Kansas basketball: Without a dominant inside presence, KU needs to keep special emphasis on outside shooting

Converting the 3-point shot has proved to be crucial for this Kansas basketball team in particular. In year’s past, we’ve enjoyed rim-racking dunks and vicious blocks but this year, the Jayhawks have often looked much better playing small-ball with four shooters on the floor. 

Kansas basketball head coach Bill Self is a Hall of Fame member for a reason: he’s built his brand on playing inside-out with his big men running the show. He loves superior post players that can block, dunk, and wear down opponents with their physicality and strength in the paint. Years ago, his focus was developing his inside players with the help of former assistant coach Danny Manning.

In recent years, however, he’s adapted to playing more small-ball, putting an emphasis on guards who can stretch the floor and fire away. We’ve all heard Self previously refer to the 3-pointer as “fool’s gold” (as did his fellow Hall of Fame UNC coach Roy Williams) but we’ve also seen him shy away from his standard low-post playing mentality over the years.

He’s certainly not the only one either; college basketball all across the board has seen a significant rise in the popularity of launching the long ball. The percentage of shots from beyond the arc has trended upwards, reaching a height of an average of 22.45 attempts per game in the 2018-19 season before dipping to 21.69 attempts per game in 2019-20. This decrease, naturally, coincided with the NCAA’s decision to move the three-point line back.

For Kansas, big man David McCormack is certainly on an uptick, but he has had some big shoes to fill in Udoka Azuibuike’s departure. This makes it all the more crucial that we can get our perimeter shots to fall. McCormack is certainly playing with more confidence as of late and seems to be settling into his role, averaging 20 points and 7 rebounds over the last 3 games.

Through 15 games, the Jayhawks have averaged 8 three-point makes and 22 attempts per game – good for 36%. It’s no secret that in basketball, 3 points is better than 2, and for Kansas that has seemingly carried through to their game results.

Albeit a small sample size, through our first 6 Big 12 games when Kansas made 6 or more threes, they’ve won by an average of 12 points. On the other hand, when they’ve made less than 6 threes, we’ve lost by an average of 15 points. The outliers here are the last 2 games against Baylor and Oklahoma in which Kansas scored 10 and 8 threes and lost by 8 and 7 points, respectively.

Finding ways to get shots to click for sharpshooters Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson may filter out the better of the two statistics. Despite the struggles we’ve seen recently from Kansas’ outside basket, the Jayhawks seem to be jumping back on the curve in their last couple matchups.

The key here is whether or not we can find ways to win if we just aren’t hitting 3s. Since they aren’t as skilled within 5 feet of the basket this year, our flaws become much more visible when our threes are clanking off the rim. As pretty as it is to see the outside shots falling, Kansas will undoubtedly need to find ways to be successful on the offensive end on nights they’re just not falling.