The older I get, the more I realize how easily great players can get lost in time. Especially in Pittsburgh.

We have produced so many great basketball players, so many great teams and so many different eras that sometimes a guy can have an unbelievable career, and 25 or 30 years later, a younger generation barely knows how good he really was.

Eddie Benton is one of those guys.

And when I say Eddie Benton could score the basketball, I’m not talking about being a good high school scorer. I’m talking about a legitimate Division I bucket-getter.

There’s a difference.

 

I Remember Seeing Those Numbers as a Kid

I was younger when Eddie was playing college basketball at Vermont, but I remember seeing his numbers and thinking: Man, this dude is putting up some serious points.

And understand something — Vermont is Division I basketball.

Sometimes when people talk about players from previous generations, the accomplishments get watered down with time. People hear Vermont and might not understand what Benton was actually doing there.

So let me put the numbers in perspective.

Benton played four seasons at Vermont from 1992 through 1996. He averaged 23.8 points per game for his entire college career.

Not one season. His career.

He scored 2,474 points in 104 games, which remains the highest career scoring total in Vermont men’s basketball history.

Look at his scoring averages by season:

• Freshman: 23.8 PPG
• Sophomore: 26.4 PPG
• Junior: 20.5 PPG
• Senior: 24.5 PPG

As a sophomore, he scored 687 points in 26 games and averaged 26.4. Vermont’s record book lists that as the highest single-season scoring average in program history.

He also dropped 54 points against Drexel in 1994. Fifty-four. At the Division I level.

Those aren’t just good numbers. Those are elite scoring numbers.

 

I Know How Hard 20 Is

This is one of those subjects where I can speak from personal experience.

I played Division I basketball myself, and I averaged 20 points per game at West Virginia.

So when I look at Eddie Benton averaging 23.8 for an entire four-year college career — and 26.4 for a season — I understand exactly how difficult that is.

People see numbers and sometimes think scoring is just scoring. It’s not.

At the Division I level, everybody can play.

You’re on scouting reports. Teams are game-planning to stop you. You’re seeing different defenses. You’re playing against bigger, stronger and more athletic players. Coaches know where you want the basketball and what you’re trying to do.

And then you have to come back two nights later and do it again. And again. And again.

There is a major difference between being capable of scoring 20 and averaging 20.

To average 20-plus at that level, you have to be able to get buckets when everybody in the building knows you’re supposed to get the ball.

That’s why I have so much respect for what Eddie did.

 

The Crazy Part? He Didn’t Even Start on Perry’s State Championship Team

This might be my favorite part of the story because it tells you how ridiculous Perry basketball was during that era.

Benton was part of Perry’s 1991 state championship team.

And Eddie Benton — a future Division I player who would eventually score nearly 2,500 college points — was coming off the bench.

Think about that.

A guy who would later average 26 points per game in Division I basketball wasn’t even starting.

Benton was Perry’s sixth man during that championship season before becoming a starter as a senior.  That tells you everything you need to know about the talent Perry had.

Will Macon. Malik Hightower. Eddie Benton. Randy Young. Dwayne Coleman. James Billingslea.

That team was loaded.

 

Perry Gets Lost Behind Schenley

I’ve written before about how much respect I have for the 2007 Schenley Spartans.

DeJuan Blair, D.J. Kennedy, DeAndre Kane and that entire group deserve everything people say about them. They were special.

But I also think Schenley’s greatness sometimes overshadows the other great City League teams Pittsburgh produced.

And the 1991 Perry Commodores are near the top of that list.

When one team becomes the team everybody remembers, history has a way of shrinking everybody who came before them.

That’s why stories like Eddie Benton’s matter.

If you didn’t live through that era, you might have no idea that Perry had a future Division I scoring machine coming off its bench.

 

Metro Index Showed What Was Coming

I also remember Eddie’s reputation around the Metro Index basketball scene. That was another place where you found out who could really play.

Eddie could flat-out get buckets.

When you watched him, you could see there was more to his scoring than simply being talented.

He understood basketball. He understood angles. He understood how defenders were playing him. He understood where his opportunities were going to come from.

And that’s something I’ve always believed about great scorers: The best scorers aren’t just athletic. They’re thinkers.

Scoring at a high level is almost like solving a puzzle while the game is moving. You have to recognize coverages, understand spacing, manipulate defenders and know when to attack.

Eddie had that.

 

From Elite Scorer to Coach

It doesn’t surprise me that Benton eventually became a successful coach. Guys who really understand the game often see basketball differently.

And when I look back at Eddie as a player, I think that basketball IQ was part of what made him such a dangerous scorer.

He wasn’t simply throwing shots at the rim. He knew how to play.

That’s an important distinction.

Great coaching requires understanding why things happen on the basketball court, not simply knowing that they happened.

When you’ve spent years figuring out defenses as a scorer, reading defenders and understanding how to create advantages, that knowledge can translate directly into coaching.

 

Pittsburgh Basketball History Needs to Remember Eddie Benton

That’s really why I wanted to write this.

This isn’t about comparing Eddie Benton to anybody else. It’s about making sure we don’t allow time to erase what somebody accomplished.

2,474 career points. 23.8 points per game for a Division I career. 26.4 points per game as a sophomore. 54 points in a Division I game. A member of a Perry state championship team.

And here’s another number that jumps out at me: Benton shot 82.9 percent from the free-throw line for his college career while getting there more than eight times per game. That’s another sign of somebody who knew how to manufacture points.

That’s not somebody who was just a good Pittsburgh basketball player. That’s one of the best pure scorers this city has produced.

I was a youngster looking at those Vermont numbers back then thinking, Man, this dude can score.

Now, having played Division I basketball myself and knowing firsthand what it takes to average 20 at that level, I appreciate what Eddie Benton did even more.

Some players get more famous as the years pass. Others slowly get forgotten.

That’s one of the reasons I created DrewSchifino.com.

Because Pittsburgh sports history is too rich to let great players disappear just because a new generation didn’t get to see them.

And if we’re talking about Pittsburgh basketball players who could flat-out get a bucket, Eddie Benton’s name belongs in that conversation.