No one has ever done a research paper on it, but scoring 1,000 points in a basketball career carries special significance.

It may not be that big of a deal to really great players. I’m talking about the cagers who reach the milestone before they even get to be seniors.

Players like Jaden Borseth of Ewen-Trout Creek, Karl Rautiola of Chassell and Brad Simonsen of Houghton who passed the elusive mark as juniors.

But to the ordinary good player (and you must be good), hitting four figures is a goal they look to attain.

Just this past season, we saw two Dollar Bay-Tamarack City players, Davin Hill and Connor LeClaire, go over 1,000 points in the final weeks of the season.

And their accomplishment was also reached by three other Blue Bolts over the past three years.

Devin Schmitz and the Janke brothers, Jaden and Ashton, surpassed the mark in their senior seasons.

That’s a remarkable feat for one school. In past seasons, many schools were lucky to have five players over the mark.

Others, like Ewen-Trout Creek and Dollar Bay-TC have several on the magical list.

Of course, the game — and schedules — have changed over the years.

For example, teams back in the 1950s and 1960s often played schedules of 16 games or less — not the 20 usually seen today.

And that doesn’t take into account how much success a team has in the postseason.

That can tack on as many as six games in a season and make a big difference in career point totals.

I know of many fine players, some with all-star credentials, who never reached 1,000 points.

But that doesn’t take away from the things they accomplished in their careers. That might have included All-U.P. and sometimes all-state laurels.

Still, not reaching 1,000 points remains unfinished business for some of those people.