DeVry Part One: How Troy State set the basketball scoring record—twice
The 1992 Troy State-DeVry game is one of the greatest legends in Troy University athletics history. The soon-to-be NCAA D-I Trojans scored 258 points (maybe 253) against an NAIA D-II commuter college—an extremely lopsided affair that set the all-time record for most points in a college basketball game.
The story goes that coach Don Maestri saw Loyola-Marymount’s “run and gun” offense and adopted it for the Trojans. The year before, Troy State beat DeVry and set the record with 187 points, and knowing DeVry was coming back the next year they aimed for 200.
That’s only half the story though. Troy State didn’t just break the scoring record once.
30 years ago, the Trojans broke the scoring record two days in a row.
Up to this point the D-II record for most points in a game was 160, set by Stillman College (Tuscaloosa, AL) against Miles College (Fairfield, AL) in 1966. The closest anyone got before Troy State broke the record—was also Troy State.
In December of the 1990-1991 season—just two months before they broke the record twice—the Trojans scored 157 on Voorhees College, another NAIA squad. It’s the only recorded meeting between the two teams.
The Tigers were independent until 2013 and returned to independence three years later. Just this year they won the conference tournament for independent teams. It’s as confusing as it sounds.
It’s also worth noting the latest NCAA record book has this game scheduled for January 23, 1990. Troy’s media guide has it listed on December 6, but the Palladium yearbook for 1991 has it listed between the January 19 and January 25 games.
Nine days after the December date, Colorado Mesa dropped 156 on Warner Pacific. The following season, Central Missouri State tied Troy’s 157-point mark.
The win over the Tigers kicked off an incredible run by the Trojans, the record games notwithstanding. Troy put up triple digits nine times between the Voorhees game and Valentine’s Day, with an 8-1 record in those games. Troy gave up triple digits eight times, with a 4-4 record.
The Trojans did lose five games in this time, but one was a forfeit against Clark-Atlanta, three were against teams Troy beat elsewhere in the season and all of them were at the other team’s home venue. (That “neutral site” in the AUM game was the “AUM Invitational” at AUM.)
This is where things stood February 12, 1991. Troy was set for a weekend home stand against Columbus State and DeVry Institute in Decatur, Georgia.
Then the Trojans put up 349 points in two games.
In the first game, Troy State took on a familiar opponent—from the baseball diamond. The Trojans and Columbus State went to the Division II World Series together in 1984, 1986 and 1987. Troy won the title the last two years, beating the Cougars in the final game in 1986.
Five years later on the court, the Trojans took a 68-59 lead into the half against Columbus State before exploding and putting up 94 in the second half. With 41 seconds left in the game, Dandrea Evans sank a three-pointer to give the Trojans the record and the 162-130 win.
Calvin Aultman had 25 points, Jack Smith and Adrian Simmons each had 20, and six other players had double-digit points totals. Like DeVry in the games to come, Columbus State kept up with the Trojans—setting a record for most individual players to make a three and combining for the best three-point figures in any college game yet.
The Trojans broke the record, but they were far from finished.
Maestri had been thinking about the record since the Voorhees game. He told the AP the teams’ similar offensive style was the catalyst for breaking the record.
Then came the DeVry game. Troy State got the best opponent they could ask for—an NAIA team like Voorhees that also ran an up-tempo offense, like Columbus State. In fact, DeVry’s Danny Stubbs led the NAIA in scoring that season.
Even with a potent offense, Troy had an extra card in its favor. DeVry was awful—it had a 3-27 record.
“It’s like a little light bulb went off and the kids said, ‘Hey, if we can stay hot we’ve got a chance to be better than last night,” Maestri told the AP.
Troy got off to a better start, dropping 84 points in the first half. Again, the Trojans cranked it up in the second half, scoring 103 points, setting yet another record and outscoring 12 of their own games that season.
For reference, Troy scored 103 points exactly against Jacksonville State and Tennessee-Martin.
Aultman again led the team—this time with 31 points. Dandrea and Pat Evans each had 28 points—meaning three Trojans outscored the entire team from the previous night—and eight other Trojans got in the double digits. On the DeVry sideline, Stubbs led both teams with 59 points.
Once again, both teams shattered the three-point records. Troy State and DeVry combined for 43 shots and 108 attempts.
“Tonight and last night we ran about as close to perfection as you can run it,” Maestri told the AP. “The kids were extremely hot both nights.”
Overall, the Trojans went 22-8 and won the Gulf South Conference title. Beginning February 9, Troy won nine straight games before losing in the Division II regional tournament.
Troy State finished the year with 3,259 points, the most in the country. That stat earned the Trojans a top-ten spot, as well as the No. 3 best scoring average of all time at the Division II level—both rankings have since dropped.
It’s no wonder then that the Trojans marked the calendar for the next DeVry game—January 12, 1992.
It would be a date with destiny.
