Dwayne Bacon’s 3-point revolution is helping power Florida State

Entering league play in the ACC, it would have been easy to identify the conference’s top teams. Duke, North Carolina, Virginia and Louisville were picked to finish atop the league in the preseason poll, a ranking that looked prescient after the four teams lost a combined five games during non-conference play.

Now, just two weeks into the rigors of ACC play, those four teams already have a combined six losses and just two teams — Florida State and Notre Dame — sit atop the ACC standings with unblemished league records. The Fighting Irish have arguably had the easier road, playing their two toughest games in the confines of the Joyce Center.

The Seminoles, on the other hand, had to win at Virginia on New Year’s Eve in order to maintain their unbeaten mark. At the center of the victory was sophomore wing Dwayne Bacon, a former five-star recruit who eschewed the NBA Draft in favor of returning to Tallahassee at the end of last season.

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Bacon scored 29 points, 26 in the second half, against a staunch Cavaliers’ defense with the final three coming on a game-winning 3-pointer with two seconds remaining.

The sophomore followed up his career day with a more human 17-point outing in the Seminoles’ 93-78 victory over Virginia Tech on Saturday, continuing his streak of scoring in double digits that dates back to February 2, 2016.

This season, though, Bacon has evolved as an offensive player. He’s raised his offensive rating from 105.2 to 121.4 and his Offensive Box Plus-Minus score from 1.7 to 5.6, per Sports-Reference. Bacon is now averaging 26.6 points per 40 minutes while taking the lion’s share of his team’s shots — a whopping 40.0 percent in conference play so far.

The difference has been Bacon’s rising efficiency. He’s improved his effective field goal percentage — a statistic that adjusts for the fact that 3-pointers are worth more than 2s — by over five percentage points this season largely on the back of an improved 3-point shot.

Bacon’s 3-point percentage is up from 28.1 as a freshman to 37.1 as a sophomore, an increase that looks less like an anomaly when you consider that his free throw percentage is also on the rise. Not only that, he is also taking more 3-pointers. Bacon has already made 26 3s this season after hitting just 32 in all of 2015-16. The 6-foot-8 swingman’s improved shooting has reshaped the way he’s scoring his points. The 21-year old is now scoring 27.0 percent of his total points from beyond the 3-point arc.

There are, of course, other factors contributing to Bacon’s success this season. For example, star freshman Jonathan Isaac has largely played a deferential role, allowing the sophomore to dominate the ball on most possessions. Bacon has also reduced his own mistakes, dropping his turnover rate from from 12.6 to 9.1 percent.

But, sometimes basketball is simple and the biggest difference occurs when shots go in the basket. That’s been the case for Bacon this season as he’s improved his outside shot making.

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Now, he and the Seminoles will face their biggest test of the young ACC schedule. On Tuesday night, the Duke Blue Devils will visit Tallahassee. Duke will be without starting center Amile Jefferson who is recovering from a bone bruise sustained against Boston College, but nobody will remember that if the Seminoles are able to fight their way to an ACC title in March with Dwayne Bacon’s new found 3-point shooting powering them along the way.