Art Heyman, who died Monday, left Duke as the school's all-time leading scorer, a record that has since been surpassed by eight other players, including the #1 scorer, J.J. Redick, who racked up 2,769 points during his Duke career. But let's consider the two careers for a moment.
Redick played four years on the varsity and had 139 career games and averaged 19.9 ppg. Heyman, on the other hand, played just three seasons since freshmen weren't eligible in 1960 and played in just 79 career games. He scored 1,984 points.
Redick played in the three point era and hit an NCAA record 457 threes which translates to 1371 points. If we shave off a third of those points (457), Redickâs total points for his career would drop to 2,312, which makes Heymanâs numbers even more impressive.
If Heyman had been eligible as a freshman and had scored at his career average, he would have added 700 more points to his total.
So all things being equal, Redick would have finished with around 2,312 points and Heyman with 2,684. Toss in the six ACC games he sat out after being suspended for the legendary brawl in the 1961 UNC game and that's 150 more points. And of course Redick had an extra half of a season with NCAA games. In Heyman's day, you had to win the ACC Tournament to advance.
It's a meaningless exercise of course, but it's interesting. As always, you should check our math, which is usually suspect.
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