Should Rutgers take more threes?

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

(Got the idea for this from the thread showing players taking 3s)

I am firmly in the camp that you have to take a lot of 3s to succeed in college basketball today. Making a lot of them could make it a no-brainer, of course. And we have seemed to buy into defending the three and that is important also.. because, duh.. if taking 3s is important then stopping them from hitting them follows as important.

Here are the top 25 teams for the most 3 point attempts.. and where they ended up in terms of the NCAAs. There are a bunch of non-P5 teams here.. which, I suppose, includes the National Champs Nova. 10 teams from the top 25 in taking 3s made the NCAA field.

It certainly looks like you have a better chance of making the NCAAs by taking more 3s.

1 Savannah St. failed to qualify due to APR
2 Villanova won it all
3 The Citadel
4 Central Mich.
5 Marshall NCAA
6 Michigan Lost in Championship game
7 Belmont 33
8 San Francisco
9 UTSA 35
- New Mexico
11 Kansas 39 FINAL FOUR
12 Elon 32
13 USC Upstate
14 Furman 33
15 Buffalo 36 round of 32
16 North Florida
17 UMBC 36 round of 32
18 UNC Greensboro NCAA
19 Northern Colo.
20 S Dakota St. NCAA
21 Purdue Fort Wayne
22 Marquette
23 Creighton NCAA
24 West Virginia SWEET 16
25 Oregon

Rutgers is in the bottom 25 in 3-point attempts. If I counted right, only 4 P5 teams made that part of the list. Two teams in the bottom 25 in 3-point attempts made the field.. including Kentucky
326 Fresno St.
327 Kentucky Sweet 16
328 Pepperdine
329 UCF
330 Denver
- Western Ill.
332 Southern U.
333 California
334 CSUN
335 Northern Ill.
336 Loyola Maryland
337 Albany (NY)
338 Rutgers
- Cal St. Fullerton NCAA
340 Incarnate Word
341 Georgia Tech
342 San Jose St.
343 Morgan St.
344 Grambling (APR fail)
345 Pacific
346 High Point
347 Evansville
- Northwestern St.
349 New Orleans
350 Kennesaw St.
351 A&M-Corpus Christi

So.. to summarize...

10 of the 25 teams taking the most 3-point attempts made the NCAA field.
2 of the 25 teams taking the least number of 3-point attempts made it to the NCAAs.

 

[BigAT]

No.

 

[soundcrib]

Yes.

It's the like the read-option QB in football. We're stuck in the past and the only team not doing it.

 

[PaKnight]

Not unless we have better shooters.

 

[kcg88]

Absolutely. We're far more suited for a modern style of play this season than we have been the last two.

 

[Dpgru]

Not unless we have better shooters.

What he said!!!

 

[Scangg]

Of course we should. Didn't realize there was even an argument for less. We added a bunch of good shooters and lost a few terrible shooters. We will shoot many more threes this season and at a higher percentage. Can't wait

 

[mikefla]

IMO...we WILL hit more 3s this year.

 

[TDIrish27]

Absolutely. We're far more suited for a modern style of play this season than we have been the last two.

Agreed

Hopefully :):)

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Not unless we have better shooters.

Recruiting problem if this is the case.

 

[FrankZ]

Few love the 3-ball more than I. If they go in, feel free to launch away. :)

 

[PaKnight]

Recruiting problem if this is the case.

My point was that the OP was looking at last year’s stats, that team should not have been shooting more three’s.

 

[MikeR0102]

Maybe. We were 338th in 3PT taken last season, but we were also 347th in 3PT %. Then again we were also 344th in 2PT % and 341st in FT%, so overall we were a horrible shooting team. The difference in our shooting percentage between 2pointers and 3pointers is close enough, that it probably would be beneficial to take more 3s, but it might offset our 2nd chance point opportunities (9th nationally, 1st big ten in ORB)

 

[BellyFullOfWhiteDogCrap]

3 point shot opportunities come within the flow of the game. They're not hard to come by. In the past, if we had better shooters, we would have attempted more.

 

[rubaseball78]

No point taking them if you can’t shoot reasonable percentage. 33% from 3 is equal to 50% from 2. 27% from 3 is equal to 40% from 2. We should be shooting more 3’s only if our percentage yield more points than what .% we are shooting from 2s on the same number shots.

 

[PaKnight]

No point taking them if you can’t shoot reasonable percentage. 33% from 3 is equal to 50% from 2. 27% from 3 is equal to 40% from 2. We should be shooting more 3’s only if our percentage yield more points than what .% we are shooting from 2s on the same number shots.

Last year Baker and Thiam were our only decent shooters at 36%, Sanders, Willams and Freeman were 22% and below.

 

[zebnatto]

I think the answer to the “should” is always dependent on “how well can we.”

 

[RUChoppin]

Last year's team: Baker/Thiam should have taken more, Sanders/Freeman should have taken less
This year's team: As a team we should be taking a lot more threes with a lot more shooters in the fold

 

[RUPete]

Of course we should. Didn't realize there was even an argument for less. We added a bunch of good shooters and lost a few terrible shooters. We will shoot many more threes this season and at a higher percentage. Can't wait

Yes, agree- if we could have we would have. We just weren't very good at it. When you're offensively challenged like we were last year, you need to value possessions more and keep the ball out of the other team's hands. Can't launch ill-advised threes when the percentages aren't in your favor.