Our three point shooting

[McLovin]

Illinios is as good as Purdue. At least close. Marquette too.

This is like the reverse Brad Underwood when he said "UConn isn't anything we haven't seen before in the B1G". Don't overlook them. Not saying we can't beat them, but they are an elite offensive team.

Purdue is in another class above Illinois and 2 above Marquette. Because of Edey's dominance in the post, their 3 point shooting often goes overlooked.

They shoot 40.6% from 3 as a team, and have 4 players with 50+ made 3's shooting at minimum 35.5%. We only have 3 guys who have made over 50 3's and only 2 (Karaban and Spencer) are over 35.5%.

I've seen a lot of UConn fans on Twitter overlooking this as well. If that ends up being the title game, it's going to be a close game throughout.

 

[jake14mw]

Are you guys serious with this overinflated balls thing? Overinflated balls causing bad shooting? LOL.

 

[JMick]

Hmmm.... Inflategate and the Patriots?

That's not the league changing the ball. It's irrelevant

 

[jake14mw]

I was thinking during the last game and our bad 3 point shooting, that it might be likely that we set an odd record of missing the most threes in tournament history!? I would think most teams that take a lot of threes and miss a lot of threes don't even make the final four. I did a quick Google, but couldn't find the record for most missed threes in an NCAA tournament.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Curious if the data suggests a bigger deviation at particular sights than others, or is it pretty much same across the board

I looked at it but I feel like the sample size is a bit too small to make any large inferences. So it's possible. I tried to look into a deviation from mean here too but it's too sensitive to one or two bad efforts (e.g. Marquette's 4/31 game really tanked the South Regional's %).

Collectively, the teams in the Midwest shoot the three (on the season) better than teams in the East, but I didn't adjust for volume of 3's attempted.

						3FG	3FGA	%
East Regional	Boston	UConn	Illinois	Iowa State	SDSU	39	130	30.00%
West Regional	LA	UNC	Arizona	Alabama	Clemson	60	173	34.68%
Midwest Regional	Detroit	Purdue	Gonzaga	Creighton	Tennessee	51	127	40.16%
South Regional	Dallas	Houston	Duke	NC State	Marquette	29	112	25.89%

 

[UCTitleTown]

Devil probably needs no advocate, and pretty likely wouldn't choose you.

Are you really seeking the job?

It's almost always a terrible framing.

And ignored. I thought you already were.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

When you're destroying teams the way we've been destroying teams, I just don't see any weakness

We're destroying teams, what more can we do?

Make 1 extra pass at the perimeter prior to shooting any 3-pointer (unless completely open at or en route to the basket) 5 times in a row after any instance of missing 3 consecutive 'open-enough' outside shots.

Shooting percentages from 2 and/or 3 will improve; defense will set up better; opponents will get rattled, tired, & demoralized; fans will be delighted; non-partisan media & observers will be wowed; and haters will still have their opportunity to hate hate hate.

It starts with defense, not self-forced offense.

Don't do the opponents' heavy-lifting for them. Don't gift them with something that looks and feels like a 'normal' high-level game. They already know they can do that well enough to get to the Final Four.

Points will naturally follow. In bunches. Highlight reel stuff. Raceways, throw down dunks, and alley oops. Even the distant daggers that are deferred until the opponent is dizzied and drained by the effort they've expended by having to guard so many different players in so many different ways.

We have already seen this enough to know it works. This is what flips the switch.

Viewers at every level of experience and knowledge deserve to see what UConn is & does.

Let those who are disrupted, delusional, or in denial go at their own pace, but not to the detriment of UConn pursuing its patient, persistent path.

I am enjoying the ride and want others too as well. A man who is disgruntled by a 30-0 run can find fellow travelers, even on this board. Past a certain, simple point, he cannot be my concern.

Go Huskies!

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

This is like the reverse Brad Underwood when he said "UConn isn't anything we haven't seen before in the B1G". Don't overlook them. Not saying we can't beat them, but they are an elite offensive team.

Purdue is in another class above Illinois and 2 above Marquette. Because of Edey's dominance in the post, their 3 point shooting often goes overlooked.

They shoot 40.6% from 3 as a team, and have 4 players with 50+ made 3's shooting at minimum 35.5%. We only have 3 guys who have made over 50 3's and only 2 (Karaban and Spencer) are over 35.5%.

I've seen a lot of UConn fans on Twitter overlooking this as well. If that ends up being the title game, it's going to be a close game throughout.

Too soon.
Bama is the only known game on the schedule.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

This is like the reverse Brad Underwood when he said "UConn isn't anything we haven't seen before in the B1G". Don't overlook them. Not saying we can't beat them, but they are an elite offensive team.

Purdue is in another class above Illinois and 2 above Marquette. Because of Edey's dominance in the post, their 3 point shooting often goes overlooked.

They shoot 40.6% from 3 as a team, and have 4 players with 50+ made 3's shooting at minimum 35.5%. We only have 3 guys who have made over 50 3's and only 2 (Karaban and Spencer) are over 35.5%.

I've seen a lot of UConn fans on Twitter overlooking this as well. If that ends up being the title game, it's going to be a close game throughout.

I know transitive property doesn't work, but sometimes it's all you have. We have a few common opponents, including Illinois (+6/+5), Marquette (+3), Indiana (+20/+21), Northwestern (-4/+9), Gonzaga(+10/+12) and Xavier (+12).

Or you can go by tourney results against similarly seeded teams:
+38, +39, +12, +6 (UC +39, +17, +30, +25)

This is really all we have to go by right now. Frankly i don't want to talk Purdue at all, i think we should all be focused on Bama, but it was brought up in post #2 in a way that i thought was way too absolute. The absolutes always get me. It's like when someone says something is "unacceptable". OK poster, if so, then what will be the punishment levied by you if it doesn't improve ?

I'm just as nervous as the most nervous person before the game starts, and until we are (hopefully) up comfortably enough to no longer worry about a loss. There isn't an ounce of overconfidence in me.

Outside of this response, i won't even think of PU again until we actually have them on the schedule.

 

[DRBackup]

Then what happened vs Creighton? What happens if we go 3/20 and Bama shoots 15/30? Our defense is awesome but sometimes teams get really hot from deep. (And what happens if DC and/or SC pick up 2 early fouls?) If we’re not making 3s, we need transition hoops, and for that we need long rebounds. Fewer Bama misses, fewer transition hoops.

I’m not saying that’s likely but 3-point shooting is, in fact, a weakness if we continue shooting this way. 28% is bad.

Creighton went nuts from three, for the most part. We led them 19-15 with about 10 minutes left in the first half and then they went on an 24-6 run, and 18 of those 24 points came on threes. At that point the led by 14 and that was the margin at the half and we never recovered. They shot 14-28 from three and five different guys made 2 or more.

 

[NickDanger]

Rumors (or possibly viral conspiracy theories) are that something has been done. over inflating balls, over tightening rims, whatever, to make it more difficult to hit threes in the tournament. Whether this is or is not the case, we willl continue to move forward.

Then how did Creighton and Tennessee combined shoot almost 50% on threes?

 

[DRBackup]

I saw an interview with Karaban. He said the NCAA tournament balls are tacky and overinflated.

Luckily, both teams have to play with the same ball.

 

[NickDanger]

I know transitive property doesn't work, but sometimes it's all you have. We have a few common opponents, including Illinois (+6/+5), Marquette (+3), Indiana (+20/+21), Northwestern (-4/+9), Gonzaga(+10/+12) and Xavier (+12).

Or you can go by tourney results against similarly seeded teams:
+38, +39, +12, +6 (UC +39, +17, +30, +25)

This is really all we have to go by right now. Frankly i don't want to talk Purdue at all, i think we should all be focused on Bama, but it was brought up in post #2 in a way that i thought was way too absolute. The absolutes always get me. It's like when someone says something is "unacceptable". OK poster, if so, then what will be the punishment levied by you if it doesn't improve ?

I'm just as nervous as the most nervous person before the game starts, and until we are (hopefully) up comfortably enough to no longer worry about a loss. There isn't an ounce of overconfidence in me.

Outside of this response, i won't even think of PU again until we actually have them on the schedule.

What “we” focus on makes absolutely no difference to how the team will play. We could be focused on the 2026 season and it won’t affect a thing except our own minds.

 

[NickDanger]

Huh? Illinois is pretty good, so is Purdue, it’s definitely close with the slight edge to Purdue

Purdue is MUCH stronger than Illinois

 

[NickDanger]

Odd comment. Perhaps the strange neutral courts and backgrounds have more to do with the many misses along with the intense defense being played by the desperate one and done games. Seems like most players are jacked up and out of sync.

Also, why would an overinflated ball tend to miss Long? Are they inflating them with helium?

 

[DRBackup]

What “we” focus on makes absolutely no difference to how the team will play. We could be focused on the 2026 season and it won’t affect a thing except our own minds.

How DARE you!!!?!

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

Then how did Creighton and Tennessee combined shoot almost 50% on threes?

I don't know if the ball thing is real or not, but to be fair they both played with the same ball. I think it was a couple sites had uncharacteristically poor shooting, and a couple didn't. But it seems for the most part both teams playing with the same ball have the same issue, although i haven't exactly done exhaustive research on it.

Good news is that everyone we play will use the same ball as us, and IF (BIG IF) there's an issue, then that fact that it's being publicized will force them to be extra cautious in the F4.

Or, maybe we're all wrong, and we are cold as a team. It does seem statistically unusual that our whole team is lousy from 3 all at the same time. Alex mentioned on his podcast with Jared Kotler that the balls "had too much air", and were "grippy".
Minute 19

 

[FfldCntyFan]

The overarching point should be that regardless of whether there is or is not something different about the balls that the players who mentioned it used, quite a few players did believe it (ir they would not have said anything). If while shooting threes, a player thinks there's something different about the ball, that alone could have a very negative impact on his results.

 

[HiNEtEnc]

InflateGate

 

[Scottobot]

Purdue shot 3-15 (20%) from 3 yesterday. I wonder if their forum is also having a panic attack

 

[huskyfan224]

Purdue is MUCH stronger than Illinois

They really aren’t, but as I said Purdue is better. Edey is the difference maker, obviously. Both games they played Purdue won and both games were very close. One was at Purdue without Terrance Shannon.

Edey is going to be a force and if he gets away with all the stuff he gets away with, it’ll be a really tough game. I would take all of our other players over theirs. Castle and Diarra should handle Smith, if that’s the case it’ll be really tough for Purdue.

None of this matters yet. Gotta take care of Bama

 

[NickDanger]

They really aren’t, but as I said Purdue is better. Edey is the difference maker, obviously. Both games they played Purdue won and both games were very close. One was at Purdue without Terrance Shannon.

Edey is going to be a force and if he gets away with all the stuff he gets away with, it’ll be a really tough game. I would take all of our other players over theirs. Castle and Diarra should handle Smith, if that’s the case it’ll be really tough for Purdue.

None of this matters yet. Gotta take care of Bama

Illinois lost over twice as many games as Purdue did. There is a reason they were three seed, and Purdue is a one.
UConn versus Purdue will NOT be a blowout.

 

[superjohn]

Illinois lost over twice as many games as Purdue did. There is a reason they were three seed, and Purdue is a one.
UConn versus Purdue will NOT be a blowout.

We can absolutely blow out Purdue. We've yet to come even close to playing our best game.

 

[tzznandrew]

We can absolutely blow out Purdue. We've yet to come even close to playing our best game.

If we go back to shooting 3s at a 38% clip (our BE average) neither of the remaining games will be within 20.

 

[auror]

Illinios is as good as Purdue. At least close. Marquette too.

Purdue swept Illinois. They were up by 15 at halftime at home and then after an early deficit just clearly were the better team on the road.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

We can absolutely blow out Purdue. We've yet to come even close to playing our best game.

Besides hitting 3s, the last 2 games have been really close to A games i’d say.

 

[SubbaBub]

We suck, we're doomed.

 

[UCfor3]

Are you guys serious with this overinflated balls thing? Overinflated balls causing bad shooting? LOL.

Someone said that Alex said it in an interview earlier in this thread. Several players on the team also said the ball was "tacky" as well. The announcers said before either the Northwestern game or the San Diego St game that several UConn players said the new ball was tacky. Before the game against Illinois you could see two UConn players before the game bounce the ball testing it out right before tip. Think it was Tristen and Cam. My point is these are the players saying these things, not just the people on this board and internet wingnuts. A new ball and our players making these comments are coinciding with our shooting slump. It may or may not be having a real or at least mental effect on our shooting. It may be nothing. It's at least fair to ask or discuss though.

 

[UCfor3]

Also, why would an overinflated ball tend to miss Long? Are they inflating them with helium?

Supposedly makes ball lighter.

 

[nomar]

OK, you lost me at "what happened vs Creighton"

We're taking what they give us, because we can. And with AZ gone, we don't have to worry about a home court advantage for anyone

I think the consensus is that the only way we can lose is if someone gets red hot from 3 and we go ice cold (i.e., what happened vs Creighton). I don't think that's likely. I've never been more confident in a team in my life. If we shoot a decent percentage, there's not even a chance of an upset. Our 3-point shooting isn't keeping me up at night but I'd sure like it to be better than 3/17 or whatever.