PritchardPutBack Posted January 29, 2021 Report Share Posted January 29, 2021 At the end of last year and going into this year I have brought up how the team shot from three in the last 15 games of last year in various threads and how it was a promising stat going into this year (granted on low attempts, but went from 29% shooting team to 35% in the stretch and Jerome/Al/Armaan were all shooting 40%). Obviously, hasn't totally panned out this year but thought people would be interested to look at how the team has shot, game by game, compared to the rest of the conference, and in recent games. I kept track of this at the beginning of the year to see if there would be any correlation to us shooting well from three and winning games...but haven't really found anything there so far (4 of our losses we have shot over 38%). There is a correlation to losing/close wins and allowing the other team to shoot over their season 3PT%, but I don't really want to get into and frustrated by our inconsistent defense right now. Wanted to post this after we finished our 10th Big Ten Game, but we don't have the Michigan game to talk about tomorrow and have to wait until Tuesday for another game so hopefully this can give everyone something to look at in the meantime. Player Shooting on Season and Team Game-by-Game Jerome and Armaan are shooting well just like the end of last season but you probably didn't need these stats to know that Al, Rob, and Khristian have been struggling from deep this year (Lander was 27% before going 2-2 against Rutgers). To add some reference to the attempts per game on a player basis, Devonte led the team with 5.7 3PA/G last year with Al behind him at 2.9 3PA/G. (Off-topic, but Parker Stewart had 5.7 3PA/G his freshman year at Pitt and 8.2 last year at UT Martin) We have surprisingly been shooting greater than 37% in 4 of the last 5 games, but are still just attempting just over 19 threes a game in that span (might not be the worst thing in the world because if you aren't great at something you probably shouldn't shoot too much more, but you'll see in a moment that the Big Ten in general is averaging 22.69 attempts per game). B1G Teams Three Point Shooting (all games, NOT just conference play games) These standings are a little volatile, but does add some perspective. For most of the year, IU has been in the bottom 4 with Ohio State, Nebraska and Minnesota shooting around 33%. Ohio State was shooting very poorly from three, but had a big jump when Seth Towns came back healthy yet have struggled again the past two games shooting...I don't really understand that team. We are currently 9th in %, but you could probably chalk that up more to the B1G not being a lights out three point shooting league. To demonstrate how volatile this can be, before our Maryland game (so before MSU, IU, PSU, OSU, and Michigan for Purdue) Purdue was 5th in the conference at 37.9% but have been very off at shooting since and dropped to 34.95% and 8th just from that 5 game stretch (even with their 11-17 night against us). When you look at attempts per game, We have been in the bottom 3 there as well all year, but with different dance partners in Illinois and Rutgers. Last 5 Games Now I'm going to type this first, with how up and down the season has been I don't want to make this sound like we are for sure turning a corner with three point shooting or anything. I just picked 5 arbitrarily, and one of these games include Iowa who is not a team incredibly familiar with the aspect of playing strong defense while another one is Nebraska. Nonetheless, in the last 5 games this is how we have looked on a team and player basis. Should also note, Lander/Leal/Armaan have only played/attempted a three pointer in 3 of these last 5 games. Regardless, recent games seem to promising for our three point shooting but who knows whether this keeps up. Rob's number are helped a little by going 4/7 against Iowa, but is shooting 35% in the stretch even ignoring that game (his season average is 34.5%). Al seems to be shooting better and it is very good to see that Jerome has been averaging more than 3 three's a game in this stretch and shooting 40%. We'll see if any of this matters and if the somewhat more consistent shooting success is shown in future games. Our next three opponents as of now are Illinois, Iowa, and Northwestern and they are all in the top 5 of the conference in three point shooting percentage so it'll be interesting how that will play a role. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierFaithful Posted January 29, 2021 Report Share Posted January 29, 2021 TLDR but tremendous username Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PritchardPutBack Posted January 29, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2021 Yeah, it is a little long so a TLDR is probably necessary. TLDR: We've been pretty average in the conference in shooting with some of the lowest attempts per game. Last 5 games, we've been shooting very well (39%) but also played Iowa and Nebraska and were 2-3 in that stretch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierFaithful Posted January 30, 2021 Report Share Posted January 30, 2021 in all seriousness, love the high quality post. thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hippopotamo Posted January 30, 2021 Report Share Posted January 30, 2021 I love this post. It looks like we need our best shooters (Armaan, Jerome, Anthony, Rob and Al) to shoot more when open. And then maybe fewer shots from Trey and Race in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosierhoopster Posted January 30, 2021 Report Share Posted January 30, 2021 Thanks for posting all this detail. Highlights my concern about CAM not valuing the three ball - we do not shoot enough from the arc, and we DO have guys that can hit. Not shooting enough from the arc clearly negatively impacts the team’s ability to put points on the board and win. Hopefully that trends up along with the overall recent improvement in outside shooting. Let Jerome and Leal et al shoot. Let them get it going Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCHoosier32 Posted January 30, 2021 Report Share Posted January 30, 2021 So, I still respectfully disagree that this team needs to shoot more 3s... unless... he is going to change how he spreads out the minutes and lineups. If he is going to start playing Leal and Hunter starter minutes, then I can see why we should shoot more. Then you sacrifice every other aspect of the game when Hunter is in. Is that what we need though? Maybe. Maybe sacrificing a little D and decision making is worth it for more offense. With this current team, I still thinking we have the ability to look really good and get good results if we move the ball well and get easier shots like vs Providence and Stanford if I'm remembering the start of those games correctly. Then we started shooting 3s and everything went to shnikeys. Like any college team though, when we come out hitting, sure we could have a hot game and need to shoot if they're falling. It's just awful frustrating to come out 0-11 from 3 to start and just keep firing away with the theory at some point they'll fall. Sure, if we shoot enough, but that's not helping if we're 3-20. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5fouls Posted January 30, 2021 Report Share Posted January 30, 2021 Why does Thompson ever shoot a 3? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leathernecks Posted January 30, 2021 Report Share Posted January 30, 2021 When we have games when we're shooting well we need to attempt more. Against Rutgers we shot over 60% and only took 16. If we're hitting them, I'd like to see us try to get 25+ attempts. Enough attempts that the defense has to extend and open up the inside. Play into the hot hand and hopefully we could have gone 14-25 instead of 10-16. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgambill Posted January 30, 2021 Report Share Posted January 30, 2021 1 hour ago, NCHoosier32 said: So, I still respectfully disagree that this team needs to shoot more 3s... unless... he is going to change how he spreads out the minutes and lineups. If he is going to start playing Leal and Hunter starter minutes, then I can see why we should shoot more. Then you sacrifice every other aspect of the game when Hunter is in. Is that what we need though? Maybe. Maybe sacrificing a little D and decision making is worth it for more offense. With this current team, I still thinking we have the ability to look really good and get good results if we move the ball well and get easier shots like vs Providence and Stanford if I'm remembering the start of those games correctly. Then we started shooting 3s and everything went to shnikeys. Like any college team though, when we come out hitting, sure we could have a hot game and need to shoot if they're falling. It's just awful frustrating to come out 0-11 from 3 to start and just keep firing away with the theory at some point they'll fall. Sure, if we shoot enough, but that's not helping if we're 3-20. My thing is when Hunter and several freshman like Lander etc are in the game id like us to go to zone. I’ve seen lineups with 3 freshman and Hunter on the court together and to expect them to hold up defensively in the pack line is tough. Just make it simpler for the guys and put them in a zone....same concept as the pack line anyways so it isn’t hard to teach. It would allow us to play our young guys longer minutes together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCHoosier32 Posted January 30, 2021 Report Share Posted January 30, 2021 2 hours ago, Leathernecks said: When we have games when we're shooting well we need to attempt more. Against Rutgers we shot over 60% and only took 16. If we're hitting them, I'd like to see us try to get 25+ attempts. Enough attempts that the defense has to extend and open up the inside. Play into the hot hand and hopefully we could have gone 14-25 instead of 10-16. See, obviously I agree that if we're hitting we clearly need to take more. We just don't have many of those games, so it's hard to see that as our major game plan focus. There are a lot of teams with better 3 point shooters, so if we just try to go out and shoot as many as those teams and we're shooting a bad %, the results aren't going to be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IU Scott Posted January 30, 2021 Report Share Posted January 30, 2021 5 hours ago, NCHoosier32 said: So, I still respectfully disagree that this team needs to shoot more 3s... unless... he is going to change how he spreads out the minutes and lineups. If he is going to start playing Leal and Hunter starter minutes, then I can see why we should shoot more. Then you sacrifice every other aspect of the game when Hunter is in. Is that what we need though? Maybe. Maybe sacrificing a little D and decision making is worth it for more offense. With this current team, I still thinking we have the ability to look really good and get good results if we move the ball well and get easier shots like vs Providence and Stanford if I'm remembering the start of those games correctly. Then we started shooting 3s and everything went to shnikeys. Like any college team though, when we come out hitting, sure we could have a hot game and need to shoot if they're falling. It's just awful frustrating to come out 0-11 from 3 to start and just keep firing away with the theory at some point they'll fall. Sure, if we shoot enough, but that's not helping if we're 3-20. I think the main thing is that Archie needs to let his team play with more freedom and have them play in a better flow. to me we have guys who can shoot but they don't have the confidence in their shooting ability. I look back at Dane fife where under RMK he was hesitant to shoot but under Davis he became a great shooter. Also I look at this team and what i feel is the problem is that our shooting within 5 feet is not good and if we improved there and free throw shooting we would be a lot better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgambill Posted January 30, 2021 Report Share Posted January 30, 2021 43 minutes ago, IU Scott said: I think the main thing is that Archie needs to let his team play with more freedom and have them play in a better flow. to me we have guys who can shoot but they don't have the confidence in their shooting ability. I look back at Dane fife where under RMK he was hesitant to shoot but under Davis he became a great shooter. Also I look at this team and what i feel is the problem is that our shooting within 5 feet is not good and if we improved there and free throw shooting we would be a lot better. The shooting inside 5 feet is bad because everything is contested at the rim...these aren’t easy open 5 footers. Improve your perimeter shooting and you will have more room in the paint and a lot more uncontested layups and drop offs. Everything is harder because teams in general don’t have defend out to and past the 3pt line on most our guys. p.s thank you @PritchardPutBack for the time and effort put into your original post. Excellent data and this is why this is the best place to discuss IU basketball because of the effort people put in to have good conversation around the team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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