The Kansas basketball team has gotten a big boost over the past three games from senior Melvin Council Jr. The senior guard transfer has stepped it up in a surprising way. He's been a great three-point shooter and scorer in the last three outings.
Council is averaging 21.3 points per game over the last three contests, and he's doing it with some deadeye outside shooting.
This has not been a strength for Council for most of his career, but he's shown great improvement, and the Jayhawks are a much better team when Council can be relied on to hit a big three if needed.
How good has Melvin Council Jr. been of late for the Kansas basketball team?
Council played two seasons of junior college ball before heading to Wagner. After one season there, he transferred to St. Bonaventure before moving on to Kansas for his final season.
At neither of his NCAA stops did Council have much success as a three-point shooter. Here are his long-distance shooting percentages at his collegiate stops.
- Wagner - 26.5 percent (31-17)
- St. Bonaventure - 29.9 percent (40-134)
- Kansas (first 10 games) - 18.5 percent (5-27)
- Kansas (last three games) - 56.5 percent (13-23)
In all 13 games for the Jayhawks, Council is shooting 36.0 percent from behind the arc, which is respectable but not great.
Sure, three games is an incredibly small sample size. Anyone can get hot over a small stretch. And yes, even his recent numbers are skewed because he connected on 9 of 15 threes against North Carolina St. on the way to a 36-point night.
Just looking at his last two games after the NC State game, Council is four for eight. Again, it's a tiny sample size, but it also reflects the fact that Council wasn't forcing shots after his big game. He was taking good shots within the offense.
Earlier in the season, Council looked like the same shooter his statistics say he's always been, maybe even a bit worse (against much stronger competition). When he took a three-pointer, even if he was open, everyone was probably cringing and holding their breath.
It's not like Council was barely missing on his attempts; most weren't close. They'd look good off his hand, but they clanged off somewhere on the rim more often than not. He was laying so many bricks, he could have been majoring in Masonry.
Not anymore. His shots still look good out of his hand, but now they are hitting nothing but net. He suddenly looks like a pure shooter. It's a beautiful thing.
The abrupt change in his success rate can't be readily explained. Hard work had to play a part. Confidence is a powerful thing, and Council's is understandably sky-high right now. Lastly, it might just be a slight adjustment that took good-looking shots from hitting iron to tickling the nylon.
The big question is if Council can continue this current trend into Big 12 Conference play. Look, he's not going to keep making 56 percent of his threes, as he has over the last three games, or 50 percent, as has been the case in the two most recent outings. That's not a reasonable expectation.
However, it seems less likely that he'll fall back to that sub-20 percent long-range shooter he was early in the season. It would be great if he could improve on his current 36 percent and creep up closer to 40 percent as the season goes along.
If Council can lift that percentage up closer to 40 percent, it will make KU very difficult to defend, especially if Darryn Peterson returns. If Council stays a reliable three-point option, opponents won't be able to double-team Peterson as much. It gives defenders something else they must guard.
Council is a player who is easy to love. He plays with heart, hustle, intensity, and joy. If he continues to shoot well from behind the arc, the sky is the limit for what he and the team can accomplish in the Big 12.
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