Sooner Basketball: Will 3-Point Shooting Be a Curse Come Tourney Time?
By Chip Rouse
Three-point shooting has been the biggest weapon in the offensive arsenal of Sooner basketball this season.
But will what has been a huge strength turn its head and turn against Oklahoma come NCAA tourney time? It seemed incredulous that the OU supremacy with the three-ball had been sustained as long as it had – 15 games with no fewer than 10 treys in a game – in Oklahoma’s magical run to the top of the weekly college rankings in 2015-16.
On Saturday, in a venue that has become a recurring nightmare for Oklahoma basketball, Buddy Hield and Company could not get many of their long-range shots to drop, very uncharacteristic of this veteran Oklahoma team this season. For a team that has consistently gone out and drained 10 or more three-point shots in 15 of 22 games this season, to make just 6 of 24 tries from downtown represents a drastic off-night.
That’s what happened to the Sooners at Kansas State on Saturday, and it resulted in top-ranked Oklahoma’s worst loss of the season. Whether it was an aggressive Wildcat defense that was determined not to let the Big 12’s leading scorer Hield beat them or a bad night launching from long range of the Sooners – or, most likely, a combination of both – the result sparked legitimate concern that Oklahoma’s high reliance on three-point shots could become a kiss of death come one-and-done NCAA Tournament time.
When you are shooting close to 50 percent as a team over 20-plus games from beyond the three-point line, it is pretty easy to understand why a team would have such high confidence in its ability to trade three for two in the scoring column on a night in, night out basis. But that also means trading a high-percentage shot closer in to the basket for one that is much lower in percentage.
And when things are even just a little off, as they were for the Sooners on Saturday, that can spell doom, and not just in a building that is proudly billed as the Octagon of Doom.
The signs were there earlier in the week. The Sooners’ were not all that successful, relatively speaking, in their last outing before going to K-State. At home against woeful TCU, again relatively speaking, OU launched 30 three-point shots and were successful on just 11 of them, for a percentage of 36.7 shooting percent.
Against Kansas State, OU was 5 out 15 from long range in the first half, and followed that up with its worst three-point-shooting effort of the season for a half, connecting on just 1 of 9 and none after the 18:34 mark of the second half. Buddy Hield hit a three-ball 90 seconds into the second half to bring the Sooners within one, at 38-37, after K-State had taken a six-point lead into halftime.
Jordan Woodard, who for much of the season has had the best three-point percentage in the nation and is Oklahoma’s second leading scorer behind Hield, went scoreless on Saturday and was 0 for 4 from three-point range.
Oklahoma’s horrid three-point shooting against Kansas State may not seem like much to be concerned about over the long course of the college season – and certainly not when you compare it with the tremendous success the Sooners have realized in amassing 19 wins and a 4-2 record against ranked teams. When you get into the postseason, however, an off-day shooting, from anywhere and any distance on the court, can end your season in a heartbeat.
What Lon Kruger’s guys have to do now is put the Kansas State loss behind them, and quickly, because on Monday the Sooners tip off a week that will likely define their season.
First comes archrival Texas, one of the hottest teams in the Big 12 right now. And that is followed by the highly anticipated rematch with Kansas on Saturday. Both teams are currently tied with Oklahoma at 7-3 in the conference standings, a game behind West Virginia. Both games are at home at Lloyd Noble Center, where OU is 11-0 this season.
I do not believe we will see the Sooners shy away from the three-ball, despite the shocking outcome at K-State. Their three-point shooting percentage represented a huge drop off, but in fairness, there were multiple three-point tries that were narrow misses and one late in the contest by Hield that literally went halfway down in the basket before funneling back out. Sometimes luck just isn’t on your side.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how Oklahoma responds after the Kansas State loss. As far as the Sooners’ three-point shooting is concerned, this coming week will give us a good read on whether the debacle against K-State was an anomaly or the beginning of a concerning pattern that must be addressed before the postseason rolls around a month from now.
Either way, Oklahoma must continue to find ways to win that aren’t so reliant on shooting lights out from the perimeter.