Villanova does a pretty good Stephen Curry impersonation
By Chris Stone
Villanova’s 3-point shooting drives a historic offense’s NCAA Tournament hopes.
The old (and wrong) adage in the NBA used to be that jump shooting teams can’t win championships. Well, in 2015, the Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry smashed whatever remained of the aphorism to smithereens.
A year later, the Villanova Wildcats did the same thing in the college ranks, cutting down the nets in a season in which they hoisted 42.7 percent of their shots from behind 3-point arc. Now, if the Wildcats’ 81-58 blowout of the Alabama Crimson Tide in the round of 32 is any guide, they might be set to do it again.
Villanova canned 17 3-pointers against the Crimson Tide, including plenty from NBA range:
https://twitter.com/marchmadness/status/975062984425795585
This is the 10th time this season the Wildcats have made more than 15 3-pointers in a contest. Unsurprisingly, they’ve won every one of those games by double digits.
2017-18 Villanova is pushing college basketball’s 3-point shooting trend to a new level. Prior to today’s game, these Wildcats had taken 46.7 percent of their shots this season from behind the 3-point line, per KenPom. That’s the 16th highest mark nationally and most among teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament (sorry, Davidson!).
They’re accurate, too. Villanova’s roster as a whole came into today shooting 40.1 percent from deep as four of its five players with over 100 3-point attempts shooting better than 40.0 percent. The other one? He’s slacking at 38.7.
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What’s scary is this Alabama team is theoretically the kind of roster that could give a team reliant on 3-pointers some trouble. The Crimson Tide are athletic and long on the perimeter and their opponents have shot just 32.4 percent on 3s this season, but if I’ve preached anything this season, it’s that defenses can’t stop a good shooting team from shooting well in an individual game. This was just another lesson.
The Wildcats are headed to the Sweet Sixteen and the 3-point shooting is coming with them. They’ve got one of the top offenses of the KenPom era and its driven by the long ball. Everyone else should be scared.