Basketball Notebook
March 02, 2006 05:10 PM | General
March 2, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There is no doubt about it, college basketball today has become a 3-point shooting game and West Virginia coach John Beilein believes the trifecta has given more teams an opportunity to win.
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| West Virginia coach John Beilein believes the 3-point shot has made college basketball a much more interesting game for the fans.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“It’s a great equalizer for teams like us that don’t have a lot of size or great quickness,” Beilein said during Thursday morning’s Big East coaches teleconference.
Teams are trying more 3s than ever. According to the NCAA, last year the 326 teams that played Division I basketball attempted an average of 18.3 3s per game. Compare that to the first year the NCAA adopted the 3-point shot nationwide in 1987 when teams were only trying 9.2 3s per game.
Each year since then there has been a steady increase in the number of 3s tried, going from 13.8 3s per game in 1991 to 17.1 3s per game in 1997. Teams have averaged at least 18 3s per game since 2002.
“I think it has enhanced the strategy of the game,” Beilein said. “You can come back on a team much more quickly if you use the 3. You can lose a lead much more quickly. People have to use it and try and use it correctly.”
By and large, West Virginia under Beilein has. The Mountaineers were 15-2 last year when making at least 10 3s in a game. They are 12-4 this year.
And by simply trying more 3-pointers than the other team, that has helped push West Virginia over the top because the Mountaineers are really just an average 3-point shooting team. WVU’s 3-point percentage of 34.3 is actually lower than last year’s national average of 34.7. To make up for that, West Virginia has launched nearly 300 more 3s than its opponents this year, or an average of almost 11 more per game.
“We’re a good 3-point shooting team but we’re not a great one. We’re shooting 34 percent,” Beilein said. “It allows us to play a certain style and keep from turning the ball over and having people sagging in on us and things like that.”
Beilein says that unlike Villanova which has the athletes to be able to shoot 3s off the dribble, his team has to manufacture its 3-point attempts.
“I know most of our 3s are a result of penetration,” he said. “But we just don’t go down and jack it. We try to get somebody to give some help or set some screens to give somebody some room: Time and space we call it.
“If (the 3-point field goal) wasn’t there we’d be hard pressed to score,” Beilein admitted.
Briefly:
“Obviously I’m very prejudiced with the Big East but it won’t come down to how many the Big East deserves but rather what teams deserve it,” Beilein said. “We’ve beaten each other up so much and I’ve got to think that the teams that are supposedly on the bubble – the Cincinnati’s the Seton Hall’s – they’ve proved all year long that they can play and that they’re one of the top 35 or top at -- large teams.”
Beilein is also convinced the Big East is the deepest conference in the country.
“There is no match for our league because of the depth in the top 12 spots. It’s incredible,” he said.
The coach uses Syracuse and Cincinnati as two examples of the great depth in the Big East. Both are supposedly on the NCAA tournament bubble and both have RPIs in the high 20s, according to CollegeRPI.com.
“They just haven’t had to play a league schedule -- they’ve had to play the best teams in the league over and over again,” Beilein said. “As a result I think everybody has earned that right. It will probably come down to what it comes down to every year: does Gonzaga win the West Coast Conference? Does George Mason win the Colonial? They all deserve it, now if there’s room for all of them that will be different.”
As for West Virginia, Beilein admits he’s never gone into a post-season play with the situation his Mountaineer team is currently in.
“I haven’t been in this position where we’ve got a high RPI, Sagarin (rating) and have a league standing where we don’t have to win the tournament to get into the NCAAs,” he said. “It’s almost like a regular season type of thing where you work your tail off and try and get every win you can because pretty soon your next loss will be your last.”
“The seniors have played enough together that we’re not going to dwell on who starts. I would assume that I will go back to the normal situation but we’ll have to see how everybody practices,” Beilein said. “Frank has been a great part of this whole thing. And we haven’t found anybody who is better than Patrick coming off the bench.”
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| Center Kevin Pittsnogle recently joined the 1,600-point club.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
The Martinsburg native also has a reasonable shot of reaching 1,700 points, which only five other WVU players have managed to accomplish. They are Jerry West, Rod Hundley, Wil Robinson, Greg Jones and Rod Thorn.
The game has already been announced a sell-out and it has been designated a “Ring of Red” game by the school, meaning fans are asked to wear red because the game is of special significance.
The tradition began in 2002 and Cincinnati has claimed seven “Ring of Red” victories which are on a plaque inside Fifth Third Arena.
