Kansas is shooting 3s at an unprecedented rate under Bill Self
By Chris Stone
It seems Kansas head coach Bill Self has finally freed the 3.
Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self has always had a preference for playing through his big men. For years, the 54-year old’s offense centered around high-low actions between frontcourt pairings like Darrell Arthur and Darnell Jackson, Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey or Perry Ellis and Joel Embiid.
Self’s focus on his bigs is centered around his belief that the most important thing in basketball is scoring easy baskets yourself while limiting easy baskets for your opponents. Shots closer to the rim are higher percentage looks and thus carry less variance than shots further away from the hoop.
That philosophy naturally limited his team’s 3-point attempts as well. Back in the second half of the 2014-15 season, Self proclaimed his teams were at their best when they limited their 3-point attempts to about 30.0 percent of their overall shots in large part because shots from behind the arc are unreliable. “(Making 3s is) fools’ gold,” he said at the time. “You can’t bank on making 55 percent or 50 percent of your 3s.”
A flip has switched in recent seasons, though, with the Jayhawks launching more 3-pointers than ever under Self. His 2015-16 team attempted 32.8 percent of their shots from behind the arc, per KenPom. It was a season high for a Kansas team under the head coach, but still below the national average. Last season, the Jayhawks set a record again while playing a four guard lineup for the first time in Self’s tenure, taking 35.9 percent of their field goal attempts from deep.
Through four games in 2017-18? They’re blowing every prior mark out of the water. This season, 44.6 percent of Kansas’ total field goal attempts have been 3-pointers:
That’s good for the 44th highest percentage in Division I, per KenPom. Previously, the Jayhawks had never ranked higher than 181st out of around 351 teams under Self.
The decision to launch more 3s makes sense. The Jayhawks are really good at making them. Kansas is currently shooting 43.7 percent from behind the arc with a roster loaded with marksmen:
So, why are we talking about this now? Well, on Tuesday night, the Jayhawks hit the peak of their offensive power behind a barrage of 3-pointers. Kansas scored 114 points while averaging 1.54 points per possession and downing a school record 19 made 3s.
Yes, the explosion came against Texas Southern, a team that is now 0-5 and ranks 262nd nationally in adjusted efficiency margin, per KenPom (although they are picked to win the Southwestern Athletic Conference). No, that doesn’t really matter.
Opposing defenses don’t have much control over whether or not an offense is going to take a bunch of 3-pointers. They have even less control over whether that team is going to make them. Meaning that if the Jayhawks wants to shoot 3s — and it certainly seems like they do — they’re going to shoot 3s. And if they’re expected to shoot a high percentage on those 3s, they’ll probably shoot a high percentage on those 3s.
There will certainly be some cold shooting nights like the one Kansas had against Kentucky at the Champions Classic last week, when its roster combined to connect on just 28.6 percent of their attempts, but the Jayhawks still hoisted 41.2 percent of their total shots from behind the arc in that game (many of them open) against one of college basketball’s longest defenses.
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Against the Tigers, the shots fell. And when the outside shots are falling for Kansas, there may not be a more explosive offense in Division I. The Jayhawks logged 66 points in the first 20 minutes on Tuesday, putting the game to bed before it really even started.
Similar firepower is rare in college basketball and it means Kansas will always be in position to potentially win games even against the country’s best teams. That’s what makes the Jayhawks a national title contender.
“I’ve been around for a long time,” Texas Southern head coach Mike Davis said after the blowout. “If you play basketball like they play basketball, they’ll be cutting the net down in April.”