Burtts Top Father-Son Scoring List
Iona’s Steve Burtt had 27 points in a recent win over Portland State. One of them made Burtt and his father part of college basketball history.
It was during that game that the Burtts -- both named Steve -- became the all-time leading father-son scoring combination in Division I, with both getting at least 1,000 points.
The elder Steve Burtt scored a school-record 2,534 points at Iona from 1980 to ’84. The younger Steve Burtt is a senior at Iona, and he started this season with 1,254 points. He has led the Gaels, off to a 6-0 start, by averaging 26.6 points per game. He has a chance to catch Gary Springer, his father’s teammate, for second place on the school’s career list.
“It definitely feels good. It’s such a great accomplishment, something I never even thought of coming to the school,” the younger Burtt said last Sunday after leading the Gaels with 25 points in a win over Vermont. “I look up to him so much and he’s played such a big role in my life. I have the same attitude he did, always work hard and give 100 percent all the time.”
The Burtts passed Jalen Rose, who played at Michigan as part of the Fab Five from 1991 to ‘94, and Jimmy Walker, who played at Providence from 1964 to ‘67, for the top spot on the father-son scoring list.
Walker had 2,045 points and Rose had 1,788.
Rick Barry, who scored 2,298 points at Miami from 1962 to ‘65, combined with sons Jon (1,355 points at Pacific and Georgia Tech from 1988 to ‘92), Brent (1,304 at Oregon State in 1992 to ‘95) and Drew (1,253 at Georgia Tech in 1993 to ‘96) for the next three places on the list.
The younger Burtt has seen plenty of tapes of his father’s games.
“We are real different players. He could dunk and was real athletic. I’m more crafty,” he said, breaking into a laugh.
The elder Burtt is a coach in Streetball, the playground style of basketball, and he doesn’t get to see his son play almost every game, as he did his first three seasons at Iona.
“I still look over to where he sits all the time,” the younger Burtt said. “He calls every day and he stays abreast of how we’re doing. It’s something really special.”
Burtt isn’t the only Iona legacy on this team. Springer’s son, Gary, is a starting forward. Sixth man Anthony Bruin is the son of former Syracuse standout Tony “Red” Bruin. Even the coaching staff gets into it with Nick Macarchuk Jr. -- his father, Nick, recently retired as head coach at Stony Brook.
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Villanova Cach Jay Wright was selected co-Development Coach of the Year by USA Basketball.
Wright and Harvard’s Kathy Delaney-Smith were honored for leading their respective teams to gold medals at the World University Games last summer in Izmir, Turkey.
Wright joins former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery, Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, Oliver Purnell of Clemson and Kelvin Sampson of Oklahoma as college coaches who have won the award, first presented in 1996.
“That trip was so great for the kids and for me,” Wright said. “To go to a place like that, so far from home and fans, and not lose a game was just an unbelievable effort by those kids. After an experience like that you realize these other countries want to win the gold medal but they also really want to beat the United States. You have to face that every game and these kids did.”
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Top-ranked Duke’s 75-67 victory over then-No. 17 Indiana last Wednesday was the highest-rated and most-viewed Big Ten-ACC Challenge game in the seven years of the event.
The game averaged a 2.5 rating and 2,285,000 households, surpassing last year’s North Carolina-Indiana game, which averaged 2.0 and 1,749,000.
The Duke-Indiana game was the highest-viewed ESPN basketball telecast ever during November.
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Nevada started the season in the Top 25, and then went on the road.
The Wolf Pack, No. 22 in the preseason and 17th this week, started the season by traveling 10,028 miles in 11 days. They came out of it unscathed before heading home to Reno for a 78-51 home victory over UC Davis on Wednesday. The Aggies shocked struggling Stanford last Sunday in Davis.
Nevada was in Los Angeles this weekend for the Wooden Classic and the team’s first meeting with UCLA since 1947. Then finally, the Wolf Pack will get four straight games in Reno.
“We’ve traveled a long way,” said Nevada forward Nick Fazekas, the reigning WAC player of the year. “I know I’m sick of the road and ready to sleep in my own bed and eat my own food.”
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UC Davis’ basketball team learned a lot by watching its football counterpart.
Coach Gary Stewart’s squad sat in the stands at Stanford Stadium in September when the Aggies’ football team rallied to stun the Cardinal.
The basketball players really paid attention.
Phil Rasmussen scored 18 points to lead the Aggies to a 64-58 home win over Stanford last Sunday.
“We all went down there and watched the game,” Rasmussen said of the 20-17 football victory. “It was definitely a motivating factor. We said, ‘You know what, we have to do the same thing. There’s going to be a lot more energy about the game, a lot more excitement and hype.’ People would be looking to see if we could do the same thing.”
The Aggies, who are in the third year of a four-year transition from Division II to Division I, lost their first three games.
“Call me crazy, but I actually thought we had a chance,” Stewart said. “Maybe I was stupid enough to have that attitude permeate the team. Looking at the film, I felt like we had a chance. They were struggling shooting the ball from the perimeter. I felt like we could pack it in, compete on the backboard and hold them to one shot.”
Highlights of the football game played on the videoboard during warmups and some of the UC Davis students chanted “Just like football!” in the final seconds before rushing the court in celebration after the school’s first win in 13 tries against Stanford.
“It was an amazing feeling, maybe the best moment of my life,” said Aggies’ forward Thomas Juillerat, who had 15 points. “We went to the football game and that gave us tangible evidence of how much energy there is when something like that happens.”
UC Davis goes for the triple on May 26 when the Aggies’ baseball team visits Stanford.