Live by the 3, die by the 3, win by the 3

[uk78]

I have posted before how our team reminds me of the Alabama team of a season or two ago. Our 3 point shooting determines the wins or losses. Clemson 25% from 3. Georgia 24% from 3, Ohio State 18% from 3.

Zags 28% which was close. Duke 40% Florida 48%, Miss State 50%, UL 52%

Obviously there are other factors such as hitting free throws, rebounding, defense. However, we are not a great defensive team and rebounding has been a problem in several games. What stands out in the wins and losses is the 3.

 

[Smashcat]

Certainly a very big factor.

 

[BlueBomb]

I would prefer not to live by the three for a few reasons. The most important is the odds of being hot from three six games in a row must be really, really low.

 

[Cayts69]

Shoot 50% from 3 and you win. Got it

 

[JumperJack]

Yeah, it’s concerning.

I’d like to think he is coaching up the defense as we go to offset it.

 

[The_Answer1313]

I don’t think we do.

I mean yeah shoot a high% from three win. But that’s the case for any team lol

We don’t take a bunch of threes. No more than the average d1 team. Despite Pope basically wanting us to shoot more lol

 

[Lempface]

We've won some tough games while shooting poorly or just plain not being able to get off 3s. Not too worried about it, the offense is designed to get 3s but it's not the only thing it does and does well.

 

[maysvilleky]

Golden State’s strategy

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

I don't mind it. You can go cold from 2 as well. At least if you're hitting a fair clip of 3s you have a better chance of offsetting your opponent's scoring.

 

[BlueBomb]

We don’t take a bunch of threes. No more than the average d1 team. Despite Pope basically wanting us to shoot more lol

We are ranked 43rd in the nation (out of 364) in 3-point attempts per game. We also rank 10th among Power 5 schools in 3-point attempts. So, WAY more than average.

 

[The_Answer1313]

We are ranked 43rd in the nation (out of 364) in 3-point attempts per game. We also rank 10th among Power 5 schools in 3-point attempts. So, WAY more than average.

Our 3FG/FGA is only 42%. That’s 91st.

We still take quite a bit of twos.

can’t look at whole numbers. UK plays at a fast pace. It stands to reason they would have more attempts from 3.

 

[Cats192]

Any team is going to win most games where they shoot lights out from 3.

If we improve on defense and rebounding, the team has more margin for error.

 

[Catman100]

Well we have beaten one of the SEC's best 3 point % defense teams and one of the worst.
A&M is in the bottom half of those standings, so hopefully we hit a bunch tomorrow.

 

[ImTheVillageIdiot]

I would prefer not to live by the three for a few reasons. The most important is the odds of being hot from three six games in a row must be really, really low.

We beat Gonzaga in Seattle while shooting 25% from three. There are signs that we can still beat you even if the threes don’t fall but the defense will have to improve to cut down nets

 

[ImTheVillageIdiot]

Any team is going to win most games where they shoot lights out from 3.

If we improve on defense and rebounding, the team has more margin for error.

The rebounding issues are, I think, overblown. We are a pretty good rebounding team on the year. Credit to Florida and Georgia who are elite in that area.

 

[yoshukai]

I have posted before how our team reminds me of the Alabama team of a season or two ago. Our 3 point shooting determines the wins or losses. Clemson 25% from 3. Georgia 24% from 3, Ohio State 18% from 3.

Zags 28% which was close. Duke 40% Florida 48%, Miss State 50%, UL 52%

Obviously there are other factors such as hitting free throws, rebounding, defense. However, we are not a great defensive team and rebounding has been a problem in several games. What stands out in the wins and losses is the 3.

Obviously our kryptonite is schools with football teams that made the playoffs. That is the ONLY common factor. We still have Tennessee and Texas on our schedule.

 

[MachineHead1]

We beat Gonzaga in Seattle while shooting 25% from three. There are signs that we can still beat you even if the threes don’t fall but the defense will have to improve to cut down nets

This team isn’t cutting down nets. If certain things fall the right way, maybe, but I’d consider an elite eight an over the moon success for Pope’s first year.

 

[ImTheVillageIdiot]

This team isn’t cutting down nets. If certain things fall the right way, maybe, but I’d consider an elite eight an over the moon success for Pope’s first year.

Anything is possible. I’m not saying they are a favorite, but we are only halfway through the year and I bet most of us didn’t predict them to beat the teams they’ve beaten.

 

[Johnfarrel]

It's hard to see Kentucky shooting any better even at home than they did at Mississippi State so I am hoping for some defensive improvement as we go forward.

 

[Cats192]

The rebounding issues are, I think, overblown. We are a pretty good rebounding team on the year. Credit to Florida and Georgia who are elite in that area.

Well, I would certainly argue the overall numbers are helped by playing some cupcakes.

Even then, it's the missed opportunities more than the raw numbers. There are so many instances of us just not blocking out, waiting for the ball to come to us, and just not showing urgency to get the ball. If we get 2,3, 4 of those a game, we close more of these doors. And we close them earlier.

We absolutely don't have the super athletes we're used to. But I'm sure you've seen the same things. The offensive rebounds aren't always guys out jumping us. It's that we often don't put a body on someone. We stand still and wait for an air ball to fall to us--while the offensive player is RUNNING in front of us to meet the ball.

 

[BlueSince92]

This is just a hugely inadequate assessment. We shot 28% from 3 against Gonzaga in Washington and we beat them. We won several games sticking with perimeter shooting even though shots weren’t falling for a long time (Duke notably among them). We won games taking far fewer perimeter shots because the shots weren’t there and other shots were. There were factors that caused our poor perimeter shooting in the games we lost, such as questionably legal physicality and Brea’s illness, which if we had taken fewer threes wouldn’t have made us win, they just would have made us lose with a different distribution of data points.

If you came away from this thread believing we need to rely less on three point shooting it’s because you went into this thread believing we need to rely less on three point shooting.

 

[Cleatortoises]

This team isn’t cutting down nets. If certain things fall the right way, maybe, but I’d consider an elite eight an over the moon success for Pope’s first year.

Way to go out on a limb.
Neither are 363 other teams.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

Was it VMI that let teams shoot easy twos so they could hurry back down the court to shoot 3s?