This team can take a punch!

But they never seem to panic. They just keep pushing, play defense and methodically go through the motions to score. I love it because it bodes well for the tourney!

Rock Chalk!

I know I am being Negative Nancy here but we need to shoot the ball from 3pt range better. I agree with you that this is a team that knows how to win games. I just hope they don't depend on that too much, for person health reasons.

Dear Negative,

I understand your concern. Please understand if we can play defense like we have in many games, it may not make the three as important. Today was an example of really, nine if our guys having their "A" game and we got what we wanted. Winning ugly is still fun! (At least for me). Next up, Big 12 Tourney. Rock Chalk!

I would agree. In the end winning, no matter how pretty, is what counts in the game. I really like this teams defense. That will all most always keep you in the game.

We are not a good 3 point shooting team. We are a very good team when it comes to driving and getting to the rim (Dotson, Garrett and sometime Agbaji). We are an amazing team within 5 feet of the rim (Azibuike).

I'm sure somebody smarter than me can figure out the numbers, but to my eye, we make up for our sketchy 3 point shooting by literally never missing when Dok gets the ball in the paint (slight exaggeration...slight).

Toss in great defense, and we're checking a LOT of boxes. If you were to ask the question, "How can a team win with bad 3 point shooting?" you can imagine that the answer would be a description of this team. You win by playing good 3 point defense, and finding offensive efficiency elsewhere.

All that said, it's going to take us more possessions to match the points of a good 3 shooting team, which is where defense and offensive efficiency come into play.

We start the "lose and go home" part of the season now. We're guaranteed 2 more games, but could play as many as 9. We've rattled off 16 straight now. Can we extend that to 25? We'll see.

I would agree that this team is not a consistently good shooting three point team. The stats prove that. However, they do have the ability to get hot. They didn't need the three ball to beat an incredibly talented Dayton team, Dayton hit 16 three's, we hit 4. They hit three three's against Baylor. I guess what I'm saying is that this team has the ability to hit three's, they have some decent shooters in Moss, Braun, Agbaji and Doton. They just don't really shoot it that consistently for some reason or that much (too much inside force!).

Anyway, I think they will be fine as they have beaten some top competition shooting as they do. They cut the TO's in half against Duke and they don't lose that game. A score here or there against Nova and they don't lose that either. Heck, they may be undefeated if Dotson isn't injured at home and gone for a long stretch of the game against Baylor and then not 100% at that.

They don't need a three shot in my opinion. They win other ways.

Rock Chalk!

Not Ostertag said, "you win by playing good 3 point defense..." In my opinion, that is one of our few glaring weaknesses. Somehow we have to decide when to play help defense, thus leaving a 3-point shooter all alone, and when never to leave your man. Tough decision, I know.

We will lose when we miss about 20 three point shots. The last three games, which were close at least at some points into the second half we were 4-15, 3-12 and 4-17. You have to shoot a certain amount of threes to prevent triple teaming on Doke. 15/16 shots seems about right.
With a strong D getting desperately behind is less likely. If we keep selecting open shots in the flow of the offense 20-25% won't hurt, unless it is 6 of 29 then we're toast.