got up close guarding him, he would jump into you to draw the foul.

I also agree that if he had been surrounded by better players in college, and had better coaching than from his dad, it is hard to imagine just how fine a player he might have been. I just remember seeing that 64 point game and just shaking my head. We tried to guard him with more than one player (not double-teaming, but by substituting, and no one could slow him. That game, and the one by Austin Carr of Nortre Dame in the early 70's were two of the best performances I can remember by one player against the 'Cats

[Wildcat Larry]

Again, courtesy of Jon Scott's website:

Maravich's Shots - the rest of the team's shots

1968
Maravich 51 - Rest of team 39
Maravich 38 - Rest of team 51

1969
Maravich 48 - Rest of team 44
Maravich 53 - Rest of team 35

1970
Maravich 44 - Rest of team 41
Maravich 42 - Rest of team 35

So only once in a UK-LSU game did Maravich not shoot that ball more than the rest of the LSU team combined.

For reference, the scores of those games were (UK won them all):

1968
121-95
109-96

1969
108-96
103-89

1970
109-96
121-105

I do know that those two teams ran up and down the floor pretty quickly. :D

[ukcatfan]

When Rupp was asked about the other team scoring so many points he said "look how many times they got the ball after we scored. Sure they will score a lot of points".

Forgot about Fig Newton.

[RaleighCat]

Where's Can't Stand Cards? He's a resident expert on all things Rupp. It's been kinda quiet 'round here without him and the good Dr. Lecter recently.

[Terry L. Wildcat]

Sir Richard F. Burton wrote: What if Pete had a 3 point line in those days?


Terry L. Wildcat wrote: :cool:Since I saw Pete three times in Memorial that's a great question...however, I have no recollection of Coach Rupp's opinion of Pete...at one of the games Pete Rose was introduced to the crowd.
I do remember Pete knockin' down some deep ones but his game was creativity and scoring in transition and what a wondeful passer he was...that's how I remeber it.

[boomdaddy]

Wildcat Larry wrote: Sir Richard F. Burton wrote: What if Pete had a 3 point line in those days?


Terry L. Wildcat wrote: :cool:Since I saw Pete three times in Memorial that's a great question...however, I have no recollection of Coach Rupp's opinion of Pete...at one of the games Pete Rose was introduced to the crowd.
I, too, saw Pete three time at Memorial Coliseum. If I recall correctly, Pete didn't really make a lot of those points out where the three point line is today. Sure, he was a great shot, but a lot of his points came off of 12-15 footers after a dribble behind his back or between his legs and then falling off balance.

It seems that Rupp's theory was to shut down the other four guys on the floor instead of risking somebody beating you that shouldn't be in a position to beat you. I don't think I ever saw UK double team Pete like a lot of other teams did. Heck some teams triple teamed Maravich. Since Pete could pass so great, you were playing with fire by double or triple teaming him.



Harry Lancaster, Rupp's right hand man, gave a speech to my high school's football team once. Among the many stories he told, was the one about Pistol Pete, where Rupp said: "Let him score his points and shut the rest of them down". Mr. Lancaster had a way about him, also. The way he told a story, you could just visualize the events in your mind. Great people might rub off on others, or maybe they just attract others who are meant to become great. I sure do wish I had a tape recorder that day. Some of the best history comes from word of mouth, is cherished when heard, but never gets written down.

[Spanish Moss]

This would be a good question for Mike Pratt since he played against Maravich and was in the locker room with Coach Rupp. If Mike is on a radio call in show that would be the time to get him on record.

Kentucky scored a total of 671 points in six games against the LSU "Pistols" for an average of 112 points per game. That is offense.

The only player I remember Coach Rupp making public comments about was Dr. J. He went on record as saying Dr. J was the greatest player he had seen. He raved about the man's ability.

Pistol Pete was my favorite SEC (non Wildcat) player. He was Mr. Excitement and nobody could handle a basketball like that young man. Nobody. In his day he was a very tall guard and he had it all. I loved the games against LSU because you knew the Cats were going to win but you also knew you were in store for a very entertaining game with wide open offense and the best passing from an individual you could find anywhere. Not to mention those floppy socks.

[JPS]

lribookend wrote:
I agree with the earlier posters who remember Rupp saying that their plan was to let Pete get his points but shut down the other 4 players. Obviously, it worked very well. I think, but I may be wrong, but in one game against KY, PP was the only LSU player in double figures in scoring for most, if not the entire,Â*game. Can anyone confirm that? I know that Pete took more than 50% of his teamsÂ*shots each and every game.

And just as an aside, wasn't Press Maravich (I think that was his father's name) fired as the LSU head coach within a year after Pete went pro?Â* My memory is not clear on that.


Just wanted to comment to anyone who has questions such as how many points did someone score, who did he play with and against, who was the coach a particular year etc., this information and much more can be found on my website.

FWIW, I tried to desn the site so it doesn't require a whole lot of effort to find the information you're looking for. You should be able to just click around and find what you're looking for.

Here's the link to the main stats page.

Main Kentucky Stats page (http://www.ukfans.net/jps/uk/Statistics/statistics.html)

Here's a more direct link to Maravich's stats against. UK. From there you should be able to cc a link to each boxscore.

Pete Maravich vs. UK (http://www.ukfans.net/jps/uk/Statistics/playersopposingossec.html#Pete_MaravichLo)

Jon

[IsselForPrez]

Pete was the only thing that LSU had. If Not For Pete they would have been a lot worse off. And definitely not worth watching. Pete was an incredible talent and was way ahead of his time in ball handling skills, passing and long shooting. To this day there are only a hand full of players who were better.

[JPS]

Sir Richard F. Burton wrote:
Pete Maravich was amazing But, did Rupp ever complain about Maravich's style of play that IMHO was flashy and somewhat undisciplined.Â*

I don't know if he complained about Maravich's style of play, but looking back at John McGill's book Kentucky Sports, Maravich does make Rupp's list of top 20 opponents he faced while at Kentucky.

This is what Rupp said about him:

"Pete Maravich of LSU has always been a good shooter and very deceptive. He was, and is, one of the best ball handlers and passers in the nation. As a pro, he has proved that he was more than just a gunner in college. LSU couldn't beat us with Pete but he put on some great offensive shows, averaging more than 50 points in six games. He's the all-time college scoring champion."

Jon

[Sir Richard F. Burton]

I've directed people to your website many times to show them what it means to "bleed blue" Thanks again.

JPS wrote: lribookend wrote:
I agree with the earlier posters who remember Rupp saying that their plan was to let Pete get his points but shut down the other 4 players. Obviously, it worked very well. I think, but I may be wrong, but in one game against KY, PP was the only LSU player in double figures in scoring for most, if not the entire,game. Can anyone confirm that? I know that Pete took more than 50% of his teamsshots each and every game.

And just as an aside, wasn't Press Maravich (I think that was his father's name) fired as the LSU head coach within a year after Pete went pro? My memory is not clear on that.


Just wanted to comment to anyone who has questions such as how many points did someone score, who did he play with and against, who was the coach a particular year etc., this information and much more can be found on my website.

FWIW, I tried to desn the site so it doesn't require a whole lot of effort to find the information you're looking for. You should be able to just click around and find what you're looking for.

Here's the link to the main stats page.

Main Kentucky Stats page (http://www.ukfans.net/jps/uk/Statistics/statistics.html)

Here's a more direct link to Maravich's stats against. UK. From there you should be able to cc a link to each boxscore.

Pete Maravich vs. UK (http://www.ukfans.net/jps/uk/Statistics/playersopposingossec.html#Pete_MaravichLo)

Jon

[CARDSRTOAST]

ukcatfan wrote: Wildcat Larry, Coach Rupp did say that we let that boy shot all day and we will play defense on the other 4 and win the game. I can still hear Rupp saying this in his slow southern drawl. He did call him the boy

If there is some tape on the UK-LSU games you will see Larry Steele guarding him. When Pistol Pete (would the NCAA and all the political correct a-holes of today let us call him Pistol Pete?) would leap into the man that was guarding him, thus a foul on the defense. It would always make me so made to see the ref make such stupid calls when it was plain that Pistol Pete did the fouling. The closet that he has anyone to help him was a player called "Apple " Sanders
Also Bill "Fig" Newton was pretty good at LSU in those years.

[trublu]

I have to admit that I was amazed by him. I think it's terrible to drop the 'Pistol' from his name, because he was a marksman with a basketball. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed watching him quite so much if we had lost to LSU.;)

And, I do remember long range shots from him. I believe if the 3-point line had existed then, that he could have had some 80-90 point nights. We hear all this crap about these 'pure shooters' today. He WAS a pure shooter, but he was a good ball handler too.

[CARDSRTOAST]

RaleighCat wrote: Where's Can't Stand Cards? He's a resident expert on all things Rupp. It's been kinda quiet 'round here without him and the good Dr. Lecter recently.Maravich had 37 at the half against UK in 1970 Coach Rupp came in the locker room and asked"Who's got Maravich?" Terry Mills #21 ,Cameron's Daddy said "I've got Him".Rupp snorted.."You do Mills..Well try grabbing his trunks or tripping the SOB because he's gone wild".Nobody laughed .Pete had 64 ..Issel had 50.Rupp hated anyone to have a big nite even if we won.