I can't imagine why there would not be a statue of perhaps the greatest college basketball player of all time.
I would likely have him somewhere outside the top 50 college players. Jordan wasn't even the best on his team in college. But he got his statue for his NBA career already.
My son just attended a Coach K basketball camp at Duke, and they have statues and courts named after players, and particularly Coach K. For them, it appears to be money making effort. They name something in honor of someone, and ask for donations to create or maintain them. They have named the arena, courts (old and new ones have different honorary names), the foyer, even the waiting area outside where the students camp out for games has signage. All of it is very tastefully done, not gaudy, cheap, or flamboyant. Overall, I think honoring former coaches and players w/statues, or named areas, just adds to the experience. It's sort of history telling and honoring at the same time. Don't see why some object to it. In the case of Duke, they have figured out how to make it pay for itself and even attract further donations.
I've heard it said that the only person who could consistently keep Jordan from scoring over twenty points per game was his college coach, Dean Smith.
Jordan: 1st team AA 2 times Maravich: 1st team AA 3 times Jordan: 101 games, 17.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.8 apg Maravich: 83 games, 44.2 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 5.1 apg
The funny thing is that you really shouldn't even look at Pistol's stats when judging his college career. He had the greatest impact of any player in history on college basketball through out the country. He transformed the game and single handily popularized the game around the SEC and in many other places where slow paced, two handed passing and set shooting were the norm. Hell, the NCAA and SEC should have statues built for him too.
