A lot has been said about our reliance on 3-pt shooting, and I just take a quick look and indeed we are leading the nation in 3-pt attempts with 176. On a per game basis though, we are #14.

In terms of 3-pt FGs made, Florida is first at 72 (42.9%), we are second at 70 (39.8%) and Wisky tied for third at 68 (47.2%). When you look at the Top 15 teams with the most 3-pt FGM, only 6 shoot at a better percentage than us. So while we are shooting a lot of threes, we are also making them at a healthy amount.

As the say goes, when you rely on 3, you live by it and you die with it. Some nights it carries you, and then some cold shooting nights, we'll get blown out. I don't disagree with that. But with the personnel of this team, our 3-pt shooting is our *ONLY* hope to compete against the elite teams. What's our offensive strength? It isn't MCL (Marcius, Carroll and Lawson) but R-sq (Robbie and Ryne)! You would rather R-sq shoot than MCL, right? Those two combined is making 49.5% of their threes, and that is equivalent to 74% FG shooting! Sure, they may cool off, but even at 40%, that is equivalent to a 60% 2-pt FG shooter.

So I'd say a) no need to fret about us shooting a lot of threes; in fact, b) maximize our personnel by swinging the ball around, dribble and kick-out to find the open 3-pt shooter; c) use the non-conference cupcake games to develop a pick-and-roll game with the bigs, esp. Sandi and Lawson. This will come in handy when the other team overplays us on our shooting.

At the end of the day, we should embrace our identity as a 3-pt shooting team b/c that's what our strength will be this season, and try to play to that strength. Esp. if teams are playing zone against us, we need to make them pay with 3-pt zone-busting. We are not athletic (other than Lawson and Barlow), and we don't have a strong inside presence. So to make up for a lack of speed and size, we'd have to generate our offense through a) turnovers and fast-break points, and b) 3-pt shooting where making 40% is as good as making 60% in deuce. Tell me if you have a better plan. If not, Painter should hire me as an assistant :-)