The Deuce: 100%. Unless its end of shot clock, this team shouldn’t be taking any off the bounce 3s. I wish

where somebody is set and receiving a pass in rhythm, even if the opening is a sliver, vs. an open shot off the bounce. Yes, KJ can easily get open threes off a screen and pull up off the bounce. But the quality of that shot is dramatically different. Off the bounce threes are going to have a huge variance in form and execution--fading back, or to the left/right, etc. Most of our open threes are of the latter variety.

Will and KJ are NBA talents, and they can make those shots. But expecting them to do so at a high clip simply is not sustainable. And I think the data bears that out--for our team, and across college basketball.

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This is high level division 1 basketball. The difference between “open” shots and guarded ones are a sliver. Guys shooting off movement or the dribble is part of the game. There are always some bad ones in a game, but on the whole we take perfectly fine shots, equal to the shots of our opponents at the very least.

My opinion, of course. It might be that we just view shot quality a little differently.

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See my reply to Coctostan buried below. I looked at every three in the last 10 minutes. Of the 12 we shot, only 2 were set, in rhythm looks that came off of passes. Everything else was off the bounce, or a rushed shot that was not set. Nobody, NBA talent or not, is going to steadily hit off the bounce threes, even if they are "wide open". KJ and Will did for about a month early on (Will in November, KJ in December), but it's not sustainable.

Not every three pointer is going to be a perfect look. And we definitely miss more than we should. And yes, teams hit tough shots all the time and we can't see to.

But I think that's the difference between shooting 35% (which we did in the first half) and 20% (which has been the reality in conference play). And at a certain point the shot selection has to go back to Underwood. Nothing changes if nothing changes.

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We should absolutely be taking fewer at this point, that’s coaching. But the bricking is on the players. Underwood can’t make the shots and all of these guys are just shooting way worse than their histories. It’s really bad and it’s not all shot quality.

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Of the 364 Division I schools:

Illinois ranks fifth in 3-pointers attempted per game: 30.27. Fun fact: The team right ahead of them is Akron...and the Zips shoot .366.

Illinois ranks 319th in 3-point percentage: .311

Of power conference schools:
--Illinois first in 3s tried per game.
--Only TCU (.305), Wake Forest (.293) and Michigan State (.291) are worse in percentage. Those three average 19-20 3-point tries per game

The Spartans tried 12 3s on the road yesterday and won.
TCU tried 20 3s on the road yesterday and won.
Wake tried 23 3s on the road yesterday and won.

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Please avoid a second half mini meltdown