Should the Orange be Shooting so Many Threes?

The perception is the Orange are a poor shooting three point team.  They are shooting only 32.8% from three point range.  However, I would suggest that number is greatly biased by horrendous three point shooting by the team earlier in the year.  The team shot 29.9% against the non-conference opponents, making 87 of 291 attempts.

The team was even worse in its first five games of the year, when it made only 23.3% of the shots, making 24 of 103 attempts.  The team has shot 35.1% starting with the Ohio State game.

Buddy Boeheim

As the team entered ACC play, it got even better. Here are the breakdowns for the first nine ACC games.

Notre Dame 41%

Clemson 23%

Georgia Tech 21%

Duke 44%

Pitt 46%

Miami 47%

Virginia Tech 32%

Boston College 42%

Pitt 32%

The team is shooting 36.3% in ACC play.  Some of the individuals are really shooting well since conference play started.  

Buddy Boeheim leads the way making 17 of 33, or 51.5%.  That's outstanding.

Elijah Hughes is shooting 37% (27-73), FRank Howard 37.3% (19-51) and Marek Dolezaj 50% (5-10).  

Earlier in the year Frank Howard was missing from the lineup, which messed up the ball movement. Even when he returned, it took several games for him to get back up to speed.  That definitely had an impact on all aspects of the offense, including three point shooting.

The problems for the Orange isn't that they shoot a lot of threes. The problems are when they shoot the wrong threes. If they are shooting early in the shot clock without working to get an open shot, or if they are not moving the ball well, and then forced to shoot as the clock expires, then they are likely to fail. But when they move the ball around properly, move it into the paint and then back out, things work well.