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College basketball's 3-pointer turns 25
By John Marshall
The Associated Press
http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_17372431
LAS VEGAS — One of the most significant changes in college basketball history was met with disdain, called a novelty, even silly. Down in the desert, not far from where fortunes can be won or lost with the flick of a wrist, a rebel leading a bunch of Rebels was among the handful of coaches who embraced the new rule. Not only did UNLV's Jerry Tarkanian like the 3-point shot, he saw it as a game-changing weapon, had his players cast 'em up whenever they got the chance.
And the Rebels haven't missed since, hitting at least one in every game, 796 and counting. "We're a team that shoots a lot of 3s over the years," current UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "We've probably been attempting fewer this year than we have over the last few years, but still shoot it pretty freely from 3." It's been 25 years since the 3-point shot was instituted by the NCAA amid harsh criticism from coaches across the country.
Look at it today and it's hard to imagine the game without the arc. The 3-point shot has, after a few get-a-feel-for-it years, become as much a part of the game as the dunk, adding excitement while altering everything from recruiting to the way basketball is played and coached at all levels. "The 3-point line is very popular, it's here to stay," said Maryland coach Gary Williams, among those initially reluctant to add the arc. "But it has changed the game."
That's an understatement. An argument can be made that the 3-point shot is the most significant change in the modern era of college basketball.
Other than repealing the dunking ban in 1976-77 and perhaps freshman eligibility in 1972, no other rule change has affected college basketball as much since the early days of the game, when they were cutting the bottom of the nets off so the ball could go through and moving the backboards out so players couldn't jump off the walls.
While the dunk has more wow-power, the 3-pointer is more of a power shifter. Just by adding one point, the 3-point shot made the game more entertaining by spreading the floor and creating more opportunities to get into transition off the long rebounds. It gave trailing teams a no-lead-is-safe hope they might not have had going two points at a time; leading teams wield a spirit-crushing dagger.
It forced coaches to alter tactics, getting their players to guard the entire floor instead of just clogging the lane, inside-out not necessarily the preferred offense anymore. It expanded players' skill sets, everyone, including the biggest ones on the floor, learning how to shoot from the perimeter. Trey, triple, trifecta — whatever you want to call it, the 3-pointer has reshaped basketball for good.
"It's more exciting because of the 3-point shot — much more exciting," said Louisville's Rick Pitino, one of the first coaches to embrace the shot. "There's much more strategy to the game offensively and defensively because of the 3-point shot. Yes, I think it has helped the game."
The 3-point shot was adopted by the NBA in 1979 and had been an experiment in numerous college conferences before being added by the NCAA in 1986. Before the arc was installed, teams were set if they had a dominant center, such as Georgetown with Patrick Ewing or Virginia with Ralph Sampson. These days, the game has stretched, making the perimeter player just as important as the post player. Nearly everyone on the roster can shoot from downtown, even players 6-foot-9 and taller, something unheard of in the pre-arc days.
It's changed recruiting, too. Coaches aren't always looking for that beefy center, not just because there are so few out there now, but because they want multitalented players who can fit into a college game that's put a premium on ball handling and long-range shooting. "Every team basically plays three guards just about now, and a lot of teams are going to almost a fourth guard that's 6-5 or 6-6 and can shoot the ball to take advantage of the 3-point line," Williams said.
The 3-point shot also has altered the possibilities. Used to be, a double-digit lead with three or four minutes left was insurmountable. Now, 10 points with 60 seconds left isn't safe. Duke staged one of the most memorable comebacks in college basketball history in 2001, overcoming a 10-point deficit in the final 54 seconds to beat Williams and the Terps in overtime — a rally that wouldn't have been possible without Jay Williams' pair of 3-pointers in a 13-second span.
In the 2008 national championship game, Kansas benefited when Memphis missed all those free throws at the end of regulation, but the Jayhawks wouldn't have won the title in overtime if Mario Chalmers' last-second shot had been worth two points, instead of three.
When Butler's Gordon Hayward rimmed out a half-court heave in last year's title game against Duke, it was for the win, not the tie.
"The 3-point shot changed basketball forever, from the standpoint you have so many spurts, you have so many runs; I mean three shots and you make up a 10-point deficit," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "You want to have people that are capable of making them because if you don't, life becomes hard at the end of the day. Two 3s are a lot easier to get sometimes than three 2s." When the 3-point shot was first introduced, numerous coaches spoke out against the new rule, taking the why-mess-with-a-good-thing approach.
Even when it was first instituted, coaches were hesitant to take advantage: NCAA Division I teams attempted an average of 9.2 3-point attempts — making 3.5 — per game in 1986-87, compared to 18.2 in 2009-10, the first season the line was moved back a foot to 20 feet, 9 inches.
A few coaches, though, saw the 3-pointer as a new weapon, an equalizer against bigger teams. Pitino, then at Providence, was among them, instructing his players to shoot from beyond the arc whenever they got the chance. The philosophy allowed the Friars to keep up in the burly Big East, where coaches such as John Thompon at Georgetown, Rollie Massimino at Villanova and Lou Carnesecca at St. John's were reluctant to shoot the 3. "They didn't like it. They were basketball purists," said Pitino, who will stop practice at Louisville when someone passes up an opener 3-pointer. "They thought the strategy was to go inside and go backdoor and I was just delighted with the fact that they didn't want to take it." At UNLV, Tarkanian had his team shooting 3s in the very first game of the 1986-87 season, and the coaches who followed, up to Kruger now, have kept the Rebels firing them up.
They're proud of the monumental streak at UNLV, but once the ball goes up during a game, the Rebels don't pay much attention to it. The crowd, though, is keenly aware of when streak is in jeopardy, buzzing and calling for 3-pointers when it's late in the game and the Rebels haven't made one, including a couple of times this season. "When it starts getting late in a game and we haven't made one, the crowd is very much aware," said Kruger, whose team hit 11 3s in a rout over TCU Wednesday night. "They're encouraging 3-point attempts, very much." Just like everyone nowadays.
— AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard in Raleigh, N.C., Will Graves in Louisville, Ky., Stephen Hawkins in Dallas and Jim O'Connell in New York contributed to this story.
http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_17372431
:billy
:OUbball-logo:
By John Marshall
The Associated Press
http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_17372431
LAS VEGAS — One of the most significant changes in college basketball history was met with disdain, called a novelty, even silly. Down in the desert, not far from where fortunes can be won or lost with the flick of a wrist, a rebel leading a bunch of Rebels was among the handful of coaches who embraced the new rule. Not only did UNLV's Jerry Tarkanian like the 3-point shot, he saw it as a game-changing weapon, had his players cast 'em up whenever they got the chance.
And the Rebels haven't missed since, hitting at least one in every game, 796 and counting. "We're a team that shoots a lot of 3s over the years," current UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "We've probably been attempting fewer this year than we have over the last few years, but still shoot it pretty freely from 3." It's been 25 years since the 3-point shot was instituted by the NCAA amid harsh criticism from coaches across the country.
Look at it today and it's hard to imagine the game without the arc. The 3-point shot has, after a few get-a-feel-for-it years, become as much a part of the game as the dunk, adding excitement while altering everything from recruiting to the way basketball is played and coached at all levels. "The 3-point line is very popular, it's here to stay," said Maryland coach Gary Williams, among those initially reluctant to add the arc. "But it has changed the game."
That's an understatement. An argument can be made that the 3-point shot is the most significant change in the modern era of college basketball.
Other than repealing the dunking ban in 1976-77 and perhaps freshman eligibility in 1972, no other rule change has affected college basketball as much since the early days of the game, when they were cutting the bottom of the nets off so the ball could go through and moving the backboards out so players couldn't jump off the walls.
While the dunk has more wow-power, the 3-pointer is more of a power shifter. Just by adding one point, the 3-point shot made the game more entertaining by spreading the floor and creating more opportunities to get into transition off the long rebounds. It gave trailing teams a no-lead-is-safe hope they might not have had going two points at a time; leading teams wield a spirit-crushing dagger.
It forced coaches to alter tactics, getting their players to guard the entire floor instead of just clogging the lane, inside-out not necessarily the preferred offense anymore. It expanded players' skill sets, everyone, including the biggest ones on the floor, learning how to shoot from the perimeter. Trey, triple, trifecta — whatever you want to call it, the 3-pointer has reshaped basketball for good.
"It's more exciting because of the 3-point shot — much more exciting," said Louisville's Rick Pitino, one of the first coaches to embrace the shot. "There's much more strategy to the game offensively and defensively because of the 3-point shot. Yes, I think it has helped the game."
The 3-point shot was adopted by the NBA in 1979 and had been an experiment in numerous college conferences before being added by the NCAA in 1986. Before the arc was installed, teams were set if they had a dominant center, such as Georgetown with Patrick Ewing or Virginia with Ralph Sampson. These days, the game has stretched, making the perimeter player just as important as the post player. Nearly everyone on the roster can shoot from downtown, even players 6-foot-9 and taller, something unheard of in the pre-arc days.
It's changed recruiting, too. Coaches aren't always looking for that beefy center, not just because there are so few out there now, but because they want multitalented players who can fit into a college game that's put a premium on ball handling and long-range shooting. "Every team basically plays three guards just about now, and a lot of teams are going to almost a fourth guard that's 6-5 or 6-6 and can shoot the ball to take advantage of the 3-point line," Williams said.
The 3-point shot also has altered the possibilities. Used to be, a double-digit lead with three or four minutes left was insurmountable. Now, 10 points with 60 seconds left isn't safe. Duke staged one of the most memorable comebacks in college basketball history in 2001, overcoming a 10-point deficit in the final 54 seconds to beat Williams and the Terps in overtime — a rally that wouldn't have been possible without Jay Williams' pair of 3-pointers in a 13-second span.
In the 2008 national championship game, Kansas benefited when Memphis missed all those free throws at the end of regulation, but the Jayhawks wouldn't have won the title in overtime if Mario Chalmers' last-second shot had been worth two points, instead of three.
When Butler's Gordon Hayward rimmed out a half-court heave in last year's title game against Duke, it was for the win, not the tie.
"The 3-point shot changed basketball forever, from the standpoint you have so many spurts, you have so many runs; I mean three shots and you make up a 10-point deficit," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "You want to have people that are capable of making them because if you don't, life becomes hard at the end of the day. Two 3s are a lot easier to get sometimes than three 2s." When the 3-point shot was first introduced, numerous coaches spoke out against the new rule, taking the why-mess-with-a-good-thing approach.
Even when it was first instituted, coaches were hesitant to take advantage: NCAA Division I teams attempted an average of 9.2 3-point attempts — making 3.5 — per game in 1986-87, compared to 18.2 in 2009-10, the first season the line was moved back a foot to 20 feet, 9 inches.
A few coaches, though, saw the 3-pointer as a new weapon, an equalizer against bigger teams. Pitino, then at Providence, was among them, instructing his players to shoot from beyond the arc whenever they got the chance. The philosophy allowed the Friars to keep up in the burly Big East, where coaches such as John Thompon at Georgetown, Rollie Massimino at Villanova and Lou Carnesecca at St. John's were reluctant to shoot the 3. "They didn't like it. They were basketball purists," said Pitino, who will stop practice at Louisville when someone passes up an opener 3-pointer. "They thought the strategy was to go inside and go backdoor and I was just delighted with the fact that they didn't want to take it." At UNLV, Tarkanian had his team shooting 3s in the very first game of the 1986-87 season, and the coaches who followed, up to Kruger now, have kept the Rebels firing them up.
They're proud of the monumental streak at UNLV, but once the ball goes up during a game, the Rebels don't pay much attention to it. The crowd, though, is keenly aware of when streak is in jeopardy, buzzing and calling for 3-pointers when it's late in the game and the Rebels haven't made one, including a couple of times this season. "When it starts getting late in a game and we haven't made one, the crowd is very much aware," said Kruger, whose team hit 11 3s in a rout over TCU Wednesday night. "They're encouraging 3-point attempts, very much." Just like everyone nowadays.
— AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard in Raleigh, N.C., Will Graves in Louisville, Ky., Stephen Hawkins in Dallas and Jim O'Connell in New York contributed to this story.
http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_17372431
:billy
:OUbball-logo:
