50/40/90 Shooting

[MilfordHusky]

As most of you know, any player who shoots 50/40/90 for a season has had a historically great year. I believe that EDD is the only player to have done it in the WNBA, in her 2019 MVP season (.515/.430/974). At UConn, I think the closest was KML, who was 1 missed FT away in 2 different seasons (.528/.492/.895 as a sophomore) and (.518/.488/.895 as a senior). We have several good shooters on the team this season. Here are the stats for some of them:

Paige: .529/.410/.888. She was a little lax on her FT shooting early on, but after a discussion with Azzi, has made a bunch in a row. Can she make 19 of the next 20 to get to .900?

Azzi: .487/.474/.917. She needs to make a few more shots of some type, even just layups. The FT percentage is easy for her. She's 11-12 on the season.

Ashlyn: .481/.434./.900. Like Azzi, she needs to make a few more shots. 8 in a row would get her there.

Sarah: .575/.364/.765. She's short on 3-pointers and FTs, but her stats are still stellar.

Players shooting over .500 from the floor include Sarah (.575), Aubrey (.560), Paige (.529), Jana (.528), Kaitlyn (.527), and Ice (.500). KK is 1 bucket short of .500.

 

[Just.A.Fan]

Interesting! Thank you for taking the time to provide this for us.

 

[Bigboote]

Sue did it in 01-02, at least if the stats on basketball-reference are correct:

198/392 69/148 98/104
0.505 0.466 0.942

 

[packwrap]

I tried to find an ncaa list of this in vain...I would guess less than 20 players have ever achieved this.(maybe<10) Sue Bird did it once, Kneepkens from Utah on track this year.

Paige and Azzi actually care about and chase this stat! Along with winning.

To their credit, their career stats are also not far off 50/40/90. These stats included all their up and downs, return from injury etc, so nothing hidden just plain raw data. They really are a remarkable pair that we sadly have not often witnessed together in full flight.

The SC game was really fun to see them play great and win together!

A last thought is 50/40/90 also known for the total of 180. Even if Paige/Azzi don't make official 50/40/90 seasons, they still may make 180 seasons like 52/40/88=180.

 

[Jonathan14]

Paige: .529/.410/.888. She was a little lax on her FT shooting early on, but after a discussion with Azzi, has made a bunch in a row. Can she make 19 of the next 20 to get to .900?

@MilfordHusky, as our resident Azzi-ologist, would you mind sharing the story of Azzi coaching Paige on her foul shooting? Sounds like a good one.

 

[Bone Dog]

@MilfordHusky, as our resident Azzi-ologist, would you mind sharing the story of Azzi coaching Paige on her foul shooting? Sounds like a good one.

Coaching? I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more like Azzi mocking Paige for missing anything ever. Nothing else would motivate Paige more than that. Those two are as competitive as siblings.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Sue did it in 01-02, at least if the stats on basketball-reference are correct:

198/392 69/148 98/104
0.505 0.466 0.942

I believe that's correct. I had forgotten it. Sue was the NPOY for good reason!

 

[MilfordHusky]

@MilfordHusky, as our resident Azzi-ologist, would you mind sharing the story of Azzi coaching Paige on her foul shooting? Sounds like a good one.

I'm not sure if there was any coaching per se. As Bone Dog suggests, it was likely a combination of mocking and encouragement. Those two are highly competitive with each other. I do know that they "discussed" Paige's FT shooting.

I saw Azzi in person several times when she was a sophomore in high school (and won 2 of the NPOY awards). The only comparable high school player, IMO, was Maya Moore. But then I saw several of Paige's games on streaming when she was a senior and thought she was Azzi's equal. That Hopkins team was insanely good. When Paige started at UConn, I thought she was the better ball-handler, but Azzi was the better shooter. By the middle of Paige's freshman year, I thought she was Azzi's equal as a shooter. Paige had a magical freshman season.

This season, Paige's shooting in the lane has been better than Azzi's. That may be very real, but I think Azzi is more accurate from deep and from the FT line. I recall 1 or 2 times when UConn shot a technical FT. Geno chose Azzi for that. I think he recognizes that Azzi is nearly automatic on FTs, even more than Paige.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I tried to find an ncaa list of this in vain...I would guess less than 20 players have ever achieved this.(maybe<10) Sue Bird did it once, Kneepkens from Utah on track this year.

Paige and Azzi actually care about and chase this stat! Along with winning.

To their credit, their career stats are also not far off 50/40/90. These stats included all their up and downs, return from injury etc, so nothing hidden just plain raw data. They really are a remarkable pair that we sadly have not often witnessed together in full flight.

The SC game was really fun to see them play great and win together!

A last thought is 50/40/90 also known for the total of 180. Even if Paige/Azzi don't make official 50/40/90 seasons, they still may make 180 seasons like 52/40/88=180.

Having a total of 180 is very possible. As a sophomore, KML had 191.5; as a senior, she had 190.1. Sue had 191.3 as a senior. I doubt many have done better.

Paige's career is 179.6. Azzi's career is 178.4. In comparison, Caitlin had 169.7.

 

[Rowdy831]

Stats are great and they tell you a lot about a player. What they don't often tell you is how the player is defended and how many of their shots are taken under difficult circumstances. In my opinion no player has ever been defended like CC was in college and this year I think Paige has taken the mantle of being defended very closely and with a lot of physicality. It seems some players get foul calls any time they bounce a little and others, like Paige, get hit very hard with no call.

If you go by stats Paige probably has no chance to win the NPOY but if you lined up every player in college for the draft she would be the first on taken. She makes the game better for all those around her and that is a trait that is often missing.

 

[meyers7]

As most of you know, any player who shoots 50/40/90 for a season has had a historically great year. I believe that EDD is the only player to have done it in the WNBA, in her 2019 MVP season (.515/.430/974). At UConn, I think the closest was KML, who was 1 missed FT away in 2 different seasons (.528/.492/.895 as a sophomore) and (.518/.488/.895 as a senior). We have several good shooters on the team this season. Here are the stats for some of them:

Mo Jefferson missed it by 1 FT her Sr year. .557 / .431 / .893

 

[husky429]

50/40/90 is even more difficult to reach now because of the proliferation of 3s. Wouldn't be surprised if we never see it again.

 

[Bone Dog]

In my opinion no player has ever been defended like CC was in college and this year I think Paige has taken the mantle of being defended very closely and with a lot of physicality.

This is not what CC herself says about those years. She has said publicly that she is surprised she wasn't guarded more closely. Against some teams, like UConn w/Nika, she was. But I don't think she was defended very closely on the whole.

 

[YKCornelius]

Stats are great and they tell you a lot about a player. What they don't often tell you is how the player is defended and how many of their shots are taken under difficult circumstances. In my opinion no player has ever been defended like CC was in college and this year I think Paige has taken the mantle of being defended very closely and with a lot of physicality. It seems some players get foul calls any time they bounce a little and others, like Paige, get hit very hard with no call.

If you go by stats Paige probably has no chance to win the NPOY but if you lined up every player in college for the draft she would be the first on taken. She makes the game better for all those around her and that is a trait that is often missing.

Then you probably didn't see much of Griner at Baylor. Double and triple teams were the norm day in and day out. She got the living heck beaten out of her. Referees almost went on strike because they had to call two different games when Baylor took the court, while only being paid for one!

 

[fomalhaut]

Strong would have to hit 70 straight FTs to make .900.

 

[oldude]

50/40/90 is the holy grail when it comes to shooting a basketball. A lot of really great shooters have made runs at it, only to come up short. Plum missed the FT mark by a few makes in her senior year. Ionescu was chasing it in her senior year, but missed a few too many 3’s in her last game.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Some more background, especially at the pro level.

50–40–90 club - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[packwrap]

50/40/90 is even more difficult to reach now because of the proliferation of 3s. Wouldn't be surprised if we never see it again.

We will see it even this year. Utah's Gianna Kneepkens at 52/46/91.

I think even with more 3's, it's attainable as quality of shooting keeps getting better. It surprises me that so many players now at 40% mark from 3.

 

[MilfordHusky]

After the Butler game ... Azzi needs to shoot 2-2 from the floor for 50/40/90. Paige needs to run off 9 straight FTs for the same. Close!

 

[diggerfoot]

Stats are great and they tell you a lot about a player. What they don't often tell you is how the player is defended and how many of their shots are taken under difficult circumstances. In my opinion no player has ever been defended like CC was in college and this year I think Paige has taken the mantle of being defended very closely and with a lot of physicality. It seems some players get foul calls any time they bounce a little and others, like Paige, get hit very hard with no call.

If you go by stats Paige probably has no chance to win the NPOY but if you lined up every player in college for the draft she would be the first on taken. She makes the game better for all those around her and that is a trait that is often missing.

Collectively, Clark’s Iowa’s teammates shot 3-5 % better than her throughout her career. Some of the reason for that is the attention that she drew (they also happened to be good shooters playing for a good coach), but if she drew as much attention as you claim, then the coaches she played against consistently failed to do their homework.

I cannot confirm what @Bone Dog stated about Clark, but it would not surprise me. I’ve been impressed with Clark’s character and humility. She has been much more self aware than her fans.

In general, @YKCornelius observation applies. Lethal post players get more double teams and closely defended than perimeter players, though physicality against a big post player will draw less sympathy than against a smaller perimeter player.

 

[Bone Dog]

The thing about CC is that she shot many of her 3s from a few feet beyond the arc and off the dribble. That and her use of a step back move on many of them allowed her to get open looks. In her sophomore and junior seasons she seemed to favor a move where she fell away to her right to get her shot off. Given this, I’m not surprised that her teammates shot a higher % than she did. As a comparison, Warnock and Martin were mainly spot-up shooters from 3 and didn’t shoot often from much beyond the arc. Something similar could be said about Paige and Azzi, neither of whom often shoot from much beyond the arc. Azzi in particular doesn’t shoot many 3s off the dribble while most of CC’s came that way.

What this says to me is that CC is remarkably strong. Her energy level is also very high which suggests that not many college defenders would be able to stay with her. And she also drives the lane very well. Paige is also quite strong, especially for her slender build. But I suspect CC has always been a little stronger. A sign of this is Paige’s signature midrange jumper falling away to her right. We’ve all seen her use this on inbounds plays and opposing coaches have reported specifically including it in their pre-game scout on her. But CC uses this very move even on her deep 3s.

Could Paige and Azzi take more deep 3s? I’m sure they could, and their %s would probably decline if they did. But temperamentally they seem much more focused on looking for the best shot. And Geno’s version of the motion offense seems to encourage this. He talks often about urging them to seek their shots more aggressively, but I think he means this to be within his overall offensive scheme, not that either one should take bad shots or simply abandon the offense and go one-v-one all the time.

Also, just as a side observation, some teams were able to defend CC quite well, at least in terms of shooting percentage. This often depended on a significant individual effort. In her three games against UConn, she was defended very closely. In her freshman year it was Christyn who had the assignment and held her to 3-11 from 3. The next two meetings it was Nika who held her percentage down, 3-11 in one case and 2-11 in another. Of course, this effort didn’t keep CC from engineering that win in the final four last season. Like Paige, she is able to impact a game in lots of other ways.

SC also defended her very well, mainly Brea Beal, but CC was still able to engineer an upset victory over them in a final four the previous year.