Interesting post. My personal feeling is that they didn’t move it back far enough to meaningfully deter 3 point attempts in most games, and that the result could be to lower shooting percentages some.
The defense generally will dictate how many 3 point shots get hoisted. In a home game last year Duke, which lost to Syracuse, was something like 7-45 on 3s. Although Duke usually likes to shoot a lot of 3s anyway, the guys they had taking the 3s that game were not great 3 point shooters, they were forwards who were drifting outside and hoisting shots invited by Syracuse’s long, athletic zone defense. It’s exactly what a team like Syracuse wants, for a team to take and miss lots of 3s. Their zone defense is very hard to attack, because the defenders are long and athletic and play the passing lanes well so they tip and deflect entry passes and cause TOs. When UConn beat Syracuse it was because they shot the 3 ball really well (unusually well), and UConn also defended well against a SU team that had no point guard and no fluidity on offense.
I think UConn has a couple guys we know can make 3s (Polley and Vital) and a couple other guys like Adams who could develop as a shooter and Boughknight who we think will shoot well based on AAA stats. Vital and Polley have good range on their shots and I think they will be effective at the new line, the other guys we will have to wait and see. UConn should have a lot more interior offense this year with Carlton developing so the need to make 3s will not be as pronounced as in the past 3 years, but we would like to see some balance and be able to shoot teams out of matchup zones and other clogging defenses designed to choke Carlton.
Gilbert is a guy who needs to improve his 3 point shot, although Adams seems like he could be a lot better. I think Adams might be the key to improvement here, if he can make 3s off the bench, and I think he has the form to be much better than he was last year.
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